The Future of Alumni Engagement: Strategic Uses of CASE’s Alumni Engagement Metrics-Presentation

Presentation

Pdf Summary

The CU Boulder Journey presentation outlines a comprehensive approach to enhancing alumni engagement through strategic consensus-building, metric development, goal-setting, targeted strategies, and data analysis.<br /><br />Initially, the Advancement Division embedded engagement across university staff, breaking silos among units such as Alumni Association, Annual Giving, Donor Relations, Marketing Communications, and Data Insights. The formation of the Strategic Engagement Advancement Leaders (SEAL) team in 2023 brought together engagement professionals division-wide to coordinate efforts, hold quarterly meetings, and maintain a shared events calendar promoting unified action.<br /><br />CU Boulder adopted the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) Global Engagement Metrics framework focusing on four engagement categories: Philanthropy, Experiential, Volunteerism, and Communications. Transitioning from manual tracking in spreadsheets to near-automated CRM integration has improved efficiency and accuracy. Key recommendations include securing leadership support, adopting CASE definitions, and building a culture of consistent metric reporting.<br /><br />Divisional goals were established beginning FY23 with bottom-up target-setting for Total and Unique Engagements and oversight committees ensuring accountability. FY25 exceeded engagement goals with 253,349 total and 102,938 unique engagements. The three-year plan (FY24-FY26) aims to engage at least 100,000 unique constituents annually, with 26% engaging in multiple categories, and to move 15% of the Strategic Engagement Priority Group higher along the Advancement Continuum.<br /><br />Targeted campaigns for lower-engagement, high-capacity groups (Tier 4 and 5), including a contact info update outreach, expanded reach and improved constituent data quality. Data analysis revealed Tier 4 constituents are highly philanthropic but lower capacity donors, primarily older Colorado males, while Tier 5 are younger, more varied constituents with lower engagement but remaining potential.<br /><br />Content preferences vary by tier, highlighting the importance of personalized communication. Key takeaways emphasize the value of strategic frameworks, data-driven metrics, targeted outreach, and ongoing audience nurturing to advance CU Boulder’s mission through impactful alumni engagement.

Keywords

CU Boulder

alumni engagement

strategic consensus-building

CASE Global Engagement Metrics

SEAL team

philanthropy

volunteerism

CRM integration

targeted campaigns

data-driven metrics