INCREASING CAMPUS ENGAGEMENT: From Prospective Students to Alumni

Transcription

1 INCREASING CAMPUS ENGAGEMENT: From Prospective Students to Alumni

2 Introduction Engagement begins even before a student steps on campus. When schools engage prospective students and their families, students and schools are better matched. Once on campus, engagement can be the difference between students who drop out and those who get the most out of their experience. Then after graduation, alumni engagement lifts every part of the institution. Alumni become mentors, volunteers, donors, and proud brand advocates. For several years, the private sector has been using technology and processes to increase engagement with their prospects, customers, partners. The results have been better leads, more loyal customers, and happier employees. In this ebook, we will talk about what engagement means to Higher Ed, and what lessons institutions can take from the private sector to take their engagement to the next level. 2

3 The Urgency of Alumni Engagement The stakes are high. Out of all the constituencies of a higher ed institution, improving alumni engagement is a major priority. The most pressing reason is financial. Since 1979, alumni financial donations have been the largest source of private gifts to higher education. 1 And while budget pressure continues, there are many signs that alumni donations as a financial source are in trouble. Across Higher Education, The alumni giving rate has dropped 50 percent over the last 20 years. 2 That means fewer alumni are giving to their alma maters. Meanwhile, according to the Wall Street Journal, total giving in 2016 was essentially flat (and actually dropped if you take out mega-gifts). We need to engage with alumni in new ways. While financial donations from alumni are vitally important, by all indications higher ed needs to start thinking more broadly about engagement. Money, or financial capital, is just one way alumni can share with their alma mater. Another form of value is human capital, which can be summarized as the sum of all the experience and knowledge an alum has gained from education, work, and life experience. And equally important, alumni can provide social capital, which is the sum value of their social network: their business contacts, family connections, or political clout. Financial Capital Human Capital Social Capital 1 Council for Aid to Education. (2005). Voluntary support of education. Washington, DC: Author. 2 The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (2014). Class Exodus. Boston, MA: Dan Allenby. cloud@appirio.com

4 Tapping into Human Capital Mentoring Creating a mentorship program is vital for tapping into your alumni s human capital. The mentor relationship is often career-based, but can be based on any human factor that helps the student thrive. The benefits to the students (and the alums!) are obvious, but as Sarah Elizabeth Pfeifer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign writes: The institution itself also reaps the rewards of establishing student/ alumni mentoring programs. These programs are exceptional recruitment and retention tools for universities. Additionally, universities are able to strengthen ties to alumni. Engaging alumni in this type of program may lead to future financial investments in the university. Alumni can see how their involvement and financial support can really make a difference in students lives. In addition, these programs can build ties with the employers of the participating alumni. A strong mentoring program not only taps into human capital, but can lead to financial gains as well. Volunteering Having the ability to foster volunteering is especially important for engaging younger alumni. The millennial generation, though, is as renowned for its heavy doses of student debt as it is its volunteerism. Because of this, institutions must offer ways to keep the millennial generation engaged as they progress in their careers. Creating robust volunteer opportunities is a great way to engage with young alumni. 4

5 The millennial generation is renowned for its volunteerism engage younger alumni with volunteer opportunities

6 Tapping into Social Capital Online communities In the private sector, the Digital Age has made online communities an expected part of a customer s, partner s, or employee s experience. Communities are now a primary way to access knowledge, share ideas, and create culture, and higher ed is starting to take notice. For Salesforce customers, Salesforce Communities allows prospects, students, staff, and alumni to connect and collaborate. In a sense, a community is a place to share social capital making connections that lift all constituents. A holistic approach to alumni engagement is important But beyond social, human, and financial capital, engagement is about creating emotional connections with the institution itself. Commenting on the financial behavior of alumni, it s been observed: A shared emotional connection derives from receiving a diploma and forever being connected to future students through a shared history. Universities need to build on this sense of community by offering opportunities for alumni to maintain their shared connection and preserve their sense of community with the institution 3 3 Marr, K. A., Mullin, C. H., & Siegfried, J. J. (2005). Undergraduate financial aid and subsequent alumni giving behavior. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 45(1),

7 So perhaps the best way for a university to meet its financial goals is to take a holistic approach to engagement. The first interaction with an alum should not be a call asking for money. Processes and technology need to engage constituents with their unique needs at every stage of their cycle: from prospects, to students, to alumni. Customers in the private sector expect a seamless, digital, and hasslefree brand experience. Higher Ed has taken notice, and most organizations today understand that delivering that is more crucial than ever. How to start improving engagement Certainly, software plays a role in engagement. But no matter how great a software application is, no software can magically improve engagement. Improving engagement starts by taking concrete steps in aligning strategy, processes, and data. So even before looking at the details of software implementation, there are key steps institutions can take to start improving engagement: 1. Create a constituent engagement steering committee. Many parts of a higher education institution benefit from increased engagement, but too frequently they don t speak with each other. The first step is to recognize that engagement affects every part of the institution. To that end, most institutions would benefit from a committee tasked with recognizing where engagement can improve, and brainstorming ideas for improving it. The committee needs representation from all parts of the university, and should meet regularly to measure progress, make adjustments, and champion change. 7

