Student Organizations Engaging with Alumni

• Is your alumni list tagged and up to date?
• Do you have a simple message drafted along with the other required email information?
• If you are planning an event, do you have a registration page, detailed event timelines, and relevant information for pricing, accommodations, and who to contact in the case of questions or last-minute issues?
• Are you leaving enough time between the drafted message, the send, and the actual event or action?
• Remember to email HAA at haa_collegealumniprograms@harvard.edu for record keeping and updating lists, as well as email communications.

1. Check with the HAA first at haa_collegealumniprograms@harvard.edu to see if they already have alumni tagged as being members of your student organization (i.e., they might have alumni from some years but not more recent ones).
2. Based on guidance from the HAA, compile all existing records of previous student group members. It may be useful to reach out to former leaders of your group for contact information.
3. Format your database in a spreadsheet format with columns as follows (HUID, First Name, Last Name, Class Year, Email [@college if current student or other if you have one and the person has already graduated], Role).
4. Compile information for current members as well, especially graduating seniors.
5. Send the database via email to haa_collegealumniprograms@harvard.edu so that the HAA can tag your newest members. The standard time for tagging alumni is approximately 10 business days for lists under 100 members and 20 business days for larger lists. If your list does not include HUIDs, you should expect to wait 4 weeks for tagging to occur.
6. After sharing your initial list, plan to annually share your list of newest members.

Email represents one of the most effective ways to keep in touch with your alumni and to maintain connections. Unlike email services like Outlook, Gmail, or Yahoo (which limit the number of recipients you can email at once and put your email at greater risk to be classified as SPAM), the HAA can send a message to many alumni. Your email will be delivered in a way that prevents the recipients from seeing who else has received the same email, not only keeping email information private, but avoiding 'reply-all' mistakes from occurring. The HAA offers email marketing to registered student groups who maintain an alumni database with them.

If your organization is interested in asking the HAA to send your email out to your alumni, please reach out to the HAA at least two weeks before you would like your emails sent. Please remember that if your alumni are not already tagged, this process will take longer. Once the required information is received, the HAA will build your email and share it for your approval before sending it to the recipients.

Email Best Practices When Working with the HAA

• Frequency: Don't send updates too frequently. Quarterly or biannual updates to your alumni should keep them aware of relevant changes and news.

• Text: Text should be succinct and get the intended point across quickly.

• Subject lines: Subject lines should be short and descriptive and pique the interest of your alumni.

• Content: The content of your email newsletter should be interesting to alumni. Content could be: Updates about current activities and events on relevant articles or discussions based on group focus;  Student or alumni spotlight; Advertisement for upcoming alumni functions.
  • Updates about current activities and events on
  • Relevant articles or discussions based on group focus
  • Student or alumni spotlight
  • Advertisement for upcoming alumni functions.

Required Information

• Recipients: The population you'd like to receive the email (i.e., all alumni from Crimson Key Society)

• From Name: The sender(s)/signer(s) of the email (i.e., Mike Smith '17, or Crimson Key).

• Reply-to Email Address: This could be a personal email address or a group email address.

• Subject: The subject line (50 characters or fewer (i.e., "2017 Spring Newsletter" or "Attend our upcoming Reunion")

• Preview Line: This short line appears at the very top of the email and will also show up in the preview section on a mobile device; if the subject line is the email's title, think of the preview line as the subtitle.

• Customizable Group Name or Banner Image: This text or image can be included at the top to brand your messaging (i.e., "Crimson Key Society.")

• To: You may address the recipients by their first name at the beginning of the email. You may also address them as a group ("Tom Smith" vs. "Crimson Key Alumni")

• Text: The body of the email. Should be fairly simple text. Customized templates, including multiple images or other formats are not accepted.

• Signature: Sender of email, which must also include class year and title of sender

The HAA reserves the right to edit or reject email content in accordance with University policies and best practices.

Harvard’s Alumni Affairs and Development Office (AA&D) can send out e-mail solicitations on behalf of registered student groups who maintain an alumni database with the HAA. If your organization is interested in asking AA&D to send your solicitation email out to your alumni, please first follow the steps in the “Build Your Network” section above to tag your alumni and/or confirm that your alumni are tagged. A strong engagement strategy should always precede a fundraising effort!

You also will want to be sure you have established where the funds you want to raise will go, how you will access them, and how you will solicit them (online, via mail, etc.) Olivera at the DSO can answer questions about fund status and process:

Olivera Saric Knezic: Assistant Director of Finance and Administration Dean of Students Office, Harvard College olivera@fas.harvard.edu

Once you have established your distribution list and established where the funds you will raise will go, please follow the guidelines set forth in the “Email Best Practices When Working with the HAA” section in crafting your message. All fundraising messages will be approved by AA&D before sending. Please allow 10 business days for message approval. Messages will be sent on a schedule determined by AA&D so as not to conflict with other institutional messaging. To ensure your message can be sent in a timely fashion, significant advance planning is recommended.

Before making any initial solicitations, at a minimum, a group should be able to answer the following questions:

• For what purpose are funds being raised?

• How much is needed?

• What is the story being told that will compel donors to give?

If your organization has a website, a page devoted to alumni engagement can be a great resource for former members looking to get involved. Content for this page can include:

• Information regarding social media channels

• Events calendars

• Material featured in email newsletters

There are also many ways to connect with your alumni on social media! Some examples are:

• A Facebook page for your organization is a good way to establish a clear organizational source of information.

• A Facebook group is a useful tool to allow organic interaction between current members and students with your alumni. In your group, you can post relevant content and allow members to directly connect with alumni of similar interests.

• An Instagram account for your organization is a great way to share images and videos of your initiatives and events.

You can also follow @HarvardAlumni and @HarvardCollegeAlumni on Instagram and check out the Harvard Alumni Association and Harvard College Alumni pages on Facebook.