Envisioning the Ideal Alumni Relationship
The stature of the University of Virginia rests on three strong foundations: its heritage, its core values, and its people-the students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni who are continually shaping and re-shaping the institution. This report focuses on the University's engagement with a critically important branch of its family: the alumni.

In the fall of 2003, University President John T. Casteen III convened the Alumni Relations Task Force. Comprising alumni volunteers who represent schools and programs across the Grounds, the Task Force was given the charge of developing a comprehensive proposal for cultivating meaningful and lasting ties with an increasingly diverse body of alumni. The Task Force was also asked to propose an organizational structure, a financing model, and an implementation plan for realizing its goals. To fulfill its charge, the Task Force developed a set of recommendations aimed at creating the ideal alumni relationship (for more information on the Task Force's charge and members, see Appendix A.).

One can imagine the following scenario:

Over morning coffee, an alumna logs onto her computer to check e-mail messages received through her U.Va. lifetime e-mail address. She will then access the daily line-up of U.Va. news stories on Headlines@UVa., read an in-depth article on cancer research in her weekly e-newsletter, click to updates on Virginia baseball and women's lacrosse, and check for postings to a HoosOnline bulletin board about cycling, a pastime she shares with many fellow alumni. Before leaving home, she will register online for Reunions Weekend, which offers a wide range of academic seminars, a special gathering for members of her sorority, and a full calendar of class activities.

Once at work, she will check HoosOnline again for messages from other U.Va. alumni in her career field to reason through an issue related to a current project. At lunchtime, she will attend a faculty lecture, organized by the local U.Va. club with the help of a regional alumni relations officer. Before returning home that evening, she will meet with fellow volunteers for the University Singers, of which she was member, to coordinate a local stop on the group's national concert tour. Once home again, she will take advantage of one of U.Va.'s many lifelong learning options, such as an online class on Greek art or ethical dilemmas in business, or perhaps she will log into the U.Va. digital library or look at a Webcast of Bob Woodward speaking at the Miller Center. And before retiring, she will review a brochure on a U.Va. travel program targeted at young singles.

In essence, the program envisioned in this report will enable and encourage alumni to make the University a tangible presence in their daily lives. Investment in this initiative will yield significant and measurable returns, including up-to-date contact information for all alumni (addresses, phone numbers, cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses), increased participation in reunions and other alumni activities, increased volunteer involvement, and increased philanthropic support, which will be indispensable as the University pursues goals far beyond what can be achieved with state support as its core source of financing.

The Benefits of Alumni Engagement
Over the past 25 years, the University has striven to increase its self-sufficiency, recognizing that it can no longer depend on the shrinking share of state tax dollars in its budgeted revenues to achieve and sustain the distinction to which it aspires. Indeed, in 2003-2004, the University reached a significant milestone: It received more of its operating support from gifts and endowment income than from state appropriations. Today the University is taking steps to forge a new relationship with the Commonwealth of Virginia, seeking greater autonomy as a public institution largely financed with non-state resources.

To establish this new model, the University will depend more than ever on the generosity of its alumni. In the fund-raising campaign that concluded in December 2000, alumni were by far the largest single source of giving, providing 45 percent of the $1.43 billion in gifts, pledges, and other commitments. As the University enters the early stages of a new fund-raising effort that is expected to be more than twice the magnitude of the last campaign, there is an obvious need to cultivate alumni support. This report, however, looks beyond the near-term need for alumni giving. It calls for an institution-wide commitment to a strong and collaborative alumni engagement program that will reap benefits long after the new campaign.

Although its alumni programs compare well with those of its public peers, the University must adopt practices long followed by the leading private institutions (Stanford in particular), as well as novel approaches that take advantage of new developments in technology, communications, and marketing. If alumni are given convenient and compelling opportunities to interact with the University on a regular, even daily basis, they will benefit U.Va. not only with greater financial support but also by helping to uphold the values and ideals that define the institution across generations.

Reaching Out to All Alumni
In its last campaign, the University was successful at cultivating the loyalty and support of its top tier of alumni, i.e., those with the capacity to make significant gifts. Events, special mailings, publications, new volunteer opportunities, and presidential visits were aimed at the very top of the alumni pyramid. These activities are sure to increase in scope and sophistication as the University enters a new campaign. The great majority of alumni, however, largely remain unengaged and underserved. This has led to dissatisfaction with the University's alumni relations programs, and it has given far too many alumni the perception that they do not matter to the institution.

Lifetime alumni engagement leads to lifetime giving. Studies of alumni contribution patterns among the nation's elite colleges and universities document this fact. As its dependence on private support grows, the University must cultivate not only today's donors but also the donors of the future. It must turn its attention to the full breadth of its alumni base and make a greater and more concerted effort to reach out to a constituency that will be critical to the University's long-term vitality.

As private institutions have long recognized, the alumni engagement process begins well before graduation. If students understand they are beginning a lifetime relationship with U.Va. and its community of alumni, they will have a stronger sense of ownership of the University and a stronger sense of obligation to support it.