8 2. Define how engagement is measured. Most universities have either incomplete measurements of engagement, or none at all. Statistics like alumni giving rate is useful, but doesn t measure ways. Ideally, all universities can use measurements that touch all aspects of engagement, and score constituents accordingly. The first step is to agree on the ingredients of an engagement score. Once the score is in place, changes in the score can prompt thank you s and encouragement, and drops in engagement can kick off intervention. When it comes to actually obtaining an engagement score, the Appirio Scoring Engine is a native Salesforce package that helps you automatically measure the level of engagement of any Salesforce object. From there, native Salesforce workflow can initiate actions to foster and encourage engagement. cloud@appirio.com

9 3. Start managing and fixing data. Without good data practices, software is useless. Almost all universities have silos of data, all with different standards and levels of quality. Before an engagement improvement even starts, universities need to find their sources of data, unify, and improve it. Impose standards on your data. Think about what you really want your data to look like, field by field. Once this is done, impose structures in Salesforce (or other target system) to accomplish those goals. Set up regular processes to maintain your data. This could be a weekly or monthly exercise. It can also be greatly enhanced by tools, however there is typically a human element in resolving duplications and assignments which records stay and which go. Design the processes to purge or hide data when it is no longer needed. Nothing bogs a system down or makes it unusable more than a bunch of data that no one cares about. Users need help working through this process. 9

10 Action to take now Identify tools to maintain and enhance data quality. Once data has been standardized, it becomes much easier to use 3rd party tools to maintain or enhance it. There are many tools out there to prevent duplicates and provide richness to a data set: º º D&B Dun & Bradstreet º º Data.com º º DemandTools DupeBlocker º º Ringlead º º Experian QAS Address Data Validation º º Percent Complete Free Aloha App to measure and report upon record completeness. Build a Data Management Center of Excellence to set up solid data management processes. 10

11 Higher Education Case Studies 360 view of the student and a connected campus. Experience driven strategy to deliver an Amazon. com-like Experience to users. Strategy definition and collaboration with ISV partners to execute requirements. integrated, cloud-based solution to replace their legacy system. Georgetown University is a private research university in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher education in the United States. Georgetown University s constituent information was dispersed across a variety of systems, spreadsheets, and individual notes, which prevented them from achieving a complete view of any given constituent. Not only did their GAMBIT system and existing Advancement-related applications prevent them from having a comprehensive view of constituents, it did not have sufficient functionality to support the Office of Advancement s activities, or provide them with a coordinated suite of constituent services. By kicking off a modernization strategy, they hoped to triple their annual fundraising goal by 2026; they also wanted a new solution to draw upon the conveniences of a scalable, Georgetown wanted a solution that would provide users with dynamic content, mobile access, personalized and web-based methods of contributing, and a tighter integration with social media. By building a 360-degree view of constituents with coordinated services, they hoped to create an Amazon.com-like experience for users. In order to have a successful implementation, they knew they first needed to identify a front-end engagement layer, and establish both an enterprise-wide technical approach and change management strategy. Before their vision could come to life, they needed to define data governance, stewardship, and adoption/development practices in a CRM data model. cloud@appirio.com

12 Stanford University Digital Strategy Appirio strategy team defines a new digital engagement strategy for 500,000 alumni. Multi-channel approach along with persona/journey definitions anchored to technology/capability assessments. Stanford University is an educational and research institution that provides academic programs in sciences and interdisciplinary areas. The university offers graduate, undergraduate, executive, professional, continuing, and K-12 education. Stanford needed to define their digital channel vision and create strategic goals for enhancing and growing constituent engagement and giving. Appirio Strategic Services engaged with Stanford Alumni Relations and Development executives to create optimal engagement across their digital channels. We aligned on required Digital Channel Capabilities (e.g., digital engagement, marketing automation, digital analytics) and supporting Technology Architecture. A Digital Operating Model was designed to support strategy execution and digital capability development. An actionable Digital Roadmap was defined to enable immediate wins and progression towards the strategic end state. Stanford has a long-term roadmap and strategic partner to define Constituent Relationship Management. This strategy engagement has allowed Stanford to increase engagement with alumni and other constituent donors. I was very satisfied with the Appirio team responsive, knowledgeable, thoughtful, efficient... they really understood our needs and quickly got to know us as an organization, and helped us move through challenges to a great end product. That s a big accomplishment. - Adam Miller, Director of Digital, Stanford Alumni Association cloud@appirio.com