Alumni Services

What is the program’s mission statement or statement of purpose? Why does the program exist?

University Advancement Mission Statement

University advancement builds and enhances relationships with alumni and friends, creates awareness of university accomplishments and raises funds to support excellence at Eastern Illinois University.

The alumni services area develops and maintains relationships with alumni and other friends of the university while seeking to engage them in the university community. Specifically, the staff plays an integral role in fundraising for the university and, more recently, has taken on a more focused responsibility in seeking alumni support in the recruitment of students.

How does the program mission align with the university mission?

By engaging alumni and communicating the successes of the institution, alumni services provides valuable assistance in the areas of fundraising, which provides financial support to the university community for the ultimate benefit of our students (including scholarship support to make it more accessible), and defining the university’s image to assist in the recruitment of future students.

Whom does the program serve?

The area serves alumni, students and friends of the university; academic and administrative units; and State and federal officials.

What are the services provided? How do these services align with the university mission and program mission?

The area supports the university’s mission through the following services:

-Coordination of activities, events and communications to engage alumni and friends of the university.

-Solicitation of funds in support of academic and administrative units and scholarships for students.

-Management and maintenance of more than 162,000 records of alumni, friends and donors (over 106,000 of these are records for living alumni) to assist various campus units, as well as for regulatory and audit purposes. In excess of 60,000 unique changes were made to these records in FY13.

-Coordination of commencement activities to celebrate the achievements of our students.

-Assist State and federal officials through the provision of necessary and requested information.

-Administration of the trademark licensing program, which generates scholarship funds.

Describe the program’s origins (e.g. year established, purpose, expectations).

The first formal meeting of the university’s Alumni Association was held on June 14, 1905, in the home of Eastern Illinois State Normal School President Livingston Lord. The group’s first Constitution stated “the purpose of this organization shall be to create good fellowship among its members; to foster loyalty to our Alma Mater; to further her interests and to extend her influence.” Gifts, in the form of alumni “assessments,” were first solicited in 1908 and in 1913 the Association formed a committee to see that alumni were “informed of the needs of this school that each may lend his influence and aid to the betterment of the institution.”

How has the unit changed or adapted over time?

A relatively short time after its inception, the program assumed the lead role in soliciting funds from alumni and friends of the university to support its students and programs. Recognizing the growing importance of private funds in higher education and the access it provided to current and future students, the Alumni Association initiated the creation of the EIU Foundation in 1953 to serve as a depository for those funds while the development office was established at a later date by the university to actively solicit these gifts. Since that time, the program – in conjunction with the Eastern Illinois University Alumni Association – has continued to encourage such support while assuming other responsibilities, as well. Over the last two decades, as various campus units have been eliminated or reorganized, the area has assumed responsibility for the annual fund, systems administration/Banner Advancement, commencement and trademark licensing, while also taking on a more active role in government relations.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the program’s history and relevance to university mission.

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Provide data, if available, on the numbers of students, faculty, staff, or others served by the program during the past four years. If no data are available, please estimate the numbers served annually.

The unit assists the university community through various means as part of its diverse responsibilities.  Those areas are as follows:

Alumni Services

Coordinates communications and events for more than 106,000 graduates to keep them informed of university accomplishments and news while also sharing alumni information with numerous university departments. An informed and engaged alumni population is important for many reasons but, in particular, this assists with fundraising and student recruitment initiatives.

Annual Fund

Working with all academic departments and a number of other campus units, the area raises funds for a variety of initiatives on campus including student scholarships, student/faculty research and departmental use.

Commencement

The area coordinates commencement ceremonies for approximately 2,200 graduates and more than 16,000 family members and guests who attend annually.

Government Relations

Collaborates with university administrators regarding information provided to various State and Federal officials. Provides information to various State and Federal government officials in support of all students, faculty and staff.

Systems Administration/Banner Advancement

The office is responsible for the management and updating of more than 162,000 constituent records (alumni, donors and other friends of the university) utilized by the campus community. As previously noted, more than 60,000 unique changes were made to these records in FY13.

Trademark Licensing

Works with the campus community and more than 100 external licensees related to the production of products bearing the university’s marks.

Does the program offer any co-curricular opportunities for students (e.g., internships, RSO support, service-learning activities)? Please describe.

Typically, one or two internships in the unit are offered annually although data and information provided to academic units and others assists in identifying internship and employment opportunities for students. The area also creates and offers networking opportunities for alumni to connect with their fellow graduates and current students.

Does the program contribute to the delivery of academic programs (e.g., providing professional expertise, serving as adjunct faculty)? Please describe.

One staff member teaches a course annually while several serve as guest speakers in classes each year. Alumni also serve as guest speakers in classes through relationships developed by the staff in the alumni services area. In addition, the annual fund generates revenue which directly supports students and faculty.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the internal demand for the program. Note any clarifications or special circumstances (e.g., curriculum changes made by another program) that should be considered when reviewing the above data.

