Student Societies: Working with Alumni and Supporters Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO)
Aims of this session • To highlight the benefits of staying in touch with alumni, old members, and other interested supporters • To discuss how you can involve alumni in your society • To introduce you to the Campaign and how it can support your alumni relations work • To offer hints and tips for fundraising from alumni • To provide examples of best practice
Why should you stay in touch with your alumni? Alumni are a fantastic tool for societies – they have knowledge and experience to offer: • Careers advice and opportunities for members • Events – alumni speakers, hosts, sponsors • Global – alumni live in 190 countries
How can you stay in touch with alumni? • Send them an initial email through DARO • Encourage them to get involved through your social media • Invite them to events you think will be relevant • Share any newsletters you produce
Things to think about • Why – why do you want to get in touch with alumni? • Resource – do you and the future committee have the time to maintain a relationship with alumni in addition to your members? • Who - is it just alumni who were part of the society or any alumni with similar interests/working in a relevant field? • How – how are you going to engage them? Are there any activities you can involve alumni in that already exist? Is there anything new you’d like to develop to engage alumni?
Contacting alumni dos and don’ts
Dos and Don’ts DO plan your communications at • DON’T send a one-off the start of term – consistency is communication and wait two years key! to send another DO respond to alumni enquiries in • DON’T bombard them with good time communications DO leave handover notes on • DON’T create unrealistic alumni activity for incoming officers expectations DO think carefully about how to • DON’T email alumni asking for jobs involve alumni – what would • DON’T create your own database – interest them, how could they help? contact alumni@ucl.ac.uk with DO let DARO know if alumni updated details volunteer for your events etc. • DON’T use data which is several DO contact us before inviting years old alumni to speak DO come to us for advice!
Finding UCL Alumni UCL Alumni Online Community (AOC) All current UCL students have free access to AOC. Please only use AOC for professional advice. Approach Alumni Relations about speaker invitations and getting alumni involved more generally. Why should you care? Because AOC is where you can directly contact hundreds of Alumni Mentors …across the world…for free. Sign me up! • Register online at https://uclalumnicommunity.org • Identify mentors in the Directory, click on their name to access their Profile • If you want to get in touch click ‘Request Mentor’ For instant access we recommend registering with your UCL email and the name on your student record. You can then amend details and sync with social media once logged in.
Finding UCL Alumni LinkedIn Whether you’re searching for an interesting speaker or mentor for your society, you can use LinkedIn to find UCL alumni. BUT once you identify people please contact Alumni Relations BEFORE reaching out, we can let you know if we already have a relationship with them and if we will be able to introduce you. This is usually much more efficient than reaching out via LinkedIn. Within the UCL profile there is a tab called Students & Alumni. You will be able to search on various fields including: • Where they live • Where they work • What they studied • What they’re skilled at
What is the Campaign? In September 2016, UCL will be introducing a bold new global Philanthropy Campaign. The focus will be on four themes: • Students • Health • Disruptive Thinking • London
Why should clubs and societies care? The Campaign will generate funds for projects that directly affect the student experience at UCL: • Scholarships and Bursaries • New Student Centre – opening in September 2018 • Provost’s Campaign Fund– a flexible resource which is likely to have already had an impact on your time at UCL
How you can get involved with the Campaign Fundraising and Engagement – help us spread the message about UCL’s truly global impact and how EVERYONE can be involved: • UCL is in Campaign – we’re raising funds and engaging our community to help deliver UCL 2034. • The Campaign has four themes – Students, Health, London and Disruptive Thinking. • The income the Campaign generates and the engagement that it develops will drive our outstanding research and innovative teaching to find solutions to the world’s major problems. • Philanthropy has shaped our past and it will help secure our future for generations to come, as one of the world’s leading universities.
Society fundraising – The Friend’s Trust – Crowdfunding – How DARO can help you
The Friend’s Trust: Helpful Tips for Grant Applications • Highlight how your bid will benefit the maximum number of students • Make a good case for support and cost your bid carefully (smaller amounts are more likely to be supported) • Don’t expect to be funded every year
The Friend’s Trust: Helpful Tips for Grant Applications continued • What kind of projects are supported? – sporting equipment – grants/underwriting for theatre and music – support for key events – materials for theatre productions • Guidelines, grant deadlines and application forms can be found here: http://uclu.org/clubs- societies/resources/friends-trust-applications
Doing your own fundraising: Crowdfunding Pitching a project on a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter or undertaking a fundraising challenge event to support your cause. • Hints and Tips: – Think about who you will crowdfund from – Have a simple project request – recording a video can help! – Most successful projects seek between £200-£2000 – Make sure you update your supporters once you’ve completed your project, they might support other projects in the future
Other fundraising suggestions • For music or theatre: think about starting a ‘friends group’ • Don’t be shy about communicating the need for support at events
Support from DARO • Help with admin if you want to set up a project on justgiving • We can advise you on pitching your project for crowdfunding • We can assist with getting your message out via our social media channels • We cannot provide lists of alumni for direct appeals (Data Protection)
Examples of best practice
Boat Club Works closely with DARO and the alumni boat club: • Records - keeps records of its members (info sent to DARO at the end of academic year by Union staff) • Regular comms - sends regular newsletters to members and alumni • Annual activities – invites to annual Christmas dinner and summer fundraiser event • Handover - excellent handover procedure between outgoing/incoming Presidents • Fundraising – alumni monthly direct debits, annual ‘ ergathon ’ fundraising event
Film Society • Good handover procedure • Make specific requests e.g. asked DARO if they could invite Christopher Lawrence (SFX, Gravity) to speak and assisted with the smooth running of the event Musical Theatre • Has attracted interested from an alumnus who is interested in funding more risky productions • Providing both financial and mentoring support UC Opera • Established a friends group • Staff, alumni and friends – who have provided support for opera productions
POST IT NOTES Write down one activity/project you want to involve alumni in
Your next steps • Pick up a toolkit leaflet • Share this training with your committees and brainstorm how/why you want to engage with alumni • Get advice from DARO before you begin
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