The pandemic has caused job loss across the country. Within advancement, more specifically, it's the alumni relations staff that have suffered the most. We've created this new service to support alumni relations efforts across the country by loaning well trained staff to your institution, at a fraction of the usual cost.

‍The best team and the best coach can’t win a game of football if they only put 5 players on the field.

Think of us as substitutes, ready to come in whenever you need us, able to help with whatever you need to succeed.

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Why do you need additional staff on-demand ?

For every 100 alumni relations staff in 2017, there are only 82 in 2020. An alarming 18% drop in less than 3 years! This data is from a survey done before the pandemic, and we all know that several alumni staff were furloughed or laid off since then. [Source: 2020 VAESE Alumni Relations Benchmarking Study]‍

At this rate, the alumni relations profession is under threat. If you don't act now, all the incredible work done to engage your alumni over the years will be undone very soon and it would take years to get back on track.

Your current budget doesn’t allow you to hire additional full time staff members. Our on-demand staff come in at a fraction of the cost, and are already trained, so you don’t have to spend much time and money on recruitment & training.

How does this work? 

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What services are provided ?

Here's a list of specialized services that we provide. If you have a requirement that is not covered here, just let us know and we'll be happy to discuss it. We are flexible to work on anything that is helpful for alumni shops.

Ongoing Services

Monthly email newsletters

We’ll design the newsletters based on your branding, iterate with your team, and send it out on time every month. This includes creation of the template, designing graphics, and the underlying software to send out the newsletters. We will hunt valuable articles from the internet based on your theme if you would want those included but we will not write specific articles for you.

Alumni spotlight program

We will reach out to alumni, research the internet, to find stories from alumni that are worth highlighting to the community and get them published wherever alumni can see them. We’ll setup the interviews with alumni and share a template but the interviews will be conducted by you. The underlying software is included.

Mentorship program

We'll handle end-to-end management of the program once the goals are agreed upon. The underlying software, marketing of the program, signing up mentors and mentees, matching the right pairs, ensuring conversations happen, measuring outcomes, etc.

Class notes program

This can be combined with the alumni spotlight program or managed independently. From designing the forms and marketing collateral to organizing the responses and distributing them to alumni, we will run the program end-to-end. The underlying software comes included.

One-time services

Data enrichment

You provide list of alumni records with current info from your database, and the list of details you are interested in adding to those records. Our staff will do the research to find you updated data of those alumni.

Converting yearbooks to spreadsheets

You provide us images/PDFs of your yearbooks and we’ll convert the data from there into spreadsheets so that you can import it back into your database.

Alumni surveys

End-to-end management of the program. We’ll start with consulting on the outcomes and figure out how to structure the survey based on best practices. Then we’ll reach out to all your alumni with well-designed communications for maximum participation. We’ll also create beautiful dashboards to present the data easily to your boards and presidents.

Marketing collateral

We’ll have a designer work with you to create graphics, spruce up your webpages, events pages, fundraising campaigns, etc. based on your branding.

Virtual event management

Once an event is decided by your team, we will create the event page, run the marketing with specific attendance goal across email & social media, approve/disapprove registrations, provide regular reports of attendance, and finally import the data into the database. The underlying events software is also included.

Alumni awards program

Once we agree upon award categories and nomination criteria, we will create the marketing collateral, run the process of collecting nominations, conduct surveys, and provide all the information necessary for the committee to pick the winners. We will not conduct the actual awards program itself.

Data Analysis

You will provide us raw data for our data analysts to analyse and provide reports back to you so you can draw insights out of it. This can be used for donation data, engagement data, etc.

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How do you avail this service?

We are starting off with an early access program with just 10 institutions so that we can work closely with them and deliver success before allowing more institutions to join. Institutions that are part of the early access program can avail these services at half the regular price.

If you're interested in applying to the early access program, please submit your information here immediately.

By submitting your information, you are indicating interest and this does not require you to purchase the service.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How can you coordinate with these external staff?

Our staff will send you email updates regularly so you are always aware of how we are progressing. You are also allowed to schedule phone calls with the staff you hire.

How does the refund policy work?

We charge upfront for the service based on the agreed proposal. At the end of the work, if you feel like the work did not meet your expectations, we will refund the full amount you paid for that specific service. Almabase is the world’s most loved alumni management software, because we understand how to treat our customers with respect. We are confident in our ability to deliver high quality service to exceed your expectations.

Can you end the service anytime?

Yes. Although there is a minimum commitment period for recurring jobs to ensure the expectations are fair on both sides, we are able to cancel anytime and refund pro-rated for any extra amount you have paid upfront. ‍

‍How do we ensure that there is no misuse of alumni data?

We’ve worked with hundreds of institutions over years and understand the need for a high level of privacy with your alumni data. Our staff are trained to get your approval before sending out any communication to your alumni. Nothing goes out without your approval. We also ensure that data is not misused by these staff using industry standard privacy policies.  

What kind of work is not done?

Firstly, we only work with alumni relations and development offices at educational institutions. Our staff are trained for that.

We also cannot provide staff who are available in-person. All our staff are available only remotely. So we cannot work on anything that requires a person to be available at a specific location.

You are an existing Almabase customer and already have an account manager assigned. Will that change?

An account manager’s job is to understand your challenges and provide the best possible solution. If you already have an account manager within Almabase who is helping you with the Almabase software, then that person will continue to work with you on this service too. ‍

You need help but you don't see the service listed here.‍

When you submit your information above, let us know what help you need. One of our experts will get on a call with you to understand your needs and suggest the way forward. Our services are not just confined to what we have listed above.

Even if we cannot help immediately, we’ll certainly keep that in mind for future or point you in a direction where you can get the help you need.

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