Student Societies: Working with

Alumni and Supporters

Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO)

Aims of this session

• To highlight the benefits of staying in touch with

alumni, old members, and other interested

supporters

• To discuss how you can involve alumni in your

society

• To introduce you to the Campaign and how it can

support your alumni relations work

• To offer hints and tips for fundraising from alumni

• To provide examples of best practice

Why should you stay in touch with your

alumni?

Alumni are a fantastic tool for societies – they have

knowledge and experience to offer:

• Careers advice and opportunities for members

• Events – alumni speakers, hosts, sponsors

• Global – alumni live in 190 countries

How can you stay in touch with alumni?

• Send them an initial email through DARO

• Encourage them to get involved through your

social media

• Invite them to events you think will be relevant

• Share any newsletters you produce

Things to think about

• Why – why do you want to get in touch with alumni?

• Resource – do you and the future committee have the

time to maintain a relationship with alumni in addition to

your members?

• Who - is it just alumni who were part of the society or any

alumni with similar interests/working in a relevant field?

• How – how are you going to engage them? Are there any activities you can involve alumni in that already exist? Is

there anything new you’d like to develop to engage alumni?

Contacting alumnidos and don’ts

Dos and Don’ts

DO plan your communications at

the start of term – consistency is

key!

DO respond to alumni enquiries in

good time

DO leave handover notes on

alumni activity for incoming officers

DO think carefully about how to

involve alumni – what would

interest them, how could they help?

DO let DARO know if alumni

volunteer for your events etc.

DO contact us before inviting

alumni to speak

DO come to us for advice!

• DON’T send a one-off

communication and wait two years

to send another

• DON’T bombard them with

communications

• DON’T create unrealistic

expectations

• DON’T email alumni asking for jobs

• DON’T create your own database –

contact alumni@ucl.ac.uk with

updated details

• DON’T use data which is several

years old

Finding UCL Alumni

UCL Alumni Online Community (AOC)

All current UCL students have free access to AOC.

Please only use AOC for professional advice. Approach Alumni Relations about

speaker invitations and getting alumni involved more generally.

Why should you care?

Because AOC is where you can directly contact hundreds of Alumni

Mentors…across the world…for free.

Sign me up!

• Register online at https://uclalumnicommunity.org

• Identify mentors in the Directory, click on their name to access their Profile

• If you want to get in touch click ‘Request Mentor’

For instant access we recommend registering with your UCL email and the name on your student record. You can then

amend details and sync with social media once logged in.

Finding UCL Alumni

LinkedIn

Whether you’re searching for an interesting speaker or mentor for your

society, you can use LinkedIn to find UCL alumni.

BUT once you identify people please contact Alumni Relations BEFORE

reaching out, we can let you know if we already have a relationship with

them and if we will be able to introduce you. This is usually much more

efficient than reaching out via LinkedIn.

Within the UCL profile there is a tab called Students & Alumni. You will be

able to search on various fields including:

• Where they live

• Where they work

• What they studied

• What they’re skilled at

What is the Campaign?

In September 2016, UCL will be introducing a bold

new global Philanthropy Campaign. The focus will

be on four themes:

• Students

• Health

• Disruptive Thinking

• London

Why should clubs and societies care?

The Campaign will generate funds for projects that directly

affect the student experience at UCL:

• Scholarships and Bursaries

• New Student Centre – opening in September 2018

• Provost’s Campaign Fund– a flexible resource which is

likely to have already had an impact on your time at UCL

How you can get involved with the Campaign

Fundraising and Engagement – help us spread the message about UCL’s

truly global impact and how EVERYONE can be involved:

• UCL is in Campaign – we’re raising funds and engaging our

community to help deliver UCL 2034.

• The Campaign has four themes – Students, Health, London and

Disruptive Thinking.

• The income the Campaign generates and the engagement that it

develops will drive our outstanding research and innovative teaching to

find solutions to the world’s major problems.

• Philanthropy has shaped our past and it will help secure our future for

generations to come, as one of the world’s leading universities.

Society fundraising

– The Friend’s Trust

– Crowdfunding

– How DARO can help you

The Friend’s Trust: Helpful Tips for Grant

Applications

• Highlight how your bid will benefit the maximum

number of students

• Make a good case for support and cost your bid

carefully (smaller amounts are more likely to be

supported)

• Don’t expect to be funded every year

The Friend’s Trust: Helpful Tips for Grant

Applications continued

• What kind of projects are supported?

– sporting equipment

– grants/underwriting for theatre and music

– support for key events

– materials for theatre productions

• Guidelines, grant deadlines and application forms

can be found here: http://uclu.org/clubs-societies/resources/friends-trust-applications

Doing your own fundraising: Crowdfunding

Pitching a project on a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter

or undertaking a fundraising challenge event to support your

cause.

• Hints and Tips:

– Think about who you will crowdfund from

– Have a simple project request – recording a video can

help!

– Most successful projects seek between £200-£2000

– Make sure you update your supporters once you’ve

completed your project, they might support other

projects in the future

Other fundraising suggestions

• For music or theatre: think about starting a ‘friends

group’

• Don’t be shy about communicating the need for

support at events

Support from DARO

• Help with admin if you want to set up a project on

justgiving

• We can advise you on pitching your project for

crowdfunding

• We can assist with getting your message out via

our social media channels

• We cannot provide lists of alumni for direct

appeals (Data Protection)

Examples of best practice

Boat Club

Works closely with DARO and the alumni boat club:

• Records - keeps records of its members (info sent to

DARO at the end of academic year by Union staff)

• Regular comms - sends regular newsletters to members

and alumni

• Annual activities – invites to annual Christmas dinner and

summer fundraiser event

• Handover - excellent handover procedure between

outgoing/incoming Presidents

• Fundraising – alumni monthly direct debits, annual

‘ergathon’ fundraising event

Film Society

• Good handover procedure

• Make specific requests e.g. asked DARO if they could

invite Christopher Lawrence (SFX, Gravity) to speak and

assisted with the smooth running of the event

Musical Theatre

• Has attracted interested from an alumnus who is

interested in funding more risky productions

• Providing both financial and mentoring support

UC Opera

• Established a friends group

• Staff, alumni and friends – who have provided support for

opera productions

POST IT NOTES

Write down one activity/project

you want to involve alumni in

Your next steps

• Pick up a toolkit leaflet

• Share this training with your committees and

brainstorm how/why you want to engage with

alumni

• Get advice from DARO before you begin