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Alumni association reports higher participation after membership change; marketing team outlines targeted campaigns and metrics
Summary
Alumni staff said ending paid membership in 2021 increased participation; trustees heard about mentoring programs, regional events, $525,000 raised for a campus fundraising initiative and marketing campaigns measured by click‑through and view metrics.
Alumni and marketing staff briefed trustees on alumni-engagement programs, fundraising results and the data-driven marketing campaigns supporting enrollment.
Nancy Collinwood, executive director of alumni relations, told the board that the alumni office discontinued a paid membership model in 2021 and moved to an open participation model. She said the change was intended to be more inclusive and that participation at major alumni events has increased since the change; she added there was a corresponding budgetary impact that staff addressed through revised budgeting models. Collinwood described the alumni office’s mentoring programs — Leadership to Legacy and the MAPS program — and said MAPS includes a scholarship component while Leadership to Legacy begins as an event-focused mentoring opportunity that can lead to longer-term pairings.
Collinwood and trustees praised board members’ participation in mentoring; trustees described personal mentoring experiences and offered to expand classroom connections and resume‑sharing with students.
Betsy (staff member) and Matt Dixon (alumni board leader) summarized regional alumni events and volunteer participation. Collinwood said fundraising tied to alumni events — including a program referenced as the “W” fundraising initiative — has raised about $525,000. The alumni office is working on data-integrity projects and has engaged a data consultant and a partnership with the Education Advisory Board to improve segmentation and annual-giving communications.
Marketing communications staff described campaign targeting and measurement. John Komalieski (executive director, marketing communications) and Mitch Whitfield (metrics lead) walked trustees through fall campaigns across 24 concurrent efforts, including search-engine marketing, geotargeted displays, TikTok and YouTube content. The marketing team said campaigns are built around three primary enrollment personas identified through a Cicero workforce-alignment study — “quality seekers,” “pragmatic life balancers” and “strivers” — and that campaigns target awareness, consideration and application stages of the enrollment funnel.
Whitfield reported that a TikTok awareness campaign produced a click-through rate above platform averages for the fall campaign and that YouTube “evergreen” content generated substantial viewership and a measurable amount of non‑branded search interest. Staff said they will continue to refine keywords, remove poor-performing audiences and use data segmentation to improve recruitment and fundraising communications.