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Is the program accredited or approved by a recognized external agency or otherwise certified to meet established professional standards? Provide an executive summary of and link to the program’s most recent accreditation or certification report, if available.

There are no accrediting agencies for the program’s areas of responsibility.

Is the program required to meet any regulatory or legal requirements? Is the program subject to any special auditing requirements?

With regard to the management of the Banner Advancement module, the unit is responsible for maintaining accurate records for all gifts received by the university, EIU Foundation and EIU Alumni Association, as well as memberships in the Alumni Association. These records, as well as related data, must comply with State and federal laws, including Internal Revenue Service regulations and State of Illinois Legislative Audit Commission Guidelines. In addition, annual audits related to this information are conducted by the State of Illinois’ Auditor General and external auditors contracted by the Foundation and Alumni Association.

What are the most important outreach or public service activities supported by the program?

Two staff members, one full-time and one on a part-time basis, provide requested information to government officials and legislators at the State and federal levels. These relationships are vital to the university’s image and financial stability. Periodically, the unit also works with local government and community leaders on a variety of projects for the university.

How do the local community and the region benefit from the program?

Events planned or promoted by the unit engage local/regional alumni, support local businesses and add incremental tax revenue supporting local governments. The office also distributes scholarships to local students through a fund established by the area with gifts from alumni.

If needed, provide supplemental comments or data sources to help the reader understand the external demand for the program.

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What are the two or three more important measureable outcomes tracked to assess program quality? Does the program conduct an outcomes assessment, and if so, what has been the impact?

Alumni participation rates, which measure the percentage of graduates who make a gift to the institution, have consistently exceeded the national average for public masters institutions as reported by the Council for Aid to Education. Additionally, the number of contactable alumni (those with current addresses, telephone and/or e-mail) are also tracked monthly. With dwindling State funding for higher education, gifts by alumni and friends of the university are of ever-increasing importance to the entire university community. The ability to maintain contact with these individuals and their participation as annual fund donors makes them more likely to remain engaged with the institution and provide financial support.

What are the two or three most effective best practices that the program has implemented? What benefits have been gained from implementing these best practices?

In FY12, the area installed software to manage the calling segment for the annual fund effort. Prior to this, a significant amount of staff time and resources, including tens of thousands of sheets of paper records annually, were created for use in a manual dialing system. A survey of our peer institutions indicated they had moved to automated systems several years before and the change resulted in significant operational efficiencies. In FY14, using this same software, an automated pledge entry process was developed by a member of the unit’s staff which significantly decreased the amount of staff time needed to enter the data while increasing accuracy.

The same staff member also created a series of electronic notifications to alert development staff of certain actions taken by their assigned donors/prospects – eliminating the need for staff research and manual tracking of these activities – and developed a separate tracking system to measure the effectiveness of annual fund appeals.

These and similar improvements allow the institution to be more effective in its fundraising efforts, which is of benefit to the entire university community.

What external recognitions (e.g., awards, accommodations, professional certifications, references in trade publications) have the program and its staff received in the past three years?

In FY14, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education recognized the university as a bronze winner (third place) in the Best Video category for a project developed by two members the unit’s staff in concert with CATS. A staff member also received the Alpha Phi Alpha Image Award from the organization’s Zeta Nu chapter in FY12.

Is the program active with any regional, national, or international professional organizations?

One staff member co-chaired the alumni track for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District V conferences in FY11 and FY12 and also served as president of the International Collegiate Licensing Association (ICLA). He now serves as a member of ICLA’s past presidents committee, which advises the group on a number of topics and issues, in addition to formally mentoring a staff member at Northern Arizona University through a program initiated by the organization. Another staff member is one of 18 members of the Banner Advancement Client Advisory Board, which reviews issues and advises the software’s manufacturer on the product. Additionally, in recent years several staff members have presented at professional conferences on topics including alumni relations (CASE), alumni marketing (Council of Alumni Association Marketing and Membership Professionals), trademark licensing (ICLA and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics) and Banner Advancement.

Note any presentations, publications, or offices held in the last three years.

See above.

If needed, provide supplemental comments or data sources to help the reader understand the quality of program outcomes.

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Note any special benefits (e.g., personnel support, equipment, permanent improvements) that the program has received in the past three years from its grants and other sponsored programs.

The unit receives small grants annually from the Alumni Association to support some of its programs but additional grants from the Association are also directed to other areas on campus, including scholarships, academic units, student life and athletics. The grants received by the unit from the Alumni Association are typically used to assist with event-related expenses.

How does the program benefit from donor gifts (e.g., scholarships, endowed chairs)? Does donor support provide a significant percentage of the program’s overall funding?

