Engaging your diverse alumni: Designing a new approach

What makes alumni want to engage with their alma mater? Despite negative experiences and sordid histories, how can colleges and universities re-engage with their diverse alumni? William & Mary has identified several key ways to re-engage alumni and keep them engaged. For the purposes of this paper, alumni engagement will be defined in three ways; going, giving and serving. Going includes attending events regionally, virtually and on-campus. Giving is specific to financial gifts to the university — through pledges, gifts-in-kind or through alumni membership in a giving society. Serving includes but is not limited to activity on an alumni board or in other volunteer leadership capacities. The Alumni Association is in various stages of supporting identity-based alumni communities; which include Asian-Pacific Islander—Middle Eastern, Black/African American, LatinX, LGBTQ+ and the alumnae giving society, the Society of 1918. Throughout the development of programming for the aforementioned identity-based alumni comunities, the Alumni Engagement department has worked to overcome a number of challenges, most specifically, the general feeling of disenchantment with university experiences. As a practice, the Alumni Engagement and Inclusion Initiatives department works to keep intersectionality at the forefront of all alumni experiences. In this context, intersectionality is defined as the intricate composition of an individual’s identity; to include but not limited to age, race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. With these demographics in mind, a focus on intersectionality captures the complexity of an individual’s identity, culture, values and life experiences. This paper utilises William & Mary as a case study for other colleges and universities to develop re-engagement efforts.