Friends for life alumni programs serve the needs of your students--even if they graduated 50 years ago. (Marketing).

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?"

That seems to be the question that more and more alums are asking their alma maters. Historically, too many colleges and universities have seen their alumni as only a financial resource to be courted and, ultimately, tapped. In fact, 28 percent of all college giving currently comes from alumni, and most alumni programming was designed to help maintain and even expand that giving relationship.

But recently, things have begun to change. Alumni giving at many institutions is soft, even falling--and it's not necessarily the recession that's to blame. As more graduates earn masters and professional degrees, their loyalty to their BA-granting institution has decreased. In my own situation, my wife and I have attended nine different colleges and universities. We can't have a relationship with all nine. Which one, or ones, do we choose? And why?

FIVE ALUMNI PROGRAMMING TYPES

Yes, successful alumni programs must be built around the needs of the alumni, but research into generational marketing has taught us that these needs do change over time. Younger alumni have very different needs than do alumni who are in their mid-30s or 40s, or even 70s. Clearly, we are moving away from the alumni magazine and homecoming as the alumni mainstays, to five broad types of alumni programming:

* Staying in touch

* Networking and resourcing

* Alumni learning

* Alumni living

* Planned giving 

STAYING IN TOUCH

Which section of the alumni magazine do you read first? If you are like most of us, it's probably the class notes.

The desire of alums to know what other alums are doing, and have done, has long been at the heart of alumni programming, and most colleges and universities use the alumni magazine as the centerpiece of this strategy. However, technology--particularly Web-based technology--has offered institutions a plethora of new options. We are seeing alumni e-mail lists, alumni-only Web sites, and alumni Web cams. At Northwestern University, alumni clubs have their own Web site. At Denison University, alumni can sign up for an "e-mail account for life." A number of colleges allow alumni to access and update their listing in the on-line alumni directory. We are even seeing chat rooms organized by class year, major, or other interest.

A number of years ago, Dickinson College mounted a Web cam in its student union during reunion weekends. Alumni posed for pictures in front of the camera. The pictures were immediately displayed on the college's Web site.

At Furman University, the Web site for prospective students (www.engagefurman.com) features a series of diaries--life at Furman, if you will--posted by freshmen. Interestingly, user data indicates that Furman alums are frequent visitors to the site as they seek to remember and relive their first-year experiences.

Then there is the "in the know" side of alumni programming, offering alumni a sneak peak at information before it is made available to the general public. Recently, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill offered a multipart series on its men's basketball program, accompanied by both video and audio clips on the "members only" portion of its Web site.

From simple e-mail accounts to enriched alumni portals such as the one used by the Stanford University Alumni Association, the goal is to use technology to build community--to help alumni stay in touch with one another and with the institution.

NETWORKING AND RESOURCING

But staying in touch is only the tip of the iceberg. Not only are alumni interested in maintaining relationships with their peers, they are interested in how the institution can help them build relationships with the marketplace, especially the job marketplace. A recent online fair at the University of Michigan, for example, drew 1,000 alumni; a similar event drew 1,600.

In 1998, the business library at Harvard University began making its online holdings available to alums. Stanford, the University of Southern California, and hundreds of other colleges and universities routinely hold business and career-related seminars and discussions for their alumni. Princeton, Yale, and Harvard recently launched a collaborative effort to create an online clearinghouse of courses for all their graduates.

But such offerings are not just virtual. Real-time alumni events that stress such sometimes mundane topics as resume writing, job interviewing skills, and career management are consistently well attended not only on campus, but in host cities near clusters, even clubs, of alumni. For these alumni, their colleges have become career partners.

ALUMNI LEARNING

From trips to Ireland to caving expeditions in Kentucky, alumni learning activities are one of the fastest-growing segments of alumni programming. However, this trend in alumni programming is different than simple alumni travel. Instead of just visiting the Great Wall of China with a digital camera in hand, today's alumni learning programs are likely to include coursework in Chinese archeology taught by a faculty member who accompanies the participants. There may be required reading before the trip begins. There might even be an intensive "learn the language" program.

