Traditional touchpoints aren’t cutting it. Today’s alumni expect continuous, personalized, and tech-forward engagement. Here’s how to rethink your strategy.
Jeff Dillon
Senior Counsel, Technology Solutions
The glossy quarterly magazine curled inside your mailbox. The annual phonathon interrupting your family dinner. The gala requiring cross-country travel.
Amid the AI and technology revolution, these traditional approaches now seem, at best, quaint.
Especially since the pandemic. It supercharged the digital era. What emerged wasn’t just a temporary pivot to virtual events, but a comprehensive reimagining of how technology can turn alumni engagement into more meaningful connections than ever before.
Here are four strategies to help you and your alumni and advancement teams make the most of this shift, and meet alumni where they are today.
1. Rethinking the Role of Traditional Tactics
Traditional alumni engagement operated on a simple premise: print communications supplemented periodic, high-touch interactions. Costly reunion weekends, regional events, and direct mail campaigns were the norm.
These methods worked. But also created barriers. Geographic limitations meant that only alumni within driving distance could regularly attend events. Time constraints held back busy professionals from lengthy programs. Print costs inhibited all but the wealthiest institutions from making the most of mail. Most critically, many of these touchpoints occurred too far apart to deliver emergent momentum.
The digital revolution has changed all that. Today, engagement is moving toward what industry experts call “continuous engagement”: ongoing, personalized, digital-first interaction that meets alumni where they are and keeps them connected year-round.
2. Closing the Gap Between Expectations and Experience
The disconnect between what alumni want and what most institutions offer is hard to ignore:
78% of alumni prefer to access their alumni benefits online.
75% of alumni say mobile-friendly information would make them more likely to engage.
But only 26% of institutions have invested significantly in updating their digital platforms for alumni engagement. Meanwhile, 87% of alumni professionals report needing to improve engagement, and 90% say they either don’t offer benefits or see little return from them.
This isn’t just a technology issue. It’s a strategy issue. To move forward, institutions must align offerings with alumni expectations and make digital engagement a core part of their relationship model.
3. Delivering Real Value Through Digital
Forward-thinking institutions are already reaping the benefits of the digital transformation. In admissions, for example, prospective students who viewed a virtual reality campus tour were 22% more likely to apply. (And, p.s., these are tomorrow’s alumni, already signaling what they’ll want when that day comes.)
In alumni marketing, some institutions are also showing what’s possible. The Stanford Alumni Association, for example, has created a comprehensive digital ecosystem that includes personalized content delivery, virtual networking events, and digital career resources. They know that alumni expect the same level of digital sophistication from their alma mater that they experience in their daily lives.
Stanford’s strategy extends beyond simple communication tools. Their virtual program “Contemplating Your Next Career Move” is a four-week online experience that provides structure, peer support, and professional development for alumni navigating career transitions. In other words, alumni are receiving real value from the digital platform—not just digitized versions of analog experiences.
4. Combining Digital Reach with In-Person Resonance
The numbers show that strategies like Stanford’s work—and not just in theory. Institutions that deliver real value through digital platforms are seeing stronger, more consistent alumni engagement. For example:
62% of alumni organizations now offer virtual or hybrid networking events.
45% of alumni prefer virtual options for their convenience and accessibility.
Virtual components allow institutions to engage global audiences and maintain regular touchpoints throughout the year.
But that doesn’t mean in-person experiences are obsolete. The most effective engagement strategies build from a digital foundation, layering in selective in-person moments that deepen emotional ties and strengthen alumni identity. The key is understanding which formats serve which purpose best:
Virtual events and webinars are ideal for educational content and networking across distances.
In-person events—like reunions—remain powerful tools for rekindling nostalgia and reinforcing shared identity.
Rather than choosing between digital or in-person, sophisticated shops are integrating both, using digital to scale connection and in-person to spark emotion.
In an upcoming post, we’ll explore how this digital foundation sets the stage for the next big leap—artificial intelligence. More than that, we’ll share how institutions can use it to personalize and scale alumni engagement in smarter, more strategic ways.
Ready to take your alumni engagement strategy to the next level?
Get in touch and we’re happy to help.
