Management Checklist for Alumni Relations
The CASE Management Checklist for Alumni Relations is intended to help alumni managers conduct internal self-assessments of information and programs. The checklist may be useful to both new and experienced managers as they assess their programs and may also be helpful in staff and board training and orientation. It is intended to be inclusive but not exhaustive, and not all items may apply to every institution.

Benchmarking Alumni Relations in Community Colleges: Findings from a 2012 CASE Survey
White Paper This March 2013 white paper summarizes the results of a survey on alumni relations programs at U.S. and Canadian community colleges. The purpose of the survey was to help community college staff members benchmark their experiences and programs in alumni relations with their peers. The survey was conducted by the CASE research office in conjunction with CASE's Center for Community College Advancement.

Benchmarking the Alumni Relations Program
Report In June 2012, CASE fielded a survey about community college alumni relations programs. A total of 133 usable responses were collected from a range of demographic profiles reflecting enrollment size, geographic area and alumni base. Topics included alumni program staff and budget resources, data collection and management, communications and strategy, solicitation and fundraising, governance and alumni associations. This presentation reflects the survey results.

Recommend to a Friend?
CURRENTS Article Customer relationships built on loyalty lead businesses to higher growth and profitability. They lead our institutions to more alumni engagement, the currency of our industry. The Net Promoter system can help institutions better comprehend and meet the needs of various constituencies, including donors and alumni.

Use of Technology for Development and Alumni/Constituent Relations among CASE Members, 2012
Report This research explores the role of "advancement-enabling" technology in helping institutions meet their development and alumni relations goals. The report also looks at trends since the first study was conducted in 2010 and offers advice for dealing with technology-related advancement challenges. Isurus Market Research and Consulting analyzed the data for CASE and Ellucian, which fielded the survey.

Advancement Research Tools Available at Your Fingertips
Article Benchmarking data and research about community college advancement programs are plentiful—if you know where to look.

What Does "Successful" Alumni Relations Look Like?
Report A March 2012 analysis of data from the 2011 International CASE Alumni Relations Survey builds a statistical picture of which alumni services and activities are associated with greater success.

Volunteering Rates
CURRENTS Article Sweet Briar College's alumni office has created a volunteer management system analogous to the college's prospect management system.

Benchmarking Investments in Advancement: Results of the Inaugural CASE Advancement Investment Metrics Study
White Paper The Advancement Investment Metrics Study, or AIMS, benchmarked investments and staffing in each of the advancement disciplines (advancement services, alumni relations, communications and marketing, fundraising, and advancement management) as well as the return on the investment in fundraising specifically. This CASE white paper reports on the study's results by institution type, campaign status and other factors. The formulas and definitions used in the study are also included.

What's Going On? A Few Great Crisis Communications Sites
Report,  Article This post from the CASE Social Media blog presents a few examples of university crisis communications pages.

A Is for Affinity
CURRENTS Article A survey tool to gauge alumni affinity promises to help institutions prioritize fundraising, alumni relations, and communications efforts.

ICARS Opens for Participation in August
Article Members are encouraged to participate in the International CASE Alumni Relations Survey, which launches 8 August.

CASE Survey Reveals Most Successful Alumni Relations Services, Activities
Article A new CASE survey on alumni relations programs outside of North America reveals the critical need for email addresses and frequent communications via e-newsletters and magazines to grow the number of donors and volunteers. Time is also a key factor.

The Science Behind Alumni Engagement
CURRENTS Article As part of an effort to double fundraising over the next 10 years, the University of Waterloo surveyed its alumni and purchased external data to determine how to move potential leaders into a more active role with the university.

Use of Technology for Development and Alumni Relations among CASE Members
White Paper This research explores the role of "advancement-enabling" technology in helping institutions meet their development and alumni relations goals. It includes data on how technology is being used, barriers to effective use of technology, and strategies for effective deployment of technology. The report is based on data provided by 357 advancement staff in higher education institutions and independent schools. Isurus Market Research and Consulting analyzed the data for CASE and SunGard Higher Education, which fielded the survey.

Survey Reveals Most Successful Alumni Relations Services, Activities
Article An analysis of data from the latest international CASE survey on alumni relations programs builds a statistical picture of which alumni services and activities are associated with greater success.

CASE Europe Reports Findings from Latest ICAR Survey
Article A recent CASE survey reveals that the median number of full-time alumni relations staff at institutions outside of the United States is three.

The Power of Data
CURRENTS Article Alumni professionals need to demonstrate more effectively the impact they have on the achievement of university ambitions. A group of alumni professionals—mainly from the United Kingdom but also from other parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific—created the International CASE Alumni Relations Survey in the hope of developing just such evidence.

