Alumni Matters 2012:What Alumni Want

Alumni Matters 2012: What Alumni Want
An international report on what alumni want
and expect from the relationship with their business school.
September 2012 :: Andrew Crisp, Lesley Brown, Sarah Hardcastle
E XECUTIVE SUMMAR Y
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© CarringtonCrisp September 2012
All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part prohibited without prior permission of the authors.
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alumni matters
Alumni are sometimes the most undervalued and underutilized
asset available to a business school. A strong alumni network
offers a business school many opportunities – mentoring,
attracting new students, speakers, a source of placements/jobs
and fundraising. The Alumni Matters study sought to find out
what alumni want in return.
Research was conducted by CarringtonCrisp in partnership with
the Association of Business Schools (ABS) and EFMD. Data
was collected through an online questionnaire developed by
CarringtonCrisp with Jackie Morgan, a former Alumni Relations
Director and now a consultant on alumni relations.
The questionnaire was available during May and June 2012,
generating a total of 2570 responses. As well as seeking the
views of current alumni, the survey was also open to those in
their final year of study to understand their awareness of
alumni relations and expectations of the services that might be
provided. Of the total response, 1767 were alumni, 71% had
completed a postgraduate degree and they were drawn from
90 different nationalities.
Figure 1. Main reasons for being active in the alumni network
Other
To support my School
To keep up to date with new business thinking
Mentoring opportunities
To access the online resources and databases
To attend events
For commercial discounts
To keep in touch with classmates
To upload my CV/promote my experience
To find new job opportunities
To build a network to support my career/business
.0%
Alumnus
PhD/DBA
10.0%
Other business Masters
20.0%
30.0%
MBA partͲtime/Executive
40.0%
50.0%
MBA fullͲtime
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
Final year undergraduate
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What alumni expect, may not be want alumni
relations want
Alumni have a clear view of the purpose of alumni relations, but
it may not be the same as their business school. While many
schools see alumni relations playing a role in fundraising, only
11% of alumni consider this to be the case. The same is true
of current students, where less than 10% believe ‘Its purpose
will be largely fundraising for the Business School’. The main
purposes highlighted by alumni were facilitating friendships
and business connections as well as fostering collaboration
and networking among alumni and with their school.
The lack of expectation of a fundraising purpose means that
alumni relations will have to carefully sell this aspect of their
work if it is to be successful. While in the USA alumni
fundraising is well established as part of the business school
culture, it will need an innovative approach if it is to make a
significant contribution at business schools outside of the
top-ranked institutions worldwide.
Asked why they are active in the alumni network five reasons
tend to be highlighted by both current students and alumni:
• To build a network to support my career/business
• To find new job opportunities
• To keep in touch with classmates
• To keep up to date with new business thinking
• To support my School
Just under 40% of alumni are not involved with their alumni
network because they are too busy with work and other
commitments. A third of alumni suggest they are not active in
the alumni network because they are unaware of the services
for alumni.
9%
3%
Figure 2. Ease of financially supporting
your business school
8%
20%
Very Easy
Easy
A little unclear how to support the School
Difficult to make a contribution
I find it almost impossible and have given up trying
60%
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alumni matters
Missing international alumni
Another reason for lack of involvement is distance from a former
school, which is especially true of international alumni. Finding
virtual tools to enable international alumni involvement and
maximising the use of staff time when on international recruitment
activity or attending conferences will be a high priority for most
schools. About 1 in 5 alumni say they are inactive because ‘There
are limited opportunities for international alumni to participate’.
It’s not that I don’t want to give, I just don’t know
where or how
It’s not only a lack of understanding about fundraising that is
stopping alumni from making donations. Only 10% of the total
alumni sample say they have made a financial contribution to
their former school. The number providing non-financial
support is higher at 20%.
Close to three-quarters of alumni respondents in the study say
they are unclear how to support their school. Some find it
hard to know where to make a donation, others how to make
a donation and more are uncertain about tax or legal questions.
Making it easy, either online or off, with clear guidance is key
to successful fundraising.
