Weak Ties and Strong Allies: Improving Alumni Engagement through Critical Social Network Analysis

Abstract

The development department at a top tier, small, private research university recruits alumni volunteers to serve as fundraisers for their respective reunion year giving campaigns. The recently admitted and graduating classes have been shifting demographically, but strategies for soliciting alumni engagement remain largely the same. A mixed methods approach was used to conduct descriptive, non-parametric and social network analyses on alumni demographic and giving data from the 2023 reunion campaign, and interviews were employed to assess organizational affinity, group dynamic and social connections. Findings revealed: alumni volunteer committees reflect their graduating cohorts less and less with time, there’s a need for more robust peer connection data to identify more diverse alumni volunteers in more recent cohorts, and staff turnover in the development department negatively impacts both staff and alumni.