Institutions now more than ever are concentrating more on engaging their alumni in all ways possible. Be it reunion events, mentoring sessions, fundraisers, or placements, institutions are pulling out all stops to ensure that it is memorable for its alumni. All this is not possible without a robust, updated database.
An alumni database is a detailed, comprehensive repository of alumni information. It contains all the necessary details an institution needs to leverage its alumni. Managing it gives you an insight into your diverse alumni diaspora settled across various industries and professions. You can harness this information to reap benefits of enormous value to your institution.
Here are some advantages of maintaining an updated alumni database.
Generate Opportunities for Students
A consistent placement record is what students are looking into before joining an institution. Having a strong alumni management system helps you in achieving yearly placement targets.
The alumni database is a powerful tool as it can help you in reaching out to the alumni who can be the potential recruiters for your students. As an updated database is brimming with the alumni’s professional timelines and achievements, it will be easier for you to assess their impact in securing jobs as well.
Training and Placement Officers (TPO) of an institution aspire to have a strong connection with a company for placements. The database can highlight if any of the alumni are working for the same company and the alumni can refer the TPO directly to the HR department. An updated database can give you information about your alumni entrepreneurs and CXOs. Entrepreneurs can offer internships for students and CXOs can increase your brand presence and offer jobs. Alumni are more inclined to hire candidates from their alma mater as they have a better understanding of what your institution can offer.
Alumni can help the placement cells of the institutions in bringing companies to the campus whenever the economy fluctuates. This eliminates the whole procedure of cold calling the corporates as your alumni have an idea about the institution. Recently, IIM Lucknow reached out to its alumni for placements.
Fundraising Made Easy
Alumni always want to give back to their alma mater. Fundraisers are a great way to let alumni show their gratitude and get funding for the institution too. If you have a database that is refined it reduces your fundraising efforts and gets the cash registers ringing!
Having an updated database helps you to identify potential donors. You can get actionable insights on how many of your alumni are well settled and who can afford fundraising. Your process becomes effective as you reach only those who can give.
You can keep track of all the donations flowing in along with the details of the donors. You can even thank members by mailing them through the alumni software. In a nutshell, the alumni management software can act as a one-stop shop for all your fundraising needs.
Interested in knowing more about fundraising? Read about the role of alumni fundraising in the educational sphere!
Host Memorable Events
Events are a great way for alumni to reconnect with their old relations and build new ones. It is a perfect blend of fun, nostalgia, and loads of networking. As an institution, you can conduct a wide range of events both offline and online.
An updated alumni database helps you to strategize your planning for the event. If you are planning to host a reunion event for a batch that graduated 25 years ago, you can find the necessary information such as contact numbers and email addresses easily as you maintain a database with updated details of your alumni.
Institutions often struggle to invite alumni to the events as they don’t have their current contact information. Realizing this, they quickly try to build a database just a couple of days before the event which becomes a burden for them.
Find out how a top Indian university managed to achieve a 90% turnout for their recent alumni event.
Mentoring & Communication
As mentioned, an updated database is the key to immersive alumni engagement. An accurate pool of information allows you to filter and segment the data by course & year, department, class, location, industry, company, and many other criteria. This differentiation helps you with targeted communication. You can send invitations, emails, and newsletters that resonate with each persona.
An engaged alumni can help in mentoring your students. An updated database helps you in identifying the right mentors for your students as it highlights the alumni’s skills and experience. You can sift through all the profiles easily and assign the mentors.
Acknowledging alumni’s achievements is a big win for institutions. An info-rich alumni database helps you in tracking alumni’s successes and milestones. Celebrating their hard work will go a long way in the journey of winning them.
Improve Your Rankings
Most of the government rankings like NAAC and NIRF in India, are majorly based on the areas of student advancement and there isn’t a better proof than your alumni kicking it in their respective fields. The metrics defined in these rankings consider alumni working in top companies, and graduating higher studies from top international universities in the last couple of years.
An updated database can give deep insights into your alumni studying abroad and working as top executives in multinational companies. It also shows their experience and areas of expertise. It presents a compelling case on your behalf.
An up-to-date database showcases your alumni’s impeccable academic and professional records which helps you in securing better rankings for your institution. If you opt for a full-fledged alumni management software, it will generate the reports spontaneously.
Better Alumni Engagement
An updated alumni database helps you to identify the alumni’s current professional standing, interests, and previous engagement history with the institution. This helps you to come up with a proper engagement strategy on how to engage them.
Completely engaged alumni can boost your institution’s reputation in all the important areas like fundraising, mentoring, accreditations/ranking, internships and jobs, and many more!
Read on to know how Pravara Group of Institutions built one of the perfect alumni databases ever!
Winding It Up!
Having an alumni database will help you monitor and analyze the resources you can use for your good. It is not just a collection of details. It is a catalyst for building long-lasting connections, consistent learning, and the advancement of institutions. An effective alumni engagement strategy when coupled with credible sources of information can do wonders.
Vaave helps institutions and corporate entities across the globe in realizing the power of alumni and offers strategies for engaging them. We offer a full-fledged alumni management ecosystem that helps you to leverage alumni to its fullest.
Drop in your details at hello@vaave.com & +91 91006 88850, we will get in touch with you at the drop of a hat!