From Engagement to Insights: Demonstrating the Value of Alumni Programs-Recording

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar, led by Josh Coyle and Alexa Schwartz from Gravity, focused on how alumni and advancement teams can move from simply tracking engagement to demonstrating real impact. The presenters explained that many institutions already collect plenty of data—event attendance, logins, mentorship participation, email opens—but often struggle to turn that activity into a clear story for leadership.<br /><br />They emphasized the need to shift from one-off metrics to meaningful engagement patterns over time, such as repeat participation, active contributions, and cross-program involvement. Using CASE-aligned thinking, they highlighted the importance of consolidating data across systems into a unified view to reduce silos and improve reporting.<br /><br />Polls showed that many attendees feel somewhat confident measuring impact, but commonly struggle most with connecting engagement to outcomes and ROI, as well as turning data into actionable insights. Real-world examples showed how strong mentoring programs and improved analytics can lead to significant growth in engagement and event participation.<br /><br />The key takeaway: teams should focus on a few strategic goals, track the right metrics, and use dashboards to identify what’s working, what’s not, and what to scale. The session closed with Q&A and resources, including case studies and guides on alumni engagement platforms.

Keywords

alumni engagement

advancement teams

engagement metrics

data analytics

ROI measurement

dashboard reporting

CASE standards