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Alumni Relations and Development Work Hand in Hand for a Big Success

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The University of Massachusetts Amherst Alumni Association has a lot to be proud of. Earlier this month, the association partnered with its development colleagues to launch UMassGives, an online fundraising campaign that raised over $80,000 in just 36 hours.

The alumni association staff played a key role in recruiting alumni to be online ambassadors, or influential Internet users who were vocal online supporters of their alma mater.

Beyond increasing support for UMass Amherst, the campaign raised the alumni association’s visibility and social media presence and demonstrated its commitment to serving the university, . We asked Elena Lamontagne, Director of Alumni Communications and Marketing, and Moira Gentry, Associate Director for Alumni Communications, for a behind-the-scenes look at the alumni association’s role in the campaign. Read their answers to our questions and see our colleague Justin Ware’s campaign wrap up video below.

  • How did the UMassGives campaign fit in with your strategy for alumni engagement via social media?
    Our social media strategy is to be a support mechanism for campus partners and an information resource for our alumni. The UMassGives campaign allowed the Alumni Association to inform constituents of the impact of giving for important university initiatives, thereby achieving both goals. It also raised our visibility and social media presence, as it demonstrated our commitment to serving the UMass community.
  • How did the alumni association help identify online ambassadors?
    It was a team effort. We asked all our staff to identify alumni volunteers with strong communication and social media skills that would be a good fit with this effort. We then approached our loyal and passionate alumni with a proposal to become an online ambassador and the rest is history!
  • What trends did you observe (if any) in participation by age group or other demographics?
    Overall, the campaign was slightly younger and more female than our regular social media followers (which tend to be male and a bit older, so the campaign was probably more toward the median).
  • How did you measure your success?
    We measured success by the number of new Likes and Follows and by the engagement levels such as RTs (retweets), favorites, shares, etc., We also tracked the results of our boosting others’ signals to help them win the various challenges. We really think we helped the Permaculture Initiative to win!
  • What would you say to those alumni programs that might be hesitant to participate in a fundraising campaign?
    Alumni Relations and Development really have to work hand in hand to communicate the university’s goals and to provide alumni with opportunities to be involved in the life of their alma mater. The UMassGives campaign demonstrated a coordinated effort across campus to achieve a specific goal, and our alumni were excited to be part of it.


The post Alumni Relations and Development Work Hand in Hand for a Big Success appeared first on Bentz Whaley Flessner.


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