Your Commencement Speaker Decision Is Damaging Your Alumni Strategy
Commencement season highlights the disconnect between graduates and their speakers. Learn how poor choices can affect alumni relationships and institutional trust.
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The Higher Education Trust Crisis Is an Alumni Engagement Crisis
Discover how alumni relations can redefine trust-building efforts beyond messaging. Let's focus on purpose and collaboration to enhance engagement and integrity.
Building the Alumni Bridge
Uncover the five stages of The Alumni Bridge framework to enhance young alumni engagement. Learn why a systematic approach is vital for long-term success.
What to Expect from a Senior Alumni Engagement Leader in the First 90 Days
This guide is the diagnostic to be developed in the first 90 days of a senior alumni engagement role.
The Organizational Intelligence Gap
The Distance Between Direction and Delivery
There’s a gap that has shown up in nearly every organization I’ve worked in, regardless of sector. Let’s call it an operational delta. On one side are leaders who scan the horizon and set priorities. On the other side are the
The Question That Sparked a Better Approach to Conference Attendance
Earlier this week, a friend called with a familiar frustration. They have a direct report who has attended the same conference for multiple years running. The direct report is a smart person, eager to grow. Unfortunately, each year, they come back and... not much changes. The junior staff member doesn&
Rethinking Event Models in Resource-Constrained Environments
Events are tactical instruments we too often mistake for strategy. In many advancement shops, they function like an assembly line, with the parts coming together until the product is complete, then repeat. Events are often valued as an activity signal, for visibility instead of substantive progress toward institutional goals. This
What Kind of Event Shop Are You? A Taxonomy for Advancement Leaders
Volunteer Management: A Core Competency of Advancement
Volunteer management, while typically housed in alumni relations, generates consequences which ripple across the entire advancement enterprise. Consider all of the ways our work is fueled by volunteers: board members, chapter leaders, mentors, and ambassadors. These people are driven to stay connected to an institution that once shaped their lives.
Understanding Alumni Relations as an Essential Growth Function
When speaking with people about their potential interest in pivoting to an alumni engagement role, they will sometimes say things like, “I could do events!” The flattening of the discipline is disheartening and happens more often than you might think.
I’ll write elsewhere about why events alone are not