Reflecting on 2021: Did You Meet Your Goals?

It’s been a difficult and unusual year for most of us for so many different reasons. But with 2020 about to be behind us, it is still important for leadership of your alumni association to spend some time reflecting on the year that was, your successes and areas where you would like to improve.

Here’s an overview of the metrics you should consider, and how you can define success in what was an unusual year.

• Sign-ups: How many new alumni did you have register for your association? This is one of the most basic metrics you can track, and a good measurement of your success during the year. Most alumni associations will set a goal for a calendar year (or a school year) for the number of people they want to get registered that year. This number is a good starting point for how well your organization performed for the year.

• Subscriptions: How many people did you have subscribe to or unsubscribe from your communications? This is one of the best tools you have to keep in touch with your alumni and send out information about everything happening within your organization and the school district. Hopefully you have increased your subscription totals. But if you saw significant numbers of unsubscribers, it’s important to investigate why.

• Donations: It’s been a tough year financially for many people, so if you saw decreases in your donations for this year, that’s not necessarily a cause for concern. However, it’s still important to consider how you can improve your messaging and fundraising operations if you didn’t quite meet your goals this year. Do you need to personalize your messaging more? Do you need to get more specific with your campaigns? Are you being consistent enough with your communication throughout the year? These are all important things to consider.

• Events: The pandemic probably prevented you from putting on many of the events you would normally have held for your alumni this year. But if you held any virtual events, consider how those went and whether or not they could potentially be successful or beneficial in the future, even once the pandemic subsides. Is there anything you need to do to invest more heavily in creating positive, enjoyable virtual events?

For more tips, contact us at Alumnipad.