Alumni Engagement Toolkit for Faculty & Staff

The Office of Alumni Engagement is here to support your efforts in engaging CSUSM alumni in a variety of settings. We know that maintaining an active relationship with alumni involves providing opportunities for networking and career development, while at the same time disseminating information on the University’s accomplishments. While doing so the University benefits from current, positive word- of- mouth marketing and support from potentially the most loyal donors: alumni.

Our team regularly collaborates with partners across campus from student groups, to department chairs, to development in order to centralize alumni efforts. The following information will provide further detail on our resources and outline ways to collaborate with us. For additional support, feel free to contact us, we look forward to hearing from you.

Communicate to Alumni

We aim to communicate strategically with our alumni in order to preserve a positive relationship with them. The Office of Alumni Engagement manages the communication channels below, which may be a worthwhile resource for you.

Monthly e-newsletter: With a reach of 42,000 alumni, our newsletter includes news from campus, upcoming events, and upcoming volunteer opportunities. We are always looking for content and would be happy to include program/department specific information if it would be beneficial for all alumni to receive. 
The monthly newsletters are sent out during the first week of each month. In order to have your information or upcoming event included in the newsletter, please email Noelle Reed at nreed@csusm.edu by the 25th of the prior month. 

Email Broadcasts: If you have a need to email a specific group of alumni, please email Michelle Romans at mromans@csusm.edu. Specific groups of alumni can include alums of an individual major or college. We're happy to work with you to determine the best way to reach your desired audience. Please be aware that we need at least two weeks of turnaround time. 

Reporting: We track several metrics for each message sent through our system. Metrics include the number of email addresses sent to, recipients who open the mail, recipients who click on each link, email addresses that “bounce,” and recipients who unsubscribe from receiving future email. A summary report can be provided to you one week after your message was sent.

Social Media: Our CSUSM Alumni accounts are active on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and are a great way to communicate to alumni about upcoming events or other department information. Please email nreed@csusm.edu if you have something you would like shared.

Event Calendars: Access to online alumni calendar listings via the alumni website. Please email Michelle Romans at mromans@csusm.edu if you have an event you’d like added to the alumni calendar.

Update Alumni Data

To effectively reach our alumni, we must have current information for them. University Advancement is the Office of Record for all alumni. Multiple times a year we do a national change of address, phone and email appends to keep the integrity of our data. In addition, we consistently request for alumni to update their records in many communications throughout the year.

How to do it: If you communicate to students or alumni throughout the year, remember to incorporate the self-service information link. All alumni contact information collected by a department, sports team, student club, Greek group, etc., should routinely be emailed to the Office of Alumni Engagement as University Advancement is the office of record for alumni data. alumni@csusm.edu

Alumni Volunteers 

Seeking Volunteers: The Office of Alumni Engagement has a list of alumni volunteers who have self-identified themselves as being interested in various types of volunteer opportunities on campus. To share an opportunity with this group:

• Compose an email as if you were writing directly to the alumni you want to reach. Please include all the necessary logistics along with contact information for the volunteer opportunity and links to more information if available. Email that text along with any images to mromans@csusm.edu with the subject link “Looking for Volunteers”
• If it is not clear from the email, please let us know what type of volunteer opportunity this is so we can target the right members (e.g. one-time opportunity vs long term; speaking/panel; event support; etc.
• Our team will communicate your opportunity to the self-identified members within three business day

Thank Volunteers: There are a wide range of ways alumni may be volunteering in your area of campus through activities such as committees/advisory boards, speaker panels and mentorship programs. We want to help you show our alumni volunteers how much they mean to the university. The Office Alumni Engagement can partner with your department by:

• Providing a small gift to include as a thank you to your alumni volunteers
• Providing one day pass for parking on campus

Alumni Events

The Office of Alumni Engagement is a great partner and resource in planning alumni activities on and off campus. We can serve as a resource and help involve appropriate staff and promote to alumni directly. Please note that six to eight weeks advance notice is required for most events to be successful. The Office of Alumni Engagement can partner with your department by:

• Event planning: Sharing best practices in alumni event planning
• Promotion: Promoting the event on the alumni webpage events calendar, in our bi-monthly E-newsletter, weekly Stay Connected email and on our social media channels
• Communication: Facilitating email invitations and correspondence
• Online registration: Creating an online registration form and delivering attendee lists. In addition, we can manage registration fees.
• Potentially provide staff support at the event (limited)

VIP Guests

Alumni guests on campus are considered a high priority! When alumni from your department are visiting campus, we can assist with planning the visits and welcoming them. If alumni attend your event, please email us a list of attendees to alumni@csusm.edu so we can update our alumni database. As we build profiles for our alumni activity, it is helpful for campus partners to be aware of all the ways an alumnus/a has been connected and engaged with the University.

The Office of Alumni Engagement can collaborate with your department by:

• Confirming the alumnus/a’s name and class year
• Providing a gift for the alumnus/a to your department, prior to their arrival.
• Providing one day pass for parking on campus
• Providing a campus tour by Alumni Engagement staff if needed

Advisory Councils