How William & Mary scaled alumni engagement and boosted event registrations by 3x with Graduway
Key stats
3X
increase
In targeted alumni event registrations
73%
alumni
Actively willing to help
ROO
investment
Return on onboarding investment
About William & Mary
William & Mary, chartered in 1693, is a prestigious public university with over 110,000 alumni. William & Mary brings together the global opportunities of a teaching, learning and research university with the personal education of a liberal arts and sciences institution.
The Alumni Careers and Professional Engagement team at William & Mary sought to deepen alumni engagement and provide lifelong career support to its graduates. They recognized the need for a scalable solution to streamline alumni engagement, mentorship and professional networking.
The challenge: Engage 100k+ alumni consistently at scale and gather actionable insights as a team of two
Before implementing Gravyty’s alumni engagement platform, William & Mary faced obstacles in scaling their engagement efforts with a team of two.
The team was looking for a solution to support and expand existing alumni programming, with the goal of targeting new audiences who expressed interest in asking for and offering assistance. Additionally, the team relied on engagement channels like LinkedIn groups and email blasts. While email analytics helped to guide their outreach strategy, they wanted a solution to better tailor messaging to the right audience at the right time. Without deeper alumni data, the team found it difficult to promote awareness around opportunities that would drive deeper engagement and long-term connections.
Alex Beard,
Associate Director of Alumni Careers and Professional Engagement, William & Mary
The solution: Build an exclusive community to consolidate alumni data, track interactions and tailor engagement
To overcome these challenges, William & Mary used Gravyty’s Graduway platform to launch the William & Mary One Network, creating a more efficient and impactful engagement strategy. By using a cohesive and exclusive platform to automate outreach and stewardship, it became easier for the team to stay connected with alumni at scale while freeing up valuable staff time.
Recognizing that students were hesitant about formal mentorship, they strategically rebranded the initiative as “career connections,” making it more approachable and encouraging more alumni-student interactions.
By integrating Graduway with existing university systems, the team was able to consolidate alumni data, track interactions, and tailor engagement based on individual preferences. Additionally, the platform simplified event management and volunteer coordination, leading to increased participation and sustained involvement from alumni over time.
Alex Beard
The outcome
By leveraging Graduway to host the William & Mary One Network, the engagement team achieved:
- Return on onboarding investment: Time investment in the launch of their Graduway platform to support the system has resulted in increased event registrations and ease of tailoring outreach to alumni segments.
- 3X increase in targeted alumni event registrations: Automated event invitations and personalized outreach significantly boosted attendance.
- 73% of alumni actively willing to help: Profile attribute data enabled precise targeting for career networking, volunteering, and giving opportunities.
Alex Beard
Solution spotlight
Graduway enables higher education institutions to connect with their alumni seamlessly through automated outreach, career networking, and digital engagement tools. By integrating with existing systems, Graduway provides institutions with a single platform to monitor alumni interactions, engagement levels, and career development. Want to see how Gravyty can help you deepen alumni relationships and increase engagement? Book a discovery call.
