Reasons Why You Need an Alumni Management System

Institutes strive to establish a culture of learning, growth, and personal development, and there’s no better way to achieve those goals than through alumni engagement. Alumni are past graduates of a particular institute who can contribute to the college's or university’s advancement.

They are an important asset and can add value to the learning experience by providing mentorship to students. In fact, their skills and knowledge are indispensable; however, institutes often struggle to sustain a responsive alumni network. That is where alumni management system acts as an ideal tech-assistive tool.

What is an alumni management system?

An alumni management system is a software solution that streamlines all admin-related data and activities on a single platform. It allows admin and institute team members to collect, store, and update information conveniently.

Furthermore, they can organise all the data according to the categories based on the graduation year, location, area of specialisation, industry, and interests. What’s more, they can keep track of donations, events, meet-ups, and donations.

Simultaneously, you can send out important information to stakeholders and experts (alumni), updating them about upcoming events. But are those the only benefits? There are many other reasons why you need an alumni management system, so let’s have a look:

1. Organised Alumni System

Hosting an annual alumni meetup and not inviting a few members due to a lack of contact information is common. Also, such instances are detrimental to the institute-alumni relationship and might offend distinguished members.

Therefore, you must prioritise collecting and updating the information of all graduates in a timely manner. Using manual mechanisms or basic computerised systems hardly does the trick when alumni members fail to revert or respond.

Hence, a robust alumni management system is the ultimate solution, which enables you to organise alumni records and data. Consequently, you can store and update each pass-out or graduate’s complete information, including their current profession.

It provides a centralised platform through which you can maintain continuous communication with them and update them. Also, you can send personalised messages, event invitations, and newsletters according to particular alumni.

2. Networking Opportunities

The significance of networking is undeniable, as it provides the perfect opportunity for individuals to meet and establish alliances. Institutes play a pivotal role in this context as they conduct various scholastic events and conventions.

Conducting such events is a time-consuming task wherein you need to execute various administrative activities. The software can prove to be a useful tool, helping to collate the information of all alumni in a single source.

After that, you can get in touch with all the members, reducing the manual effort of facilitating engaging networking events. In case you want to plan virtual meetings, webinars, and career workshops, you can do so conveniently with the system.

In fact, one of the major benefits of the alumni management system is that you can gather feedback from all alumni members. Therefore, you can get insight into what else you can do to improve the events. Moreover, you can use the feedback as a means to further connections and build a sense of community.

3. Effective Communication

How can we establish effective communication? Is it just by sending a simple email or message? Communication that involves a two-way interaction, thrives for a long period and offers ways of growth is beneficial.

Hence, moving beyond sending occasional memos and reaching out to individual alumni members through personalised messages is important. Besides, you can initiate and maintain connections with them through different channels. For instance, direct messages (SMS), email, and social media are effective platforms of communication.

Also, you can customise the messages according to the particular individual, increasing the chances of them reverting. You can monitor the engagement metrics, which helps to check personal engagement and foster the connection.

4. Establishes a Community

After graduating or passing out of an institute, most individuals lose contact with each other and get busy in their respective fields. Nevertheless, the college and university endeavour to collect all the alumni details and re-establish a connection.

Besides, alumni management software is a useful tool that enables the institute to reinstate lost connections. At the same time, alumni members can connect with each other, helping to create an engaging community.

Furthermore, the software has features like profiles, forums, and group discussions, which enable the members to communicate. Also, even if it might not be possible to meet in person, virtual meetings are an excellent way to maintain a connection.

Consequently, the tool helps to establish a sense of community, which can contribute to furthering the institute’s success.

5. Streamlines Alumni Activities

Schools, colleges, and universities play a significant role in shaping a student’s life by facilitating foundational and specialised knowledge and skills. Also, they develop a code of moral and ethical conduct, helping them to make constructive life choices.

Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that many graduates like to give back to the institution that has played an instrumental role in their lives. That is where the software can act as a mediating tool, as it helps identify potential donors.

Many alumni members like to make donations to the institute as a way of showing their gratitude. Hence, the software can simplify the process through its built-in online forms and highly secured payment methods. Also, such safe and convenient methods allow alumni to donate occasionally during various institutional initiatives.

Furthermore, you can track the donation data, which helps organise the fundraising strategies and eliminates manual errors. Also, you can keep accurate data on members who have contributed and the overall collected amount.

Which is the best alumni management software?

The ed-tech space is thriving, with many companies developing new and better tools to automate administrative and time-consuming activities. In a scenario where every piece of software claims to be the best, it can be hard to make a decision.

Therefore, you must consider the following factors while choosing an alumni management software:

Integrability

Your institute might be using software that executes day-to-day operations, accelerating core and specialised activities. Therefore, the alumni management system that you choose must have built-in integrations or APIs to sync with the existing system.

Besides, smooth integrability ensures that your institute’s official website, email, payment platforms, etc. function well with the software.

Assured Privacy

Alumni data, much like any other institutional data, is critical, and you must store and maintain it in a highly secure place. That is why you must choose software that has modern and advanced security measures like regular backups and encryption.

Simultaneously, you must ascertain that the vendor or service provider is consistent in regard to the terms of service. They must comply with privacy and security regulations like CCPA or GDRA.

Customisation Ability

Every institute is different because what one might want or strive for might be different from another’s aspirations. Therefore, be sure to choose alumni management software that comes with customisation abilities.

Why? Simply because you can customise the features according to the institute’s and alumni's needs, including modules, events, etc. Consequently, it will enhance the alumni member’s user experience as well.

Flexibility

Software that claims to be an advanced solution but undergoes technical issues while processing huge amounts of data is not the ideal system. Hence, choose a highly scalable solution that can manage vast amounts of data, various activities, and future organisational development.

Also, don’t forget to select the subscription or pricing plans according to your organisation’s size and budget limits.