Figure 3. Circumstances under which an alumnus might respond to a financial appeal
from their business school
I would support a financial appeal to provide new housing for students
I would support a financial appeal if it reduced my tax bill
I would support a financial appeal once my income has reached a certain level
There is no circumstance under which I would support a financial appeal
I would not support a financial appeal as I am already paying high fees for my
degree
I would support a financial appeal because I think it is the right thing to do
I would support a financial appeal because I am proud of my School and what it
stands for
I would support a financial appeal because I had a good alumni experience
I would support a financial appeal because I had a good experience as a student
I would support a financial appeal because I want the reputation of my business
school to be enhanced
I would support a financial appeal to support a new building programme
I would support a financial appeal to provide new technology for students
I would support a financial appeal to ensure continuing and wider access for future
students
0%
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
10%
20%
Neither agree nor disagree
30%
Agree
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Strongly Agree
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Giving is personal
Motivation to give is often highly personal with the two most
likely reasons for contributing being once personal income has
reached a certain level or if it would reduce an individual tax
bill. The good news for alumni relations teams is that only
20% agree that there were no circumstances under which they
would make a financial contribution.
Almost half of the alumni (47%) respondents indicate ‘I would
support a financial appeal if it reduced my tax bill’ while 40%
agree or strongly agree ‘I would support a financial appeal
once my income has reached a certain level’. Beyond personal
motivation just under a third of the respondents agree or
strongly agree that I would support a financial appeal because:
• I want the reputation of my business school to be enhanced
• I had a good experience as a student
• I am proud of my School and what it stands for
Of course, a good experience as a student is always likely to
make an alumnus more open to making a financial contribution.
An alumnus will always want their School reputation to be
enhanced – the School name is on their CV forever more and a
prospective employer will largely think of the School at the time
of a job application rather than when the alumnus graduated.
Figure 4. Usage of dedicated alumni pages on your business school website
13%
3%
36%
All the time
Sometimes
I rarely use it
Not at all
48%
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alumni matters
What you say, where you say it and how you say it
Given the increased likelihood of making a contribution once
income reaches a certain level, it is no surprise how important
communication is with alumni. Many alumni rely on the
electronic newsletter, which almost all schools provide, but
there is a great variety in the quality of output.
Newsletters with too many articles, with too few calls to action
and with the most important messages hidden towards the
end will add little to the alumni experience. Being clear what
alumni want to hear about will enhance editorial content and
interaction with alumni.
Among the alumni taking part in the study, only 58% indicate
they are in touch with their school, while 74% are in touch
with fellow alumni.
One of the first questions for alumni relations staff is how best
to communicate with alumni. Many business schools have
dedicated pages on their website with some of the information
protected behind a user name and password, or linked to the
university alumni web pages.
Figure 5. Most valuable activities experience by alumni since graduation
Other
CrossͲcultural awareness
Learning from other participants
Individual friendships
Career advice and counselling
Networking
Personal development
Professional development
Placements/internships
Project work
Academic learning
.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
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However, these pages seem to be poorly used. Lack of use may
be down to a number of reasons – lack of awareness of the pages,
site content that adds little value for the individual alumnus or
preference for other types of communication. Almost half (47%)
of alumni indicate they ‘don’t know if either the university or
business school have dedicated pages on either website for alumni’.
Social network not school website
Only 3% use alumni pages on school websites all the time,
while 48% rarely use them and 13% never use them.
By contrast, 74% of alumni use LinkedIn and 63% use
Facebook. Many alumni probably log on first thing in the
morning through a smart phone or tablet and remain on line
for large parts of the day. Logging on to specialist alumni web
pages on a business school or university website is a rather
more cumbersome and long winded exercise and in most
cases yields little of the social interaction that alumni get on
the large public social networking sites.
LinkedIn and Facebook may also offer an easier medium for
international alumni to network. Only 5% of alumni indicate that
they contact other alumni through ‘Dedicated alumni pages on
the university website’, while 10% use ‘School social media
pages’ and 31% make use of ‘Other social media websites’
Figure 6. Ways in which alumni could support
their business school
Other
Mentor a current student
Promote your School within my company/organisation
Join a specialist alumni group
By offering my practical experience/knowledge
Provide internships/projects for current students
Donate money to support specific strategic objectives of your School
Volunteer to help your Business School on key projects
Acting as an ambassador to promote your School
Offer advice to prospective students
.0%
Alumnus
8
PhD/DBA
Other business Masters
10.0%
20.0%
MBA partͲtime/Executive
30.0%
MBA fullͲtime
40.0%
50.0%
Final year undergraduate
60.0%
alumni matters
What’s in it for me?
One of the questions that alumni seem to ask regularly is
‘What’s in it for me?’ The most frequently received benefit,
selected by 80% of respondents, was an electronic newsletter.