The Task Force Recommendations
This report calls for a new kind of University-alumni partnership that will continue to educate alumni well beyond their time on Grounds, will enable the University to tap into alumni skills and expertise, will provide a greater sense of community among alumni, and will make all alumni aware that they are critical stakeholders in their university's future. Though focusing on seven areas (Regional Engagement, Reunions, Technology, Lifelong Learning, Alumni Periodicals, Volunteer Opportunities, and Marketing and Market Research), these recommendations are not stand-alone initiatives. They are designed to support one another, and thus should be considered as a whole. Moreover, how these changes are implemented is as important as the improvements themselves. For this reason, the Task Force recommends a new organizational structure for alumni engagement at the University.

The recommendations can be summarized as follows:

1) Regional engagement

• Set a "Gold Standard" for regional alumni programs under a new regional engagement producer
• Create a team of regional alumni relations officers
• Enhance regional programming and communications and provide more academic experiences
• Mount "road shows" rich in academic content and that showcase U.Va.'s strengths and highlight needs across schools
• Enhance opportunities for reaching out to parents and prospective students around the country, expanding the Parents Program to include regional outreach

2) Reunions

• Appoint a pan-University producer/business manager to coordinate reunions
• Add more academic and thematic content to Reunions programming
• Explore new organizational models (including affinity interest group reunions) to maximize alumni participation
• Invest more staff and more resources into Reunions
• Enhance efforts to cultivate class affinity before students graduate

3) Technology

• Establish a new center of competence in technology to serve the University, alumni, and the schools/foundations
• Improve existing functionality and connectivity through basic tools such as volunteer management software, broadcast email, networking capabilities
• Create a robust and coordinated electronic communications program
• Capture and maintain all e-mail addresses, starting with students by offering lifetime @virginia.edu e-mail addresses
• Provide a single access point for alumni interaction with the University and each other
• Create programming that takes advantage of electronic media

4) Lifelong Learning

• Appoint a "producer" to coordinate existing and expanded offerings
• Consider a variety of delivery/organizational options
• Create and market new programs
• Use technology for virtual offerings
• Explore lifelong learning as a revenue generator
• Develop tailored travel programs rich in content and showcasing academic leaders

5) Alumni Magazines and Periodicals

• Develop University-wide themes and messages, which should be incorporated into editorial planning and content for an improved University-wide magazine and other vehicles, including online communications
• Create an upgraded, centralized magazine for communicating with all alumni
  • Provide a more academic editorial focus for the magazine, guided by a multi-school editorial board
  • Ensure that key school/unit messages are integrated into a pan-University magazine
  • Mail every issue to all alumni and other constituencies
• Over time, reduce the need for separate mailings of school and unit magazines; encourage deans to communicate with their alumni with twice-yearly communiqués

6) Volunteer opportunities

• Offer more numerous and more varied ways alumni can provide volunteer service
• Improve communication on volunteer opportunities
• Establish a search function to allow the University to tap into alumni skills and expertise

7) Marketing and Market Research

• Mount a coordinated effort to market alumni programs and services
• Integrate the marketing function with expanded capabilities in communications and technology
• Create a system for conducting recursive, agnostic surveys to determine objectively what alumni want and need and to evaluate the effectiveness of alumni programs
• Improve coordination and communication among schools and units in this area

Implementing the Recommendations
What we are proposing represents a change in the culture of institutional advancement at the University of Virginia. If they are to succeed, these initiatives will require the full backing of the President and the Board of Visitors, as well as the vice presidents, deans, faculty and program directors whose operations will increasingly rely on the loyalty of alumni. They will also require a substantial investment of new resources. To estimate the funds needed to implement its recommendations, the Task Force conducted an analysis of institution-wide spending on alumni engagement activities and the additional funding required to finance new and expanded programs. The analysis takes into account the current and projected revenues of the Alumni Association and how these funds could be allocated if the association is reorganized to place greater emphasis on alumni services. While the analysis shows that more than $6 million will be needed to implement the Task Force's recommendations, it also indicates that the University can recoup its investment with a modest increase in alumni giving, which can be expected due to improved alumni engagement and good will.

Organizational Structure
The Task Force considered a wide range of structural options for effecting and sustaining the recommended improvements. These range from adjustments to the status quo, to full separation of the alumni engagement functions from the Alumni Association, to full University oversight of alumni programs. The option recommended by the Task Force follows a recommendation by the Alumni Association's Board of Managers. It calls for creating a new alumni engagement subsidiary of the Alumni Association that would be a separate 501(c)(3) organization. It would be overseen by an Alumni Engagement Board that includes members of the Alumni Association's Board of Managers as well as representatives of schools and foundations, the President's Office, and the Board of Visitors. Though it would have representatives on the Alumni Engagement Board, the Board of Managers would not have a controlling interest. Board representation could reflect the proportional alumni populations of the various schools. The Executive Director of the new program would report jointly to the Alumni Engagement Board and the President of the University, and would have a position on the President's cabinet. Larger policy decisions would be handled through joint reporting to the Board and the President, but day-to-day oversight of the Executive Director would be handled by the President.