Alumni Relations: Why?

Higher education is a unique business. Where else can you find an organization that functions like a town within a town, providing housing, financial services, education, athletics, recreation, social and career services, and entertainment? All of this functions basically as a benevolent dictatorship - student government isn't terrifically strong, faculty are notoriously strong on issues of academic freedom and guiding the ship is a president usually promoted within higher ed to lead the whole thing. One president remarked once that being president of a university is like being the captain of the ship, but the wheel is disconnected from the rudder. I believe it - much of university life is functioning on a 10 year cycle. To those on the outside it's painfully slow, but even with something changing and evolving at this pace is too fast for many.

Taking it to the next level, think of how revenue to run the place is generated: some income from current residents (varies campus to campus), some income from other outside sources, and (this is the kicker) a substantial chunk from former customers. Seriously. If you bought a Honda and then 25 years later they came back asking for a "donation" to ensure the continued creation of new excellent automobiles, you'd laugh!

But there's something about higher ed that is incredibly attractive to us. It's the passion that people feel for an institution, the strength of the bond that is created simply due to people being in the same place at the same time. Identify yourself as an alum of a school to another alum and immediately you're no longer a stranger. Shared experience, even if it wasn't simultaneous, is one very special form of community.

This is the business we've established ourselves in.

We help alumni associations build community, increase alumni engagement online and off and conduct efficient operations by providing tools for communication, management and measurement.

Next installment: challenges and opportunities