Summary Benchmarking Report from CASE Insights on Alumni Engagement, 2024
Prepared for Your Institution
January 2025
THIS SAMPLE REPORT USES SIMULATED DATA FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES
The Summary Benchmarking Reports are institutional benchmarking reports from CASE Insights which provide a complimentary overview of your institution’s responses to the survey and key comparison groups. These reports are a great launching point for using comparison benchmarks and can provide direction for further strategy or analysis.
CASE Insights’ Strategic Benchmarking Reports dive deeper into each institutions’ data by comparing your institution to 20 peers of your choosing on over 25 calculated metrics. Please contact CASE Insights Solutions for more information.
On behalf of the whole CASE Insights team, thank you for your survey participation!
2024 Summary
Hover over each KPI for insights into how to use these metrics.Contactable Alumni per Alumni Relations Staff FTE
Your Institution’s is under-staffed compared to other institutions in your region, as seen by a higher ratio of contactable alumni per alumni relations staff FTE. Use the engagement charts in the next section to understand the impact this is having on outcomes at your institution. To better understand how strategic investment can help you achieve your goals, consider ordering a Strategic Benchmarking Report for an in-depth walk through of your results.
Alumni Engagement
Despite your overall decrease in engagement between FY2023 and FY2024, there were distinct changes in engagement by mode. Use the drop down menu below to explore changes in engagement by mode and identify where areas of opportunity exist for your institution, relative to peers.
Philanthropic Engagement
Alumni who are also engaged in non-philanthropic ways display varying trends in giving behavior. Partner with CASE Insights Solutions for an in-depth walk through of your results, learn how engagement and fundraising strategies can be symbiotic, and identify strategic opportunities.
CASE Peers
| Peers |
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| Sample Peer 1 |
| Sample Peer 2 |
| Sample Peer 3 |
| Sample Peer 4 |
| Sample Peer 5 |
CASE Peers and All Respondents results are presented as median figures in this presentation. Read below to learn more about how your CASE Peers were selected.
About CASE Peers
CASE Peers are determined using a combination of core data points from the Alumni Engagement Metric survey and additional appended variables.2 These data are used in an algorithm to select the five institutions most similar to yours for fiscal year (FY) 2024. Data used to select the institutions most similar to yours are shown on the left by size of weighting in the algorithm and include:
- Total Funds Received (in US dollars)
- Cluster Analysis (if UK or Ireland)
- Institution Type
- Presence of a hospital at institution (if US or CAN)2
- Country
- Public or Private classification on institution2
- Number of Total Contactable Alumni
- Number of Enrolled Students
- Percent Engaged ANY Mode
- Alumni Association dues? (Y/N)
- Percent Alumni Engaged through Communication
- Percent Alumni Engaged Experientially
- Percent Alumni Engaged as Volunteers
- Percent Alumni Engaged Philanthropically
- Alumni Relations Staff Count
1 Scroll down to the [Next Steps] section for information about selecting your own peer institutions for comparison as well as suggestions about how to implement data-driven strategies using these results.
2 Appended variables are highlighted in green; AEM survey variables in blue. Appended variables include institutional classifications from Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education by Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, and responses from CASE regional fundraising surveys where applicable.
About the Survey
In 2019, CASE launched a new Alumni Engagement Metrics (AEM) survey to enable institutions to measure alumni engagement across four “modes”: Communications, Experiential, Volunteerism, and Philanthropic. 375 institutions from 21 countries took part. The survey framework was created by a volunteer task force of alumni relations professionals and defines alumni engagement as “activities that are valued by alumni, build enduring and mutually beneficial relationships, inspire loyalty and financial support, strengthen the institution’s reputation and involve alumni in meaningful activities to advance the institution’s mission.
A full report of key survey findings is available for download from the survey website. You can also access the Guidance Document for specific inclusions and exclusions across the four modes of alumni engagement.
Data
Definitions
- Contactable Alumni: An individual who is NOT marked as deceased in the institution’s files and for whom the institution has contact information (email or phone or postal mail address) and who does NOT have an opted-out code (an “overall” Do Not Contact Me setting). They may have “do not contact” indicators for a specific method—email, phone, etc.—or for a specific purpose—athletics, donations, etc. For institutions in some countries, individuals specifically need to provide “opt-in” consent to allow the institution to be in touch with them (e.g., Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations in the United Kingdom, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation); only those individuals who have provided such consent should be considered “legally contactable.” Another way to interpret this definition is that there is nothing that restricts us from legally contacting this person because (a) we have at least one of these three methods of contacting them, (b) they are not marked as “opted-out” per the earlier definition, and/or (c) we would be compliant with applicable law should we contact them. Note that the institution ONLY may have social media contact for someone (e.g., a Twitter handle) and, while the institution can contact the individual via that method, CASE currently ONLY is using postal mail, email, and/or phone number to define that you can actually contact someone.