While the program assists in the raising of private funds for units throughout the campus, it typically does not generate funds for its own use. Such gifts are limited to, at most, a few thousand dollars annually and often are directed to specific programs, such as the Legacy Scholarship fund administered by the EIU Alumni Association.

List two or three key relationships that the program maintains with external constituencies (e.g., community colleges, other universities, government bodies). How do these relationships advance the university mission or otherwise benefit the university?

Maintaining communications and developing relationships with alumni and State and federal officials are two of the primary responsibilities of the area. By continuing to inform our graduates of campus news and events while encouraging them to maintain their connections to the institution, they are more likely to become actively engaged and support the campus by providing financial support for university programs and scholarship funds for our students. The area also works directly with the Eastern Illinois University Alumni Association, an independent not-for-profit corporation, which supports the university in its efforts to engage alumni and encourage their support of their alma mater.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the resources generated by the program. Note any clarifications or special circumstances (e.g., revenue pass-throughs) that should be considered when reviewing the above data.

Over the last three fiscal years, the area has directly generated $837,477 in annual fund contributions from alumni (in addition to gifts generated through the faculty-staff campaign), $141,089 in trademark licensing revenue and $236,844 in dues, gifts and other revenue for the EIU Alumni Association. In addition, in FY12 the total amount of annual fund contributions (gifts under $20,000) receipted by the university from all donors exceeded $2.2 million. Annual fund donations are not reflected in the figures at the beginning of Section 5 as they are distributed to various units and funds throughout the campus while licensing revenues are transferred to the financial aid office and athletics for scholarship use. Alumni Association funds are utilized to support the organization’s programs, grant activities, scholarships, magazine production, audit/accounting/legal expenses and various other operating expenditures.

Provide an executive summary of and link to any metrics or benchmarks that the program tracks to measure productivity.

Annual fund productivity is measured by total receipted donations and, in part, alumni participation rates (the percentage of alumni who give gifts to their alma maters). While the area is certainly not responsible for all donations received by the university, it is a “driver” of the participation rates in that it contacts tens of thousands of alumni annually to solicit gifts. Nationally, there is a downward trend in alumni participation rates as fewer alumni are contributing to their respective universities but EIU has exceeded the average for public masters institutions since the unit began tracking national data in FY04. This information is collected by the Council for Aid to Education through its Voluntary Support of Education survey and in FY12, the most recent year for which the information is available, EIU’s rate was 5.3% as compared to the national average of 4.5%.

In recent years, EIU’s “traditional” alumni programming efforts have been focused on holding events, receptions and meetings to allow for personal interaction with our graduates. While increasing costs and cuts to operating budget have necessitated a reduction in these types of activities, the area generally hosts 30-35 events annually. Print and electronic communications pieces are also utilized in this effort and are created in partnership with the marketing and communications staff. Nationally, there has been an acknowledgement in the field that alumni engagement is something that cannot be measured quantitatively but the unit is in the process of developing a set of institution-specific metrics to assist with this in the future. It is anticipated that this information will allow the university to more accurately focus its efforts on specifically targeted alumni populations for its various initiatives. However, the success of the recent capital campaign is an indication that the relationship-building achieved through these efforts is effective.

As for two of the unit’s other areas of focus, commencement activities are coordinated for more than 2,200 graduates annually by two staff members who have other primary responsibilities.   The management of more than 162,000 alumni, donor and friend records in the Banner Advancement module is the responsibility of four staff members (approximately 3 FTE) and several student workers. More than 60,000 unique changes made to records in the Advancement module in FY13 and the staff also generates more than 400 reports for campus use annually, in addition to almost daily internal reports related to alumni and annual fund initiatives.

What initiatives has the program implemented to enhance staff productivity (e.g., access to training, workflow improvements)? Briefly describe the costs and benefits of these initiatives.

Staff productivity has been supported by numerous initiatives over the last three years, including:

-The implementation of SmartCall, an automated calling system, which has reduced the need for tens of thousands of paper records annually and significantly increased the effectiveness of the annual fund and its student callers. Beyond the initial purchase price, there is an annual maintenance fee of approximately $9,000 for the software.

-The creation of an automated process to enter annual fund pledges into Banner Advancement, which resulted in a significant reduction of staff time related to the responsibility and a decrease in the possibility of human error in the previously manual entry of thousands of gift pledges each year. Staff utilized existing software to create the process.

-The creation of a series of electronic notifications for development officers to alert them when assigned prospects make a pledge/gift, pay Alumni Association membership dues or RSVP for an event. The process, which improves the timeliness and accuracy of important information in the fundraising process, was created utilizing existing software.

-A direct mail tracking system for annual fund appeals was created with existing software and barcoding technology, allowing the staff to measure the effectiveness of the various appeals utilized in the effort. The information is valuable in developing future appeals.

