Alumni Relations Benchmarks (PDF)

This 160-page report is based on a survey of 89 American colleges and universities and covers a broad range of issues of interest to alumni and advancement professionals including but not limited to: trends in staffing the alumni office, use of the alumni office's work time, alumni office budgets and priorities, governance of the alumni relations effort and level of cooperation among various administrative units and alumni organizations. The study provides highly detailed data on alumni participation rates in various kinds of alumni activities, including reunions, and a close look at alumni department budgets including salaries, travel, promotion, costs of alumni clubs and events. In addition, the report presents detailed data on alumni department revenues from credit card, insurance and other services for alumni, as well as alumni office spending on consulting and information services. Other areas covered include: means of fundraising from alumni, use of alumni surveys, percentage of alumni who attend various kinds of events and the percentage who give to the college, nature of links to alumni clubs, athletic booster clubs and other alumni-related organizations, use of direct mail, telephone solicitation, social media and email to connect with alumni, and the relative success of each method, the future of alumni publications and directories and many other issues of interest to college alumni and advancement staff of private alumni organizations and college departments that often deal with alumni such as advancement, marketing and athletics.