Denison University's alumni programming, for example, has included a week-long Civil War Steamboat Cruise aboard the New Orleans-based Mississippi Queen riverboat. The Chattanooga-to-Memphis cruise, says Stewart Dyke, director of public affairs at Denison, featured superb expert guest lecturers familiar to viewers of the "Civil War Journal" on the History Channel, including William C. "Jack" Davis, Charles Roland and Bud Robertson, plus appearances by Civil War musician Bobby Horton and Lincoln portrayer Jim Getty.

In addition to the shipboard lectures, alumni were able to visit such significant Civil War battle sites as Tennessee's Shiloh National Military Park, Fort Donelson (Dover, TN), and other historic cities such as Paducah, KY, and Decatur, AL.

At the other end of the alumni learning spectrum is the classroom experience. At the University of Maryland, College Park, a college faculty member advises a student that lowering the computer monitor will help her see the screen more clearly when she is wearing her bifocals; the student is 62 and she is taking an introductory computer class. Whether these classes are taught in an ordinary classroom or on the Internet, we are seeing more and more alumni, particularly elderly alumni, enrolling. In fact, in 2002 there were 261 Institutes for learning in Retirement affiliated with 261 colleges and universities in 43 states and the District of Columbia. Colleges and universities have discovered that offering coursework for students of all ages can be at the heart of a strong alumni programming.

ALUMNI LIVING

According to a recent issue of Kiplinger's, colleges and universities love retirees--and the feelings are mutual. These days, retirement communities near college campuses are popular with seniors seeking a rich variety of cultural and educational opportunities and a chance to rub shoulders with current students and former classmates. Says Kiplinger, these young-at-heart folks are more interested in sharpening their minds than polishing their golf game.

Some alumni living facilities are now directly affiliated with their respective colleges and universities. Others are not. At Foxdale Village near Penn State's main campus, one in five residents is a Penn State alumnus. There is also Henton at Elon, a community within walking distance of Elon College; Lasell Village near Lasell College; and University Village, less than a mile from the University of South Florida. We see similar communities at Amherst, Iowa State, Mount Nolyoke, and Northwestern. These types of communities are so popular that two of them, at Oberlin and Dartmouth, have waiting lists of two to five years.

PLANNED GIVING

Not too long ago, planned giving essentially meant wills and bequests. Today's complicated financial profiles of alumni-someday-donors means that colleges and universities have had to radically shift and expand the range of financial services they offer. Of course, wills and simple estate planning are still included in the mix. But colleges and universities, often through licensed and certified financial planners, are also heavily involved in tax (and tax-avoidance) planning, life insurance, annuities, portfolio assessment and development, asset management, and a whole host of other financial services as they seek to work with their increasingly successful alums. Tom Pappalardo, vice president for Institutional Advancement at Grove City College, concurs. "When I began my career in development 15 years ago, most colleges and universities were reminding alumni to include their alma mater in their estate plans. Today, we are much more proactive: We bring all the players into the same room together; accountants, attorneys, financial planners, and donors. We make sure that donors have easy access to the people who can help them benefit their estates as well as benefit the college."

A SHIFT IN MOTIVES

It would be negligent to say that the only reason that colleges and universities are expanding their definition of alumni programming is because they sense a possible financial bonanza. That fact is, this type of programming is actually an extension of the college's commitment to serving the needs of their students--even if these students graduated 50 years ago. Of course, there will likely be a financial payoff as well, but for most institutions, the payoff is more immediate; it's the satisfaction that comes from meeting the legitimate work, educational, social, and even financial needs of their alumni.

Robert Sevier is a senior VP of Stamats Communications (www. stamats.com); his upcoming book, Building a Brand That Matters, is available from Strategy Publishing at www.strategypublishing.com.