St. Joseph’s College, Colombo witnessed a remarkable 100%+ surge in alumni participation for its Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 29th June, 2025. Compared to the previous year’s modest gathering of 100+ attendees, this year saw double the alumni gracing the meet, making it a grand success. The institution used an omnichannel approach that included many rounds of SMS campaigns, calling, and WhatsApp messages, resulting in a significant rise in turnout.
Background & Challenges
St. Joseph’s College Old Boys’ Union (SJCOBU), the alumni association of St. Joseph’s College, actively engages its alumni through a wide range of initiatives, with events being the preferred format. Every year, the association convenes for its flagship Annual General Meeting (AGM) to align on goals for the year ahead and elect a new committee to lead alumni engagement efforts.
However, the association struggled to mobilize alumni for past AGMs, with only 100+ members attending the last one. Without the right tools and methods in place, SJCOBU couldn't improve alumni attendance and promote the event at scale.
With a renewed target of doubling the attendees, the association began looking for a solution that can expand their reach, and actually bring in results.
How It Was Achieved
SJCOBU came up with an innovative omni-channel approach to encourage alumni to attend the annual general meet. They alumni association sent multiple rounds of SMS campaigns, personally called the alumni to attend the meet and circulated WhatsApp messages through batch groups. SJCOBU used Vaave’s alumni portal to send invitations and collect RSVPs, send reminder emails which prompted alumni to grace the event.
The event set-up form also helped the team capture alumni preferences through custom questions, giving them better visibility into the audience ahead of the meet.
This is how the event set-up form looks:
The process was simple but effective: invitations went out early, RSVPs were tracked and collected, and reminders served as timely nudges keeping the AGM top of mind for alumni.
Below are the emails sent to the alumni community from the day the AGM was published on the portal:
Outcome: Increased Alumni Attendance
“We’re happy to share that our recent Annual General Meeting saw a significant increase in participation, more than double compared to previous years.
The support provided through Vaave played a key role in this success. From managing RSVPs to sending out email invitations, the platform helped us reach our members more effectively and ensured a smooth coordination process.”
- P G Shirantha Perera, Hon. General Secretary (2024 -2025)
2x Alumni Turnout
Through the association’s well-executed strategy and the alumni portal, SJCOBU met its target by doubling the alumni turnout.
A Well-Run AGM
The event management module and the multi-channel approach helped the association host a successful AGM. Higher alumni turnout translated to stronger engagement on the ground, better conversations, deeper connections, and renewed interest in the association’s goals for the year ahead.
Conclusion
SJCOBU’s idea of reaching alumni via popular communication channels helped them to drive more participation. More than double alumni showed up, when compared to the last meet and the increase in participation led to better engagement on the ground. With the right system in place, the association spent less time coordinating and more time connecting with its community.