Alumni Engagement Toolkit
Why?
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Alumni are considered to be an important part of the University community and
universities put a significant amount of time and resources into maintaining their
connection with alumni.
Alumni are increasingly being called upon to donate to University appeals due to a
gradual shift away from public to privately funded universities in Australia.
Pressure from the alumni community is less common than it is from students,
meaning that university decision-makers are more likely to be taken by surprise and
to react based on alumni support.
Rules for Radicals, Rule No. 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. Building alumni support is
sure to do this.
Prepare to Win
Ask. There will be lots of things you can ask your alumni supporters to do. Start with a
baseline, easy ask, such as an alumni petition.
Some other ideas for low-level alumni asks are:
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Alumni open letter
Ask alumni to take and share photos of themselves holding signs saying: This
alumnus wants a fossil free xxx!
Tweet their support for your campaign, ideally using alumni hashtags your university
has created, for example @unimelb @VCGlynDavis it’s time to go #fossilfree lots of
#uomalumni like me say so! @FossilFreeMU
Alumni Engagement Coordinator. Nominate an Alumni Engagement Coordinator and/or
team. The Alumni Engagement Coordinator will be responsible for ensuring you reach your
target number of alumni and for driving a plan for ongoing alumni engagement, including
key moments such as alumni petition deliveries.
Research. Before bowling straight into engagement, spend some time researching what
famous alumni your university has, upcoming alumni events and information about your
Alumni Council and Associations.
Connecting with Alumni
Reaching alumni is not as easy as reaching staff and students, however there are still many avenues
for connecting with alumni. To access most of these avenues, you will need to have alumni in or
closely associated with your group.
Social Media.
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Join your university’s alumni LinkedIn and post your campaign asks.
Like your university’s alumni Facebook page or join alumni group/s. Search Facebook groups
by discipline/locale. There are likely to be restrictions on what you can post on the official
Facebook page. You can get around this by adding content into the comments and joining
groups that do not control content.
Follow your university’s alumni Twitter account, tweet to it and use its hashtags.
Graduations. Graduations are the ultimate opportunity to connect with soon-to-be alumni. You are
unlikely to get so many alumni in the one place at the one time anywhere else. Plus, they have just
finished university so they still feel quite connected to the University and you, as students and
recent graduates yourselves.
Some ideas for what you can do at Graduations:
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Talk to alumni about the campaign and ask them to sign your petition.
Ask alumni to wear an orange tassel on their mortarboard or an orange felt square on their
gown.
Get photos of alumni with signs saying “Make my degree fossil free”
Get a group shot with your team and alumni supporters holding a large banner saying “Make
my degree fossil free”.
Ask supporters to tweet about fossil free using graduation and alumni hashtags on the day
they graduate.
Ask supporters to send in photos of themselves in their graduation gowns with signs saying
“Make my degree fossil free” and upload them to Twitter/Facebook
Get graduands from your core and committed to hand an open letter signed by
academics/staff/students/alumni to the academic who hands them their degree (often the
Chancellor)- this will shock them and get people paying attention!
Get the student giving the graduation speech to mention divestment.
Alumni Events. Whether it be a reunion, networking event, reception, gala or 50s+alumni
get together, universities and alumni associations host a lot of events. These events are
fertile ground for chatting with alumni about your campus divestment campaign. Take a
business card or some flyers and work the room, letting people know about your campaign
and seeking petition signatures.
Information about these events can be easily found online, even if you aren’t alumni of that
university. Nevertheless, the alumni on your team might like to consider joining up to your
university’s alumni portal and social media groups in order to keep abreast of these events.
Alumni Council. Many universities have an Alumni Council made up of elected alumni.
These Councils vary widely but they generally serve the purpose of enhancing alumni
engagement with their alma mater.
Some ideas for engaging with the Alumni Council:
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Run an alumnus from your group on an explicitly divestment focused platform in
Alumni Council elections. Run a spoof election campaign, with lots of your alumni
supporters voting for your candidate.
Write to Alumni Councillors and ask them what their position is on climate change
and University investment in fossil fuels.
Submit the issue of divestment for discussion at Alumni Council: try and get the
Council to vote in favour of campus divestment.
Alumni Associations . Some universities have official Alumni Associations. This may be one
central association and/or a bunch of geographically and discipline specific associations
around the world. If there are smaller self-governed associations, join their Facebook group
and attend their meetings to raise awareness about campus divestment and garner their
support. Centralised Alumni Associations will be harder to tap into, but there is no harm in
getting alumni to contact them with their concerns about the University’s investment
practices.
Make your own event! Advertise an alumni divestment group on a on local meet-up page
or organise a reunion through your alumni portal, with the purpose of educating alumni on
the divestment issue, seeking their support and forming an alumni divestment working
group.
High End Targets
Every university has well-known alumni. Finding out who these alumni are is dead easy
because universities are very proud of their VIP alumni. There will generally be a long list of
famous alumni somewhere on your website.
Getting these alumni on side is another story. You will likely have most success using
personal networks and connections. You can also try and connect with them over social
media or directly but being famous types, don’t hold your breath for a reply.
Things your famous alumni allies can do:
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Declare their support for divestment on social media, on their radio/TV program, in
an article or in any other public forum.
Write to the Vice-Chancellor or other key decision-makers calling for divestment.
Be the star of your actions, memes and other public-facing activities.
Speak at your events.
Activating Your Alumni
Even better than having students driving an alumni campaign is having a group of alumni
actively involved in pushing for divestment. Ideally, you should aim for an alumni working
group or network that regularly checks in with your group to report back on progress.
This is also a practical choice given that most alumni won’t be able to meet up at university
or during the day.
You can activate your alumni by making some higher-level asks, such as:
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Ask them to host divestment houseparties/gatherings of alumni. They could invite
their friends from university, or if they were involved in a student club/society,
encourage them to draw on these networks. You can provide material to explain
campus divestment and empty petitions for them to fill up and return to you.
Draw on their professional talents and networks to further the campaign.
And don’t forget, stay in touch! If you have some particularly enthusiastic alumni, make sure
you check back in with them regularly and keep them in the loop about your group’s plans.
Escalation
There are any number of ways you can escalate your alumni engagement campaign if your
university won’t budge on divestment. Some examples are:
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Hold a petition delivery event.
Ask alumni to pledge to freeze all current and future donations to the University
until they divest.
Hold an alumni rally on campus, or invite them to upcoming rallies.
Hold a call-in where alumni call the Vice-Chancellor’s office or the Alumni
Association office expressing their disappointment at the University’s continued
investment in fossil fuels.