The value of community: A closer look at alumni engagement & fundraising trends in 2024

It hasn’t been easy for institutions to keep their alumni bases active and engaged in recent years. With COVID drastically changing the landscape of alumni events and challenging schools to take a digital-first approach to engagement, alumni engagement teams have had to test, pivot and optimize their strategies. 

That’s why we wanted to take a pulse on the state of alumni engagement today. We listened to what nearly 600 alumni told us about their behaviors, motivations, preferences and values. 

What resulted was a clear picture of alumni engagement today. The findings, broken down in detail in our 2024 Alumni Trends Report, signal a clear path for institutions to optimize their engagement strategies to deliver impact and lasting value for their alumni communities. 

In this blog, we dive a little deeper into the key findings and takeaways from the report to give advancement professionals the data they need to optimize their engagement strategies and build lifelong alumni relationships. 

4 things we learned about alumni engagement from the 2024 Alumni Trends Report

In order to reach alumni in meaningful (and measurable) ways, it’s critical for alumni engagement teams to hear directly from their alumni bases. We asked alums:

• What kind of services and programs do alumni want from their alma maters? 
• How and where do they prefer to be engaged? 
• What do they want to hear from their alma mater?
• What drives them to give?

We asked these questions and more to provide a snapshot of alumni engagement today, and uncovered a few clear key themes.

Alumni seek & value connection with the broader alumni community

In a world permeated with remote work, smartphones, and no shortage of digital distractions, it can be difficult to find a community of peers with shared values. That’s the value an alumni program offers. And alumni themselves feel similarly: most alumni (82%) say their alma mater has an online platform, and nearly 40% use this platform to connect with fellow alums.

Alumni rank the most valuable services provided by their institution as follows:

• 46% Career support
• 46% Networking
• 39% Communications & updates
• 38% Sporting events
• 36% Regional events

These insights signify the opportunity for institutions to leverage their engagement platform to reach and engage alumni in ways that drive real value and authentic connections.

Digital engagement is the key to flourishing alumni fundraising

Even amidst an uncertain economy, global conflicts and an election cycle, the data paint a positive picture of alumni giving. 60% of alumni say they are likely to donate in the future, while just 21% say they are unlikely. So how can advancement teams tap into this willing base of supporters? Look to engagement as an indicator.

Alumni who are active in their alumni engagement platform have a higher tendency to give. A staggering 93% of alumni donors engage with their institution through an alumni platform. Perhaps surprisingly, the second-most used engagement channel of donor alums is texting. 

And what about the channels that prompt the gifts themselves? Go digital. Email (44%), social media (42%), text (34%) and giving days (33%) are the channels most common for soliciting and driving donations. The least used channels for giving? In-person or virtual events, student outreach and solicitations from class ambassadors. 

Alumni mentorship programs drive authentic engagement — and correlate with giving

Alumni mentoring programs can offer tangible benefits to your alum community, like access to a wider professional network, connecting with like-minded peers and offering real-world career advice. And alumni are seeing the benefits: nearly half (48%) have provided mentorship to other alums and over a third (36%) have been mentees. These mentoring participants are also more active in a variety of alumni services and programs, compared to non-participants.

Another notable statistic is the correlation between mentorship and career services participation. Mentoring participants are 335% more likely to use their alumni networks for career advice and advancement opportunities. 

Mentoring is also a big indicator of current and future giving, according to the report. Alumni who participate in mentoring programs are 156% more likely to have donated to their institution, and 209% more likely to be future donors versus those who don’t participate in mentorship.

Alumni across generations are more similar than different in preferences and behavior

Another finding from the report is that surprisingly, alumni across all generations are more similar than different when it comes to what they value and how they engage. For example, all generations of alums value networking and career support as the top two programs their alma maters provide. Millennials lead the pack in this preference, with 51% of Millennial alums saying networking is the most valuable alumni service. 

Where they differ, however, is their third-ranked choice: Gen Z finds value in sporting events hosted by their alma mater, Millennials say school & alumni updates are valuable, and Gen X values regional events.

How alumni prefer to engage is also similar across all age groups. Email is the most preferred communication channel, a testament to digital-first engagement strategies. Video is more surprising: 28% of Gen X prefer video compared with 17% of Millennials and just 9% Gen Z. 

What’s more, Gen X is by far the most likely to donate (77% have already given to their alma maters) – this gives institutions a big opportunity to engage Gen X alums more meaningfully through new, digital channels like video and texting. 

Gravyty alumni engagement platform: The key to scalable & sustainable alumni support

What alumni shared in the Alumni Trends Survey makes it clear: a virtual community paired with omnichannel engagement is the key to building long-lasting, authentic relationships. 

Gravyty’s alumni engagement platform enables advancement teams to engage their alumni, students and volunteers anytime, anywhere. By powering 1,000+ alumni communities made up of over 31 million users, Gravyty is your partner in delivering meaningful and sustainable engagement.

Explore some of Gravyty’s features that fuel engagement programs:

Automated alumni mentorship programs

Gravyty’s alumni engagement software lets you match mentors with mentees based on interests and career goals ensures a tailored and impactful experience. Regular updates, success stories, and recognition of mentors’ contributions can further incentivize participation and maintain long-term engagement.

Tailored newsletters & digests

Gravyty’s engagement platform lets you communicate at scale and personally with newsletters and digests. Include interactive elements like surveys, polls, and feedback forms to drive active participation and make alumni feel heard. 

Affinity groups

Provide inclusive environments in a “community within a community” with Gravyty’s group feature. Groups enjoy all the same functionality as the broader platform, like photo albums, newsfeed, resources, events directory and more. 

Surveys

While national alumni insights are helpful in guiding you toward the right strategy, surveying your own alumni community is invaluable in understanding their preferences and satisfaction within the network. Gravyty lets you create and distribute surveys to enrich alumni records and gain valuable feedback. 

Video messaging

Gravyty’s build-in, easy-to-use video messaging tool lets you reach thousands of alumni in seconds with personal, authentic videos. Invite alums to an event, provide a campaign update and share a campus story to connect in a personal way with your community.

The best platform for impactful alumni engagement

Effective alumni engagement is key to building healthy, lifelong relationships between alumni and your institution. Use these insights to help form the right approach to engaging your community through the right channels at the right time, with measurable results. 

Gravyty empowers schools to build a thriving, supportive network to fuel their missions with features like automated mentoring, job and internship board, custom newsletters, dedicated affinity groups, and built-in video messaging. Interested in getting a custom demo? Contact us today.