- Expenditures: The measurement of alumni relations expenditures only include the staff and non-staff direct costs involved in alumni relations activities. Thus, the costs included here are the costs of staff expenditures, and other programming and operational costs that comprise the alumni relations function. These are the actual expenditures incurred for the fiscal year, not the original budget. For the purposes of these expenditure questions, costs exclude the indirect costs associated with alumni relations. For example, exclude academic staff and administrative staff who may sometimes play a role in alumni relations and who are NOT included in the staff FTE calculation, the costs associated with the recruitment of students, or the promotion of the research activities of your institution.
Modes of Engagement
Communication: Communication Engagement, for purposes of the AEM survey is defined as “interactive, meaningful and informative communication that supports the institution’s mission, strategic goals and reputation.” Specifically included in this count would be individuals who participated in any of the following activities as examples:
- Subscribing to a digital group/forum (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, closed communities). Please note that this does not include alumni who simply belong to a digital group/forum but only the alumni who joined during the fiscal year.
- Registering, but not attending, an event.
- Downloading a podcast produced by your institution.
- Clicking through on an email link.
- Submitted class notes (regardless of whether they are submitted via postal mail or digitally)
- Submitted a form with, or some other provision of, data updates, such as address or employment information
- Responded to an alumni survey, such as for Net Promotor Score, or one that is attitudinal or demographic
- Submitted an event evaluation form
- Wrote one or more letters to the editor of alumni magazines, newsletters, and the like
- Email responses, direct messages, social media direct messages, or phone contact that are meaningful
- Responded to a call for nominations, awards, and the like
- Made likes or comments on owned digital content (e.g., content originally posted by the institution)
- Made likes or comments on original digital content (e.g., content originally posted by someone outside the institution)
- Posted to digital groups/forums (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube channels, closed communities), regardless of whether such content is positive or negative
- Re-Tweeted “owned” content (e.g., content originally posted by the institution)
- Tweeted or re-Tweeted original tweets in which the institution is mentioned or referenced, regardless of whether such content is positive or negative
- Posted original other social media content and/or reposted original other social media content in which the institution is mentioned or referenced, regardless of whether such content is positive or negative
Experiential: Experiential engagement, for purposes of the AEM survey is defined as “meaningful experiences that inspire alumni, are valued by the institution, promote its mission, celebrate its achievements and strengthen its reputation.” Specifically included in this count would be individuals who participated in any of the following activities as examples:
- Attendees of Fee-based or Free Events - includes homecoming, reunion, campus-based events, regional/club/chapter/affinity-group events, community-focused events, lecture series (whether in-person or virtual), career services programming (whether in-person or virtual), alumni travel programs, athletics/sports-related events (see guidance below for attending athletic contests), donor recognition/stewardship events, campaign-related events (such as kickoffs or celebrations)
- Virtual Communities of the type that might be considered alumni benefits - These would include career communities, affinity group communities, book clubs, or similar. Do not include any LinkedIn or Facebook groups with non-specific/generic content
- Season Ticket Holders - such as for athletics/sport or cultural programming. Do not count individuals who had partial-season tickets or single-event tickets
- Dues-Paying Alumni Association Memberships - for which an individual must pay dues to a centrally managed alumni association in order to be a member. Do not count if all alumni are automatically considered members without making a dues payment. If you answered Yes to the Inputs question about having a dues-paying Alumni Association, you should count members in this Mode. Life members should be included. If there is a joint and/or family membership, count each of the included individuals who are alumni. If the membership transaction is only considered a philanthropic contribution to the institution, count the individual in philanthropic engagement, not here.
- Meaningful, Substantive Contact - includes those alumni who have participated in meaningful or substantive calls or in-person meetings for which a contact report has been captured and recorded. Count all purposes of contact, including cultivation, solicitation, or stewardship
Volunteer: Volunteer engagement, for purposes of the AEM survey is defined as “formally defined and rewarding volunteer roles that are endorsed by and valued by the institution”. Specifically included in this count would be individuals who participated in any of the following activities as examples:
- governing or advisory board members
- volunteer fundraisers, such as class agents/gift officers, major gift solicitation volunteers, online ambassadors
- officers (e.g., chair, deputy chair, treasurer, secretary) in a group that is endorsed by the institution
- activity/event host or organizer
- student recruitment activities
- career mentors
- public advocates
- classroom and/or commencement speakers (that are unpaid)
- interviewed for an alumni profile, regardless of whether that profile ultimately was published
- social media (blog, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) ‘take-over’ volunteers
- other volunteer roles that meet the white paper definition: Formally defined and rewarding volunteer roles that are endorsed and valued by the institution and support its mission and strategic goals.
Philanthropy: Philanthropic Engagement is defined as financial support that is meaningful to the donor and supports the institution’s mission and strategic goals. Alumni who are philanthropically engaged are individuals who received either a legal credit, hard credit, direct contribution credit, soft credit, or recognition credit, inclusive of outright gifts and pledge payments within the fiscal year. This also includes gifts of life insurance or premiums paid to support those, when the institution is the owner and beneficiary of the plan; the tax deduction allowed for newly established charitable remainder trusts, charitable gift annuities, and pooled-income funds. Also count gifts from IRAs.
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