Are We There Yet?
CURRENTS Article With an increased institutional focus on the bottom line and demand for accountability both inside and outside institutions, alumni relations can no longer rely on head counts or anecdotal feedback as indicators of a job well done. Alumni leaders now have to prove it, and to do that, they need to look at their programs with a critical eye, comparing where they stack up against peer and aspirant institutions on specific, measurable objectives. Alumni relations professionals need to benchmark.

Alumni Relations Benchmarking Template
The Alumni Relations Benchmarking Template was approved by the CASE Commission on Alumni Relations in April 2009 to provide alumni relations practitioners with examples of questions they might use to benchmark their programs with those of peer institutions. The questions are intended to serve as a template for communities of practice using the CASE Benchmarking Toolkit. CASE is working to test the integration of the questions into the toolkit so that practitioners can adopt and adapt entire sections for their own surveys. The full template is provided to stimulate discussion and serve communities of practice planning to use the toolkit for peer-group benchmarking.

CASE Benchmarking Toolkit
The CASE Benchmarking Toolkit is a state-of-the-art survey tool that helps advancement professionals benchmark activities, staffing, budgets and other aspects of their programs with peer institutions. The toolkit allows peer communities of practice to design and conduct their own surveys, review results and instantly download charts directly into reports. The toolkit is available to advancement services, alumni relations, communications, fundraising, marketing or related professionals at CASE member institutions.

Alumni Relations Best Practice in Europe
With the funding support of Grundtvig, part of the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme, CASE Europe has been taking part in a project to enhance best practice in alumni relations within Europe.

Educational Development in Australasia: 2008 Benchmarking Survey
ADAPE Australasia Inc. and the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at Queensland University of Technology
Report In 2005 and 2008 ADAPE Australasia (Association of Development and Alumni Professionals in Education) members were surveyed to gather benchmarking data about their operations. This September 2008 report includes data about survey participants; their institutions' fundraising offices, activities, and revenue; and their alumni programs. Ninety-four percent of institutions in the sample were located in Australia with the rest in New Zealand.

Advancing Small Colleges: A Benchmarking Survey Update
Product Written for leaders of small- and mid-sized colleges and universities, this benchmarking update is based on a survey of nearly 300 institutions. Chapters focus on the roles of presidents and trustees, fundraising and integrated marketing, operating a successful alumni relations office, enrollment management and advancement trends. It serves as an update and companion to the 2001 book Advancing Small Colleges.

Advance Work: Fun with Ratios
CURRENTS Article Using data from the Association of American Universities and U.S. News and World Report, an alumni professional devised a way to determine how alumni relations staffing affects fundraising.

Easy as Pie
CURRENTS Article The author is a member of the Association of Private College and University Alumni Directors, a group of alumni directors who share benchmark information, provide professional support, and conduct research. The most practical application of the group is the in-depth program assessment and metrics rating system it has developed: the Alumni Relations Assessment and Metrics Program, which collects, analyzes, and reports on the effectiveness of alumni relations programs. This article includes a sidebar, "Strength in Numbers," about the Northeast Indiana Alumni Directors Consortium.

Advancing Small Colleges: Strategies for Success
Product Written for small-college leaders, this book is based on a survey of nearly 300 institutions. Chapters focus on the roles of presidents and trustees, fundraising and integrated marketing, operating a successful alumni relations office, enrollment management and advancement trends.

Room for Improvement
CURRENTS Article Golden Gate University’s alumni association was not reaching its potential. Therefore, the author of this article saw an opportunity to revisit the association’s goals and embarked on a project to document and improve the GGU alumni experience.

Conversation Piece
CURRENTS Article Alumni directors constantly seek new ways to evaluate their programs and services as they attempt to connect with their former students. A research model from the Performance Enhancement Group has helped provide alumni feedback to more than 50 private and public colleges and universities throughout the United States. PEG has aggregated the responses into a database of more than 50,000 alumni from all 50 states and many other countries. Among other things, survey findings reveal that alumni from all types of institutions feel a sense of pride in their alma mater, younger alumni are less satisfied with campus communications, and that academics matter to alumni. To get even more value from their own alumni research projects, alumni directors should communicate the survey results with a broad alumni audience, develop targeted communications for specific alumni segments, take action directly related to the results, and inform alumni that those changes stem from their input.

The Spectrum of Alumni Involvement
CURRENTS Article Benchmarking in alumni relations has historically been difficult. Keith Brant of the UCLA Alumni Association makes the case for assessing alumni relations programs by more than just alumni giving. Patrick Regan of the University of Portland offers his rating-scale system for measuring the variety of ways his office engages alumni in the life of the university.