Alumni associations hold a great sway in the transformation of academic institutions

Have you ever sat down and thought about how as former students you can come together and develop your former school? Have you ever believed that as alumni, you can become the preeminent part of your school’s advancement effort? Not really. Far too often, alumni associations are seen as a second-class citizen in development, sort of a simple minded cousin that the family lets hang around.

Part of the fault that has been cited as the barrier to enhancing alumni relations has been the lack of goodwill and trust among the various groups of the alumni. With most associations having members who completed in different years and cadres, it has become a hurdle for the various groups to mobilize themselves for a common course.

Of importance to note is that at its core, alumni relations is about relationships between people and the school. Building on the relations that you had during your school days plays an integral role in bringing the alumni together since you share common ideals and life aspirations.

Alumni as a catalyst for success

A strong alumni effort can bring to the institution tremendous success stories. The fact that the alumni have great institutional memory as well as a deeper understanding of life issues as a result of being exposed in the various fields and careers gives them the much needed impetus to put up structures that can make things work.

In order to gain the confidence of the former students, as an alumnus, you need to create an environment conducive to turning alumni from mere past-students into raving fans for your school. This can be achieved through organizing of homecoming, regional events, and affinity gatherings, all these in a bid to help create healthy partnerships between the alumni.

Career networking, mentoring programs, even book groups, can be forums for the alumni executives to provide alumni, especially those who have just left school. This helps to create a sense of belonging amongst the young scholars who are looking up to the crop of leaders leading them.

It goes without saying that the school environment provides a very fertile ground when it comes to treating people humanely and developing relationships with them. It is however quite unfortunate to note that as companies strive for more personalized relationships with their customers, schools are striving to become more business-oriented. They do this at the expense of their alumni relations efforts which ideally should be at the forefront in tandem with their development plans.

Establishing a shared vision of success

In the past, alumni relations or engagements tended to be treated as a stand-alone activity divorced from fundraising and other advancement activities. Indeed, some alumni associations were entirely independent of their parent institutions, and whilst their members interacted with each other, they had very little interaction with the institution.

Today, an alumni relation is an important part of an institution's advancement activities. The alumni has become a critical part of the development since they come out as the most loyal supporters of an institution, organizing of fundraising prospects as well as generating invaluable word-of-mouth marketing among their social and professional networks.

Schools need to understand that maintaining a positive relationship with your alumni means that the messages they share about your institution will also be positive – and current. If the relationship between the alumni and the institution stalls when they leave the school, their knowledge of your activities and achievements will no longer evolve. The messages they will share with people will be out-of-date and could reflect poorly on the progress an institution has since achieved.

Locally, we have witnessed alumni of schools like Alliance High School, Starehe Boys’ Centre, Nairobi School, and Lenana School among others coming together quite frequently to fundraise for causes that they believe will be instrumental in transforming such institutions. I wish to commend H.E Rachel Ruto for spearheading the mentorship programme at her former school, Butere Girls High School. It is such kind of initiatives that need to be emulated by all alumni as part of their social responsibility.

 The message that needs to go out clearly should be one; good alumni relations benefits both the alumni as well as the institution. If you support your alumni in their professional and personal lives through activities such as the facilitation of social and professional networks, they are likely to be your loyal life-long supporters. Your support may also help your alumni achieve positions of success and influence, which will in turn benefit your institution as they begin to give back.

By helping an institution become bigger, stronger and more successful, alumni are also enhancing their value in the society. Therefore, there is need to invest in effective alumni relations which gives an institution the most important competitive advantage for success.

In this day and age, alumni are more distracted than ever. Therefore, having hangers-on and fence sitters in an association complicates matters even more. Alumni need to come out and become the true “evangelists” of our schools if at all our schools want to survive and thrive in the coming decades.

The Writer is a PhD. Candidate and a lecturer at Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology, Mombasa Campus and the current Chairman of Sigalame High School Alumni Association

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Alumni