Homecoming: What's In It For Us? A Look at Best Practices

HOMECOMING: WHAT’S IN IT FOR US?A LOOK AT BEST PRACTICES

Timothy State ’93, Executive Director of Alumni Programs & Special Projects, Lake Forest College Stephanie Epp, Ed.D. ’07, Executive Director of Alumni Relations, Illinois State University

Goal For the Next 75 Minutes Interactive session Share ideas grounded in core goals,

strategies, and data Provide context, background and

motivation for thinking ‘outside the box’

Lake Forest College

4-year Liberal Arts College founded in 1857

30 miles north of Chicago, affluent community

1,400 traditional-aged students from 47 countries and 50 states

13,500 solicitable alumni

Lake Forest Homecoming

Modern Homecoming started in 1997

Combined with reunion and family weekends

Part of a new institutional emphasis to engage alumni

250 alumni, parents and friends in those first few years

Lake Forest Homecoming Today

A true community celebration with over 4,679 alumni, parents, friends and community members.


The parade has over 80 floats. For a school with 1,400 students, if you’re not playing football, you’re in the parade.


Over 80 volunteers now work year-round to bring nearly 1,000 alumni to reunion events.


This past fall represents the fourth year with attendance greater than 3,000. Still, there is room for growth.


Illinois State University

Founded in 1857 as Illinois’ first public university Today, a comprehensive university with six

colleges 20,450 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral

students 177,000 alumni in all fifty states/international

Illinois State Homecoming

86-year history of celebrating Homecoming

Traditional elements with parade, football game, and alumni reunions

Sesquicentennial in 2007 – turning point

Illinois State Homecoming Today

A Call To Action

A true community celebration – here over 400 community, student, and alumni runners in our annual 5K race.


Build widespread school spirit and a sense of tradition among our future alumni.


Highlight our distinguished alumni and bring them to campus to work with students and faculty.


Connect alumni and students through areas of affinity and involvement.


Showcase in a visible way the school spirit of faculty and staff through our campus decorating contest.


Build legacy families through special activities to involve alumni and the next generation of Redbirds.


The greatest opportunity to showcase the institution to all audiences while providing the chance to connect audiences and their memories of the institution to the experience of their lives today. In that sense, it humanizes an institution, making it clear the impact it has on people’s lives.

What does Homecoming represent?

Homecoming Weekend Goals

Increase participation – across the board

Showcase all aspects of an academic community

Build school spirit and pride

Homecoming Strategies

Redesign the Steering Committee Reframe assumptions about who “owns”

Homecoming Engage the community Know investment and align fundraising

campaigns “Sell” homecoming to internal constituents Use guerilla (viral) marketing techniques Provide volunteer training and support Create on-campus and virtual experiences Use data to plan, review, and improve

GOAL: Showcase All Aspects

What does that look like?

What are your goals for using Homecoming to benefit your institution?

QUESTION:

STRATEGY: Realign the Committee

STRATEGY: Redesign the Steering Committee

Illinois State Alumni Relations co-chairs Three key subcommittees

Internal Spirit (faculty/staff) Student Spirit Community/Alumni Spirit

Ad hoc committees on marketing, traffic Intentional recruitment or representation

and leadership

You are missing faculty and, ironically, alumni in your committee structure. How might you involve those two audiences in a manner that is respectful of their time and also clearly values their input, while at the same time is productive for you?

Transition of key committee members, especially students, is inevitable. How do you plan to bring new representatives on board, ensuring seamless communication and execution of responsibilities?

QUESTIONS:

STRATEGY: Data Driven Planning

Are you planning Homecoming because it meets the needs of alumni you’re trying to engage, or because it’s what we’ve always done? In other words, is tradition preventing you from being strategically relevant in today’s world?

Lifestage Segmentation

Relative Draw Index

RDI is a percent divided by a percent to give you a ratio. 1.0 is even. Below 1.0 is is under-drawing, or poor. Above 1.0 is over-drawing, or good. Group of 100 at homecoming, 20% yellow Population of 1,000, 30% yellow Divide 20% by 30% = 0.66, or underdraw

LFC Homecoming RDI

0.9

1.1

0.6

1.3

1.2

1.1

0.7

1.2

0.9 0.9 0.9

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

Y1 Y2 Y3 F1 F2 F3 F4 M1 M2 M3 M4

2003-05 Homecoming Relative Draw Index

Lake Forest Data-Driven Changes Family-Friendly

Caged tailgating, checking IDs and wrist-bands, vehicle pre-registration

Added a family carnival and goodie bags for children

Modified menus with more finger foods Student Emphasis

Parade is a “service” students can provide for the children of alumni

Alternative Friday Evening Programming Money Focus Community Focus

“Bring your entire family”

Event Attendance and Giving

YearAlumni Attend

New or Increase Gift

No Change

Decrease Partic.

Overall Partic.

2006 3.3% 38.9% 33.2% 27.9% 55.2% 26.7%

2007 2.8% 56.3% 21.8% 21.8% 55.7% 24.2%

2008 5.9% 47.0% 25.9% 27.1% 55.1% 29.5%

Event Attendance and Giving

YearAlumni Attend

New or Increase Gift

No Change

Decrease Partic.

Overall Partic.

2006 3.3% 38.9% 33.2% 27.9% 55.2% 26.7%

2007 2.8% 56.3% 21.8% 21.8% 55.7% 24.2%

2008 5.9% 47.0% 25.9% 27.1% 55.1% 29.5%

’08 Bench

49.9% 37.8% 12.4%

Illinois State Data Sources

Alumni survey data Student focus groups Planned debriefings Program participation data Website/virtual vehicle statistics Analysis of university investment in

Homecoming

Q17. Please indicate how much each of the following impacts your overall current opinion of the Illinois State University:

NoImpact

Significant

Impact

Critical Impact

SomeImpactBy Era

Illinois State Data-Driven Changes Reposition Homecoming as a university

AND community event Showcase all aspects of the University Weeklong schedule and timing of

Saturday events (e.g. 5k run) Family-friendly activities Volunteer-led, affinity-based reunions

with toolkit from Alumni Relations

How might data inform the planning and implementation homecoming at your institution?

QUESTION:

STRATEGY: Guerilla (Viral) Marketing Techniques

Volunteers for guerilla marketing Virtual volunteers Reunions

Online Promotion & Viral Marketing

Volunteers for Campus Spirit

STRATEGY: Volunteer Training and Support

Simplify Reunion Process Focus committee’s responsibilities Recognize not all volunteers have the

“people skills necessary” Acknowledge reunions are awkward, group

therapy Conscious of language – “Renew,

Reconnect” “Hi. This is a voice you may or may not

remember. This is Tim, and we were both in school together at Lake Forest College.”

STRATEGY: Engage Community

Lake Forest: Door Hangers Illinois State

Committee of community leaders Partnership programs to showcase the

community Marketing kits and promotional materials to

area businesses and hotels Billboards, signage, window displays, phone

responses

Engage the Community

What are questions that you have?

QUESTION:

Education

Homecoming: What's In It For Us? A Look at Best Practices