-It is also anticipated that the metrics currently under development to measure alumni engagement will allow for more focused outreach efforts in the future.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the productivity of the program. Note any clarifications or special circumstances (e.g., accreditation requirements, curricular changes, program restructuring) that should be considered when reviewing the above data.

Staff size in the area is generally lower than that for offices with similar responsibilities at other institutions. For traditional alumni programming, two staff members are charged with organizing those activities and communicating with alumni while the numbers at other universities, such as SIU-Carbondale (11 staff, with an alumni base more than twice as large as EIU), Illinois State (nine, approximately 70% more alumni), Western Illinois (seven, in addition to two graduate assistants, approximately 7% more alumni) and SIU-Edwardsville (three, with approximately 25% fewer alumni). With regard to the annual fund, peer institutions tend to have multiple full-time professionals dedicated to the effort while the area has one administrator responsible for this endeavor in addition to directing commencement activities. In addition, systems administration responsibilities lie primarily with four staff members, with one of those also serving as the area’s financial manager, while the other staff are involved in multiple facets of the operation. The director of constituent relations, who works in Springfield, serves primarily as the university’s legislative liaison. Due to the relatively small staffing levels, most of the staff members are cross-trained to assist with other responsibilities for major events and activities, such as Homecoming and commencement.

Related to the staffing situation, when the systems administration and annual fund components were moved to the area just over 10 years ago, one of the three positions responsible for those functions was eliminated to allow the salary dollars to be moved to another program while the clerical position in the alumni services area was not filled when the incumbent took on new responsibilities in a move to a different position. Neither of those positions has been re-established while the number of new graduates – and, therefore, the number of alumni records maintained – has increased by 27,617 during this time period. Similarly, when commencement responsibilities were moved to the area, the staff member previously charged with directing the annual fund assumed those additional responsibilities. Staff turnover in the area has been fairly high, as well, with several individuals leaving the unit to take advantage of professional advancement opportunities and increased salaries in other departments on campus and at other institutions. One position was added to the unit through a transfer from ITS when it reorganized following the university’s conversion to Banner, however.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the costs associated with the program. Note any clarifications or special circumstances (e.g., expenditures made centrally or externally, expenditures made on behalf of other units) that should be considered when reviewing the above data.

The overwhelming majority of the expenditures outlined above are made on behalf of the university as a whole rather than for our unit or specific programs. Examples include commencement activities; annual fund solicitations on behalf of other campus units and initiatives; and alumni events and programs which are designed to engage alumni from all academic units.

How does the program seek to distinguish itself from similar programs at other institutions?

Alumni programs are somewhat unique in comparison to other programs at higher education institutions as they don’t “compete” amongst each other since their constituents are graduates of their respective universities. Each campus has its own nuances and traditions and their students often leave campus with strong feelings based on their individual experiences. Our program’s role is to capitalize on those positive feelings and encourage the graduates to stay connected to the campus community through multiple, varied opportunities and offerings. At present, we are seeking opportunities to involve our alumni in the recruitment of new students to the university while also making current students more aware of the role alumni play in supporting EIU so they will remain connected to the campus immediately following graduation.

Note any unique and/or essential contributions that the program makes to the university.

See above.

Provide any program-specific metrics that help to document program contributions or program quality. Examples of some commonly used program-specific metrics may be found here.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the program impact on the university mission.

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Provide a link to or listing of the program’s goals and/or strategic plan.

The program’s primary goal, which has been a long-term focus, is to assist in the raising of private funds for the benefit of the university and our students. This emphasis is in direct support of goals and actions in the financial sustainability section of the university’s strategic plan as it relates to providing scholarships to attract and retain students and supporting specialty campaigns to fund strategic initiatives. An additional goal of the area, which has become more important in recent years, supports the marketing and communications goal of enhancing our image with prospective students. The office will assist in this area by proactively engaging and encouraging alumni to promote EIU as a destination for potential students.

What role will the program have in the implementation of the university’s strategic plan (provide link to strategic plan)?

See above.

In the next two or three years, what best practices, improvements in operations, or other opportunities to advance the university’s mission are likely to be implemented?

The alumni services office will continue to seek new opportunities to engage our graduates and students – or future alumni – on behalf of the university. Identifying new approaches based on improved metrics (previously noted in this document) should assist the annual fund effort in becoming more targeted with our resources while the ever-growing alumni population, which increases by approximately 2,200 new graduates each year, will require that we continue to identify ways to improve our efficiencies. Also, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education recently released the results of a survey of 120,000 alumni from institutions across the country which indicated those individuals preferred to receive information from their alma maters via printed publications. In conjunction with this, the university’s strategic plan identified two actions involving the distribution of printed materials to our alumni to assist with our fundraising and recruitment goals. If the resources to undertake these opportunities become available, we believe they will be incredibly valuable tools in our efforts moving forward.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand future opportunities for the program.

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