Enhancing The Connection Between University Leadership & Alumni

Research Objective:

Alumni Associations serve a critical role at our universities to “personify centralization.” We provide alumni with opportunities to hear from top university leaders, namely our Presidents or Chancellors, to cultivate strong relationships and better enable our alumni to be proud, be involved, and be invested in helping advance their alma maters. The objective of this research was to collect information from Alumni Associations to learn best practices and strategies that are being implemented to enhance the connection between university leadership and alumni and to evaluate the effectiveness of these engagement opportunities.

Research Phases:

Phase 1 (early November 2020) – In early November, a CAAE “Show of Hands” survey was sent out, posing the question: Since July 1, 2019, have you planned and executed in-person or virtual events for alumni featuring your university President or Chancellor as the keynote speaker?

In total, 44 CAAE members responded to this question, with 30 replying “Yes” and 14 replying “No.”

Phase 2 (late November 2020) – Two follow up surveys were sent to those who replied to the Show of Hands question. One survey was sent to those who replied “Yes,” and a separate survey was sent to those who replied “No.”

Phase 3 (early January 2021) – Select Chief Alumni Officers who responded to the surveys were contacted directly to learn more about the information provided on their survey responses and to gain permission to share their best practices.

Key Findings and Takeaways:

Twenty-eight universities and alumni associations who have featured their Presidents or Chancellors at an in- person or virtual event since July 2019 responded to the “Yes” survey in Phase 2 of this research.

Based on the responses, since July 2019, most Presidents or Chancellor’s have spent between 2-5 hours being involved in 1-2 both in-person and virtual alumni events or activities per month. This does not include one-on- one donor or alumni visits. The most common involvement activities for Presidents and Chancellors are meetings with volunteer leadership boards and councils, open-forum events with Q&A, or virtual outreach through videos or other digital outlets.

As the charts below show, the numbers for the in-person events and activities between July 2019 and March 2020 are nearly identical when compared to the number of events and hours the President or Chancellor spent participating in virtual events between March 2020 and early 2021.

Many alumni associations adapted quickly and effectively to keep their Presidents or Chancellors engaged with alumni virtually, with no drop off or even a slight increase in these activities as compared to in-person events.

A variety of other executive-level university leaders, including Deans, Provosts, Vice Presidents/Chancellors, and Athletics Department leaders are also involved in alumni outreach, which helps increase the level of engagement those leaders have with our alumni and enhances our alumni associations’ relevance in advancing the mission and building the reputation of our universities.

Based on UT Knoxville’s post-event feedback from alumni attendees, the average Net Promoter Score for both in-person “Big Orange Receptions” and virtual “Vol Town Hall” events is exactly 13 percentage points higher than our average Net Promoter Score for all other events (88% for these events, as compared to a 75% annual average for our overall programs). This tells us that the events featuring our Chancellor are making an impact on our university and are proving to be an enjoyable, motivational, and informative event for our alumni.

Some open-ended feedback that was provided by several CAAE colleagues is included in the attached PowerPoint slides, along with the full results from Phase 2 of the survey research. (These additional documents can be found in the full report from this research)

Five universities and alumni associations who have not featured their Presidents or Chancellors in any in-person or virtual events since July 2019 responded to the “No” survey in Phase 2 of this research.

The primary reasons cited for not involving the university Presidents or Chancellor were calendar conflicts and prioritizing other outreach initiatives or keynote speakers at events, which have typically been more popular with alumni. These responders indicated a desire to involve their President or Chancellor at future alumni events, especially meetings with volunteer leadership boards/councils, open forum Q&As, and Alumni Awards banquets.

Presenter Contact Information:

Eric Haag

The University of Tennessee Knoxville

Senior Director of Alumni Programs & Outreach