About Antioch College

Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio with over 14,000 alumni worldwide. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution. It is the first coeducational college in the US to offer the same educational opportunities to men and women. It’s also the first undergraduate liberal arts college to embrace community-based cooperative work as part of the curriculum and to offer African-Americans equal educational opportunities.

Antioch College prepares students to live lives of intention. Students have agency to design their education, to own that education, to govern their college, to collaborate with their faculty, and extend their classroom learning into the real world.

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What were the challenges faced by Antioch College?

Cancelled events leading to declining alumni engagement

Prior to COVID-19, Antioch College relied heavily on in-person alumni gatherings to engage its wide alumni network. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has severely affected the way the college used to engage with alumni as major planned events had to be either postponed or cancelled. Antioch College, therefore, needed to find alternative ways to reach out and connect with their alumni.

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Stress, anxiety, and loneliness amongst alumni

With social isolation becoming the new norm around the world, Antioch College could sense the rising levels of stress and anxiety amongst alumni. The college was also worried about the long term impact of the current crisis on its alumni’s overall well-being. While the college was offering support via emails and social media, they needed to find a way to bring its alumni community together to power through these tough times.

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What was Antioch College able to achieve after implementing Almabase?

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Drive alumni participation amidst chaotic times via an alumni-centric approach

Focused on physical alumni events prior to COVID-19 crisis, Antioch College realized that they had to put their alumni first during such tough times. The College quickly pivoted to a digital event strategy with its Virtual Div Dance Party, successfully capturing 443 registrations in 11 days. 

The college set up a dedicated event page on its alumni network, laying down all the details needed for alumni to be able to participate.

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In addition to a dedicated event page, Antioch College also created a Facebook event page for capturing registrations and also heavily promoted the event on the social networking platform.

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Here’s a glimpse of some of the creative posts on Antioch College’s alumni page on Facebook.

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Antioch College also sent out an email to all RSVP’d guests on the day of the event, laying down relevant guidelines for the event and some Zoom basics.

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Value to alumni

With everyone confined to their homes, forced to work from home, and limited social interactions, there was a rising sense of anxiety, stress, and loneliness amongst alumni. The Virtual Div Dance Party brought a smile to everyone’s face and while alumni couldn’t go to a club or enjoy those Friday night happy hours at their favourite bar, Antioch College’s desire to be more alumni-centric with their event brought much-needed respite to alumni.

Alumni queries with regards to the event were also effectively resolved by the  Alumni Board via the discussion forum on the alumni community.

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Invaluable support from the community

In order to host the Virtual Div Dance Party on Zoom, Antioch College needed to purchase an annual license to be able to accommodate large groups. To raise money for the tool, the college held a virtual fundraiser with a goal of $500.

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$1073 amount raised

214% of the fundraising goal exceeded

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The Virtual Div Dance Party lays the foundation for many more engaging virtual alumni events for the Antioch alumni community. 

Head over to Antioch College’s alumni website to see more virtual events.

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