Also popular were alumni reunions (39%), speaker events (38%)
and social events (36%). A print newsletter/magazine was
chosen by just over a quarter (26%) while business seminars
were picked by 23%. However, the most valuable activities
since graduation have involved personal development,
professional development and academic learning.
Increasingly there is a demand for continued learning to be
offered online or in some other flexible way. Alumni want to
continue growing, but rather than making a lengthy commitment
to lifelong learning, they are seeking lifestyle learning which
works around their lifestyle and delivers the lifestyle they want.
Delivering development and learning is not always
straightforward. For some schools this is done through taster
sessions of existing programs or by offering discounts on
courses for alumni. Increasingly, schools are turning to online
delivery, which works particularly well for an international
audience. It also offers the flexibility that many alumni seek.
Entrepreneurship has become an important part of many
business school degree curricula in recent years, however only
2% of alumni said they received business start-up/growth
advice. Also significant for many business students has been
the impact of a degree on their career, yet only 11% of alumni
receive career services and support.
In many other pieces of research undertaken by CarringtonCrisp
prospective and current students have indicated that a career
service available to alumni would be particularly valuable. Asked
what are the most valuable career services, 48% of alumni
say it is ‘Access to information about job opportunities’. The
same view is shared by over half of all the current students
responding to the survey. More than 30% of alumni also
highlighted the value of:
• The opportunity to meet with or speak to an adviser
• Mentoring
• Putting my CV on a secure website that can be searched
by employers
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Been three, done that, ideal to help recruitment
Asked how they might support their school in the future, the
top answers among alumni were– ‘By offering my practical
experience/knowledge’ (46%) and ‘Offer advice to prospective
students’ (48%). Asked specifically about answering questions
from prospective students, nine out of ten respondents would
do so, although some had concerns about how this might be
managed. Options for schools include a virtual question and
answer session at a specific time, having alumni at an open
day/evening, having alumni on a stand at a fair or even
allocating an alumnus to an individual applicant to guide
them through the process.
Alumni having ‘been there and done that’ are in a strong position
to validate the marketing messages that business schools put
out to potential students. They can also set out clearly how
their degree program helped them obtain their current career.
Other areas where alumni feel they might support their
business school in the future are:
• Acting as an ambassador to promote the school (31%)
• Mentor a current student (35%)
Figure 7. Actions that an alumni relations team could take to quickly improve the alumni experience
Other
More events for families
Better access to services for business provided by the school
Integration between alumni and current students
Coaching/mentoring services
Podcasts from leading industry and academic speakers
Knowledge updates to build on studies
Enhanced access to research
More commercial services/discounts for alumni
Better provision for international alumni
Joint alumni activities with other business schools
Discounted membership of professional bodies
Offer greater use of social media and online tools to enhance networking
Provide online learning opportunities
Offer larger discounts to alumni for further studies
Provide stronger career support/enhanced career services
Improve the/introduce a printed newsletter/magazine
Improve the/introduce an electronic newsletter
Make improvements to/develop dedicated web pages
.0%
10
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
alumni matters
Both current students and alumni were asked about the future
alumni relationship. Current students were asked what benefits
they might expect and while an electronic newsletter was
highlighted again, there were a host of other items raised.
Alumni reunions, speaker events, social events and business
seminars, career services and support, library access and
access to research papers all stand out among many of the
current student audiences.
Alumni were specifically asked what actions could be taken to
quickly improve the relationship with their former school. The
main request, sought by 32% of respondents, was providing
online learning opportunities, followed by 27% who wanted
their school to ‘provide stronger career support/enhanced
career services’.
Around 1 in 5 alumni also highlighted ‘Enhanced access to
research’ and ‘Coaching/mentoring services’.
Building strong alumni relationships doesn’t mean jumping
straight to an American model with a strong focus on fundraising.
The results of the Alumni Matters study demonstrate that
alumni are keen to engage with their school, but fundraising is
unlikely to be high on their agenda. Building a relationship
that works for both sides, with benefits for current and future
students as well, is likely to deliver an outcome that in time
also produces financial benefits from an alumni network.
Participating schools in Alumni Matters 2012:
• Henley Business School, University of Reading
• Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire
• Kingston Business School, Kingston University London
• HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne
• Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University
• The University of Sheffield Management School
• University of Stellenbosch Business School
• UCD School of Business/UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate
Business School/UCD Quinn School of Business
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Management Development
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