NOT FUNDRAISING: BUILDING ONGOING RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR ALUMNI

1
NOT FUNDRAISING BUILDING ONGOING RELATIONSHIPS
WITH YOUR ALUMNI

• ISC Conference
• London
• 2 June 2009
• Barbara Armitage, Wycombe Abbey
• Ian McLean, Lancing College

2
The Past

• The old models
• Good Old Boys
• Girls!!
• The Formidables
• Youll hear from us when we want something
• However, this is changing rapidly. . .

3
The Past Does Not EqualThe Future !

• We are in a period of great change
• The way OP Societies and Schools were managed 10
  - 20 (and more) years ago are not necessarily the
  way they should be managed today.
• Co-education
• Boarding/Day pupils
• Parental involvement expectations
• International boarders
• Todays culture

4

• Communication/IT - greater peer to peer contact
• Greater segmentation of database required to
  attract interest
• Fundraising profession
• Health Safety laws e.g. the way we treat
  visitors
• Equality/human rights/privacy laws
• Transfer of wealth
• Old Boys Clubs are out dated

5
The Lancing example

• The Benefits of a close link between the Society
  and the Development Office
• To the Lancing Club
• Administration of membership events
• Database management
• Daily attention
• Greater understanding of the membership and
  individual needs
• To the Members
• Closer association and understanding of their old
  school
• Closer association with former school friends and
  staff
• Opportunities to help in a variety of ways such
  as career advice, work experience, industry
  placement, university advice, sports coaching,
  guest lecturing etc.
• Accurate record keeping by paid employees not
  volunteers

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. . . Lancing College

• Full-time Alumni Relations Manager (also OL Sec)
• Half-time Development Assistant
• 20 events for OLs annually
• Development Office is the admin hub for Lancing
  Club, all events, web site, communications.
• Fundraising programme incl. Bequests and Annual
  Giving.
• Professional groups

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. . . Wycombe Abbey

• Seniors Association independent of School
• Development database
• Development Officer
• responsible for alumnae
• Facebook
• SE Asian branch
• Newsletter
• Web pages
• Reunions

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Whats the point?

• Why this emphasis on alumni relations?

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Alumni Relations Meets Fundraising

• Moving from nothing to a thriving sustained
  development programme
• Establishing the Development Office
• Long term vision/investment/staffing resources
• Alumni Events
• Regional overseas/special interest/professional
  groups/old boys/sporting clubs/anniversaries
• Communication
• Newsletter/e-bulletins/phone email
• Fundraising
• Annual giving/bequest/major gifts
• Leadership

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And the Other Benefits. . .

• Alumni are ambassadors and advocates for your
  School
• Do your alumni send their children to you?
• Parents look beyond university
• University advice
• Career advice and networking

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Communication

• Good communications with all constituencies are
  vital in creating a happy, thriving and forward
  looking school community.

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Development

• At Lancing, Wycombe Abbey and schools like
  ours, we believe that for Development to be
  sustained for the long term, three inter-related
  disciplines must be working together-
• Alumni Relations
• Marketing Communications
• Fundraising
• and Alumni Relations is meeting Fundraising
• face to face !

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And finally. . .

• A Story from The Red Maids

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Q As ?