Steal these 12 homecoming ideas to inspire more alumni engagement this fall

Homecoming—that time of year in late September or early October when schools welcome students back after summer break—has long been associated with exciting football games and other celebratory events aimed at welcoming students back to campus for a new year. 

But savvy alumni engagement teams also use homecoming as an opportunity to ignite enthusiasm and inspire community action amongst their alumni bases. Homecoming can serve as a powerful force to unite alumni through fond memories, peer connections and once-in-a-lifetime events. 

Here, explore innovative ideas you can use to rally alumni around school pride during homecoming season using Graduway, Gravyty’s alumni engagement platform.

Idea #1: Promote homecoming on your alumni platform homepage

It might sound obvious, but the first place to start leveraging your platform to promote homecoming is front and center on your alumni platform homepage.

Highlight homecoming registration as a tile on the homepage, letting platform users be the first to register ahead of the wider alumni community. You might even consider offering a small discount for platform users.

Idea #2: Send a homecoming-themed activity digest

Automated newsletters are a great way to get the word out to your wider alumni base. Use activity digests leading up to the big weekend to feature homecoming happenings, ambassadors, alumni spotlights, networking opportunities and volunteer opportunities. 

Digests can even be personalized based on behavioral and affiliation data to recommend events, posts and jobs tailored to each individual alumnae. 

Idea #3: Create an alumni ambassador program…

Alumni are often excited to lend their support to the broader community, especially during the exciting homecoming season. 

Recruit key homecoming ambassadors or volunteers by utilizing the ‘willing to help’ options on your Graduway platform. Set them to automatically pull into a group for volunteers that your team can use to communicate with interested volunteers.

Idea #4: …And ask those alumni ambassadors to commit

When recruiting ambassadors, ask for an initial commitment of just three months. This will make it much easier to attract new ambassadors. This is a surefire way of attracting those users who stayed away due to fear of the level of commitment involved. 

In this way, your ambassador program can act as a conduit for training up the top platform users of the future.

Idea #5: Lean into nostalgia with photos

Don’t underestimate the power of photos to drum up fond memories, raise school spirit and drive engagement. Do a campus spotlight or school spirit photo once a week leading up to homecoming, highlighting different parts of campus or yearbook photos to lean into alumni nostalgia. 

Encourage members to comment on or engage with the post, sharing their favorite memories on campus and what they’re most excited about for the upcoming homecoming festivities.

Idea #6: Use the Events board to promote homecoming events

What better way to inform alumni about the homecoming schedule of events than through the network’s Events board? Feature networking nights, mentoring meet-ups, sporting events, reunion parties, and all other homecoming programming for alums to easily browse through and even sign up. 

They’ll be able to see other alums registered to go, event details and a link to register.

Idea #7: Collaborate with other departments

Many alumni engagement teams feel that they are spread too thin between administrative tasks, organizing events and managing with the community. But homecoming should be a time for internal collaboration! Reach out to other departments in the school for assistance. 

If you’re running an employment event, collaborate with the school’s employment office. Ask the marketing department to help with publicity for your homecoming event. 

While you may not realize it, you already have many materials that can help you—e.g., your guide books—so don’t do double work. Consider the resources and people you already have on board and dip into your existing pools to take the load off. 

Idea #8: Host career development & alumni networking nights

Homecoming is a time for the alumni community to connect with their peers through fond memories, fun events and professional opportunities. Take advantage of a weekend that brings so many members of the community together by organizing some career development programming to showcase the immense value of a well-connected alumni network. 

You can also host a fun “networking night” that brings alums together to make professional connections that last well beyond homecoming weekend. 

Idea #9: Provide homecoming FAQs in a Resources folder

The Resources feature in the Graduway platform allows you to post helpful FAQs, documents, media and more in the form of files or links for alumni to use. 

Create a folder for Homecoming-related resources such as FAQs, programming and event descriptions to give your alumni community easy access to real-time information and prepare for the big weekend. 

Idea #10: Run an alumni-owned business fair

In a recent Gravyty survey, alumni said career support and networking are the most valuable services their alma mater can offer. 

Use homecoming as an opportunity to connect alumni with each other and promote their businesses with an alumni business fair or market. Use the business directory in your Graduway platform to source businesses to showcase. 

Idea #11: Create a dedicated reunion group

Groups on the Graduway platform offer an exclusive experience within your broader alumni community. The best part? Groups offer all the same functionality as the wider platform like the newsfeed, directory, social media feeds, events board and photo albums.

One way to leverage Groups to generate alumni buzz around homecoming is by creating a dedicated reunion group. 

In this group, post reunion news and updates to build excitement – and make sure to “tag all” to keep the community in the loop. Encourage users to post photos of fun memories to lean into the nostalgia of their time on campus. You can even offer an incentive to post, with anyone who posts getting a discounted rate on reunion fees or free tickets to a reunion event. 

Idea #12: Invite alumni to homecoming using video

Recruit ambassadors, volunteer, students and faculty to send meaningful and personal video messages inviting alumni to attend homecoming festivities. Instead of a traditional email or postcard invite, a personal video message sent directly from members of your school community and fellow alumni captures the attention — and hearts — of your alumni community (and gives them some healthy FOMO!)

Even better, the built-in video messaging tool encourages platform logins through embedded calls to action.

Alumni homecoming made easy

Homecoming is a time of school pride, old friendships, and new connections. Lean into the spirit of the season by making it easy for alums to share in the festivities and recognize the long-term value of their network, well beyond homecoming itself. Lean on easy network-building, automated outreach and exclusive community features offered in your Graduway alumni engagement platform to make homecoming an unforgettable event for your alumni network.

Interested in taking a tour of Gravyty’s end-to-end donor engagement and fundraising platform? Contact us today.