From the judges: Washburn University was very effective in making improvements during the merging of their alumni association and foundation. They were able to rebrand their alumni membership program and create a new position to focus on the needs of recruitment and retention of the program. These changes gave new and current members the feeling of being a proud card-carrying member of the alumni association! They ended up increasing their membership numbers and are still hearing positive feedback from alumni.
Washburn University Alumni Association Membership Rebrand
Category
Alumni Relations > Alumni Relations Improvement
Description
Award: Gold
Institution: Washburn University
Title of Entry: Washburn University Alumni Association Membership Rebrand
About this Entry: At Washburn University, there is a strong sense of pride among our alumni, but our Washburn Alumni Association membership program was not telling the same story. The Washburn Alumni Association merged with the Washburn University Foundation in 2014 and the two entities were rebranded as The Washburn University Alumni Association and Foundation in 2016. In 2018, Washburn University Alumni Association and Foundation’s five year strategic plan was created, stating the alumni association dues paid memberships needs to increase to 8 percent (with a current average of 6.01 percent). Prior to 2019, a membership brochure was the only item rebranded for the membership program. Excluding our regular communications that everyone receives, the current lifetime members had not been specifically talked to in over 10 years about the benefit of their lifetime membership, no one position was in charge of membership, and there had not been a membership campaign in more than 20 years. With a strategic goal of membership growth in mind, a program and event position was changed to an assistant director of membership and outreach position in January 2019 to lead our membership recruitment and retention efforts, and a full rebrand initiative was launched in March 2019. The Washburn Alumni Association offers more than 17 options for membership, which does not include faculty and staff memberships. We decided to focus on three categories: student memberships, annual memberships and lifetime memberships. Each category was designed with one cohesive look, yet given a different feel.