Building the Alumni Bridge

Some of you might be intimidated when someone mentions the term "framework." It's sort of like the term "research," which used to be off-putting to me in school because it seemed so amorphous, I couldn't parse where to begin. But here’s the thing, there are plenty of frameworks that don't start out as such. They start as a practitioner solving problems in real time. At some point, the problem-solving begins to produce a larger picture. It’s our responsibility as leaders to see it.

This year, our Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Savannah Bilbo introduced several interventions to improve the way we establish and remain in contact with new graduates. When I took a step back, I realized Savannah was creating a handoff chain, where each action created the conditions for the next one.

We talked about young alumni relocation. We talked about the sunsetting of their school email accounts. A system became clear to me. Savannah's work was essential in building a stronger bridge to shepherd students into their experience as young alumni.

I want to reiterate our responsibility to embrace a systems view of our programs. This is a leadership competency. It’s absence shows up in predictable ways. Think about the last time you onboarded a new team member. Process and protocol weren't documented. You struggled to recall what exactly you were looking for, and penalized your direct report for meandering or "wasting time." With a systems perspective, the style may change from person to person, but the mechanics remain the same.

Are you viewing your young alumni continuity programs as a cluster of tactics, or a system?

The new grad engagement system I alluded to lives below. And the research makes it urgent. According to PeopleGrove's findings, 87% of new graduates are functionally lost to the development pipeline within five years of commencement. The loss is what the research calls "graduation churn.” CASE found that if a new grad doesn't engage within their first 12 months (via event attendance, volunteering or giving), their lifetime giving drops by more than half. Wait five years and the effort to win them back doubles. By year ten, your recapture rate is 2%.

Below are 5 stages of building The Alumni Bridge, the framework that emerged from Savannah Bilbo's interventions once I recognized them as a system.

THE FIVE STAGES

1. CAPTURE Alumni engagement team members staff the University graduation fair. This year, new table signage, an expanded contact form, and conversation turned a passive presence into active lead capture: 160 of 487 attendees (≈33% conversion rate) gave us durable contact information. Staff talked about the Young Alumni Pack (Board), chapter activities, and other opportunities for engagement post-grad. Equally important, we asked where they're moving — turning small talk into a routing decision before the University email account sunsets and we lose the communications channel permanently.

2. CULTIVATE This happens while they're still students. Seniors — institutionally fluent, relationally warm — are personally invited to learn about the Young Alumni Board. "Come Yap with YAP" during Senior Week offers free caffeinated drinks with the Young Alumni Pack, creating connection among future alumni before graduation day. During Commencement, we will display a “keep in touch” QR code so graduates can opt in from their phones. The QR code is also included with letters sent with their diplomas. This reduces friction at the exact moment institutional affinity peaks.

3. BRIDGE This stage begins the week after Commencement. A welcome-back event in one of two pilot cities give new grads a structured, intergenerational networking moment with senior alumni. New-grad pricing lowers the barrier to activation; the outgoing SGA president advocates for attendance as a peer voice; direct email plus social drives turnout. Senior alumni love the lower price point and choose to sponsor several new grads who can't afford to attend — democratizing access and deepening retention across cohorts simultaneously.

4. HAND OFF This stage refers to an instant peer welcome. Every grad who shares a destination city is added to the active University-facilitated WhatsApp group for that chapter, so existing alumni can greet them in minutes rather than months.

5. SUSTAIN & ACTIVATE This stage refers to the chapter network and beyond. Sixteen active chapters (including Puerto Rico) carry grads into fall through football watch parties and community service. A subset is then activated as testimonial voices at admissions events nationwide — completing the growth loop by flipping the relationship from recipient to advocate at the moment their campus experience is freshest.

Engaging new grads before they walk the stage can save the 15 to 20 non-solicitation touch points it takes to rebuild trust. We didn't set out to build a five-stage system. We set out to stop losing people. The framework is just what it looked like when we wrote it down.