Much like any other form of fundraising, your higher education institution must tell compelling stories that build relationships with your alumni audience, secure donations, and bolster event attendance. However, unlike other nonprofits, your school is the common thread directly tying the lives of thousands of alumni/ae together, all of whom have unique stories to tell about their relationship with your organization.

Collecting thousands of alumni voices together to tell a cohesive and vivid story for your outreach can be challenging. In this guide, we’ll review key strategies your school can use to bring these stories to life and fortify your fundraising efforts.

Alumni Storytelling Podcast

With over 460 million podcast listeners worldwide, your alumni/ae community likely has a few avid listeners already. Podcasts are a great way to tell many stories in a cohesive, organized format that complements your events and fundraising campaigns. Plus, with user-friendly and affordable software on the market, it’s easy for beginners to get started with these steps:

1. Pick a theme. As long as it’s related to the alumni/ae experience and complements your fundraising goals, you can let your creativity run wild with your podcast theme. For instance, you might have a show featuring different alumni/ae discussing their time at your school in each episode.
2. Choose a format. Do you want to release episodes on a weekly or monthly basis? How long will each episode be? Will there be video elements involved? Research other podcasts for inspiration on your podcast’s scope.  
3. Secure the right equipment. As previously mentioned, you don’t need software with all the bells and whistles to make a professional-grade podcast. Ensure you have beginner-friendly audio editing software like Audacity, external microphones, and quality cameras if you want to include a video element in your show. If you have extra room in your budget, consider hiring an editor (or recruiting an intern) to make your show look and sound flawless.
4. Reach out to guests. Send a general appeal to your alumni/ae network to gauge interest in being a guest. You can also reach out personally to well-known alumni/ae with a custom pitch to be on an episode. Be sure to tell potential guests the purpose of your podcast, the necessary time commitment, and what they should prepare in advance.  
5. Determine where you’ll post your podcast. Between YouTube, Spotify, and other social media and streaming platforms, you have plenty of options for publishing your podcast. A good starter option is YouTube since it’s free to post and share your podcast.

As you plan your alumni podcast, ensure each episode’s stories feed into a larger narrative about your school’s impact on your community. Pennington & Company states that this will help listeners feel more connected to your school and bolster your alumni/ae fundraising messaging. Also, include a link to your foundation’s website in the description of every episode so interested alumni/ae can easily donate.

Time Capsule Projects

Your school’s alumni/ae community is unique in that it has members from many different generations and eras. Tapping into nostalgia is a valuable storytelling asset, and there’s no better tool than physical mementos to evoke fond memories from the past.

Starting time capsules are a long-haul storytelling strategy, but when the time comes to open them, the emotional impact on alumni/ae is hard to beat. Try these tips to make your time capsule projects more impactful for your fundraising efforts:

• Ask alumni for contributions. Passionate alumni/ae want to make their mark on your school, and time capsules are the perfect way for them to do so (while cleaning out their closets). Ask for items related to your school, such as old yearbooks, letterman jackets, and class rings. For alumni/ae in the area, provide a drop-off bin for their contributions, and for alumni/ae out of town, offer discounted shipping labels or for them to send items in.
• Make time capsule-related events. Get alumni/ae excited about your event by inviting them to your time capsules’ burial and unearthing. NXUnite by Nexus Marketing suggests creating an event-planning committee to immerse your most enthusiastic alumni/ae in the process.  
• Implement digital time capsules. These digital tools can make your time capsules even more personal and accessible. Ask your alumni/ae to submit digital mementos such as an image and a message to their future self. Then, schedule-send the emails for a few years down the line — your alumni/ae will be pleasantly surprised with a reminder of their past!

You can include more overt fundraising appeals in your time capsule events, too. Mention current projects, like capital campaigns in the public phase, and how the project will look in a few years when it’s time for the time capsule to be unearthed with donor support.

Interactive Digital Yearbooks

Yearbooks are an iconic symbol of school life, and you can take yours to the level with digital tools. Here are some ideas for making a digital yearbook that tells a story:

• Include interactive elements. The best advantage to making a digital yearbook is the interactive components you can include, such as links, video montages, audio clips, quizzes and more. These components can make your digital yearbook feel more immersive.
• Include a “then and now” section. Allow alumni/ae to submit their own pictures from their time in school and information about where they are for an extra layer of personalization.
• Prioritize accessibility. Making your digital yearbook accessible for all ensures you can spread your story and boost your return on investment from it. Ensure images have alt text, videos have subtitles, and it’s easy to navigate with a keyboard.

Creating a digital yearbook is as easy as making a Canva account and embedding it into your alumni newsletter. However, consider building a graphic design consultation into your budget so the newsletter is easy to read and reflects your school’s brand. You could even create different yearbooks for different segments of your alumni/ae community. For example, you could make individual yearbooks related to sports teams, clubs, and different colleges for a greater degree of customization.

As you’re trying these new storytelling techniques, remember whose opinions matter most: your alumni/ae. Ensure your content resonates with them by frequently asking for and implementing feedback. Over time, you’ll find that seemingly disparate stories can come together nicely and make a messaging asset that just keeps giving to your school.

About the author

Melissa Geitgey, APR, is the director of marketing for Togetherwork’s higher education product group. Togetherwork is a Saas company that provides integrated software and financial solutions that help organizations and membership groups manage, grow, and engage with their Communities.

Melissa has extensive experience leading marketing and communications departments to advance strategic initiatives, managing events and corporate brands for Saas, higher education, athletics, professional services, and nonprofit organizations. She graduated from Valparaiso University with a B.A. in Communications and received her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) by the Universal Accreditation Board in 2011.

She’s a past president of the Public Relations Society of America Hoosier Chapter and former chapter Ethics Chair. When she’s not geeking out about marketing communications strategy and the creative process, Melissa loves spending time with her family, listening to live music, visiting art museums, restoring vintage handbags and subversive cross stitch.

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