Organizations across the world are discovering the value of turning departing employees into loyal alumni.
Whether you’re an educational institution or a corporation, alumni management software will help you make the most of your alumni network. It offers a centralized database for all your alumni’s information, as well as a platform for your organization and alumni to connect.
This makes alumni networking so much easier, allowing you to track all relevant data and cultivate strong relationships.
With so many alumni management systems on the market, how do you know which one is the ideal option for your organization? This review of the best alumni management software will tell you all you need to know.
What is alumni management software?
Alumni management software serves as a comprehensive tool for organizations to engage, communicate, and build lasting relationships with their alumni. It’s designed to collate and monitor all data relevant to your alumni, in both the educational and enterprise spheres.
In the educational sphere, your alumni are former students, whereas in the enterprise arena, your alumni are former employees. Whatever the case, your alumni’s wealth of knowledge, experience, expertise, networks, and skills are invaluable to your organization and fellow alumni.
The main goal is to create a community for your alumni to network with one another and engage with members of your organization. This in turn develops richer relationships and deeper engagement among alumni and the company. Engagement and collaboration can be beneficial to all involved, and this software makes communication simple, but professional.
Although your alumni have moved on, they can still contribute to the success of your organization while benefiting from networking opportunities. This is why you must keep all their contact information, and other relevant data, accessible and up-to-date.
Alumni management software has all the tools to help you do all that, with minimal effort.
Main features of alumni management software
Alumni management software boasts features that help foster strong partnerships with your alumni that can benefit both parties.
These are the top features of every good alumni management platform.
Centralized database for your alumni community
One of the key features of an alumni database management system is that it acts as a centralized database for your alumni association.
It offers a user-friendly interface for data collection, including personal, academic, and professional details of your alumni. It imports existing information from other databases and allows members to regularly update their data.
Your member database is easily kept updated and managed with just a few clicks. This efficiency makes managing alumni simple yet efficient.
Communication tools for your alumni networking
Regular communication is the key to alumni relationship maintenance and is one of the strategic goals of every alumni association. Alumni network platforms offer communication tools that enable every member to communicate and collaborate. Some examples are:
- Email communication: Many platforms offer built-in email systems to send newsletters, updates, and event invitations to alumni.
- Messaging systems: Internal chat features allow alumni to communicate directly on the platform.
- Discussion forums: Online forums allow alumni to ask questions and share experiences with one another.
Fundraising management within alumni networks
You can use your alumni community platform for more than just membership management and engagement. Interacting with your alumni allows you to reach out to them for help with fundraising, too.
Doing this through a dedicated alumni network platform rather than emails helps to personalize the communications, creating a deeper sense of connection. Alumni are more likely to help with fundraising if they are engaged and have a relationship with your organization.
Never overlook your former employees or students when looking for support or resources for fundraising. Thanks to their wealth of skills, and knowledge about your company’s processes, your alumni are well-equipped to assist you with event and donor management.
This is especially true for event planning and driving overall attendance, as they understand the company’s goals and target audience. They also act as brand ambassadors, giving you access to their own professional and personal networks.
Alumni are excellent sources of knowledge to tap into for upcoming in-person or virtual events. And the best part? With the right alumni management software, you can easily reach out to them and collaborate.
Top 5 alumni management software options
These are the top five software options to consider for your alumni network:
1. Aluminati
Aluminati is an alumni management software with a difference. Not only does it create a sense of ‘family’, but it’s also the most customizable community management platform for both educational and corporate sectors in the world.
This user-friendly platform streamlines membership management like no other. It safely and securely collects data, in compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Track everything from the dashboard, and you’ll stay informed of all activities in your alumni community.
When it comes to alumni engagement, it doesn’t merely promise to increase activity, it measures and gives you an engagement score. It even has the functionality to help you to understand what drives engagement. An example of this is showing the value of investment from alumni activities. How do people act after an alumni event? Aluminate can easily showcase this information.
Have you got open vacancies, but the thought of paying exorbitant recruitment costs is slightly nauseating? Aluminate can match open jobs with suitable alumni members. This is a game-changer for any organization, reducing the time and cost involved in recruiting top talent for open positions in the company.
Mentorship programs should be a key focus for any noteworthy alumni management software, and it is here that Aluminate brings its A-game. This is thanks to individual profiles, unlimited groups, mentoring community spaces, and a digital library where you can easily share insightful content. Your mentorship program is streamlined and easily accessible to everyone on the network.
If you want to get the most out of our highly customizable platform or are looking for specific features, get in touch to create the ultimate platform for your community.
Aluminati’s clients include esteemed associations like the Universities of Cambridge, Kent, Warwick, and Edinburgh (to name a few).
2. Wild Apricot
Wild Apricot is a cloud-based platform for managing your alumni community. Data for your alumni networks is stored in the cloud for secure searching, updating, and sharing from any device.
The platform includes a website builder with an easy drag-and-drop editor, a payment processor, and a mobile app.
You can use Wild Apricot as an email and contact database, and also for event management. Networking events are crucial for establishing strong partnerships with your alumni, and for the referrals that lead to new, profitable business partnerships.
3. Almabase
Almabase is a user-friendly alumni network software that focuses on organizing both virtual and in-person alumni events. It facilitates alumni program building and membership management.
The platform also offers tools for peer-to-peer crowdfunding among the online alumni community. Crowdfunding is one of the most successful methods for funding new entrepreneurial endeavors.
In the alumni community, this strategy extends beyond just monetary offerings to intellectual support from trusted peers. If supporting new startups interests you, Almabase may work for you.
4. Graduway
Graduway is an alumni management platform for higher educational institutions, schools, and non-profit organizations. Graduway is a useful platform for alumni mentoring within their networks.
The culture of belonging and continuous learning in an alumni community lends itself well to mentoring. Graduway realizes this and includes group spaces for better networking, mentoring, and communications for event management.
Graduway is a tech-forward platform that uses artificial intelligence and automation to streamline your alumni network processes. It integrates with popular customer relationship management systems (CRMs) to help you reap the benefits from your alumni, and vice versa.
5. Vaave
Vaave’s alumni management software is suitable for educational institutions. The platform offers a 6-month Alumni Engagement Program (AEP) that makes use of alumni to improve placements and admissions.
This program includes structured mentorship boot camps that prepare your student alumni for employability. It also focuses on turning your former students into loyal brand ambassadors, which will improve your institution’s admissions.
In the corporate space, Vaave focuses on helping organizations attract boomerang hires from their alumni networks. It makes this easy for both your company and your alumni with a built-in job board and applicant tracking system.
Achieve your organization’s goals with Aluminati’s Network
Staying in touch with your alumni is an effective way to achieve your organization’s goals. Engaged alumni are likely to become brand ambassadors, bringing in strong leads and helping your organization grow, long after they’ve moved on.
Alumni networking is a breeze when you have the right alumni management software. It allows you to maintain strong alumni relationships by offering value in the form of networking, mentorship, and opportunities.
For the best in alumni management software, look no further than Aluminati. We offer an innovative alumni management platform that will help you build and maintain meaningful connections.
Ready to supercharge your alumni network? Request a demo today!
