Are you galvanising your allies? Part 4: Alumni and students

Your alumni and students are a vast network of champions, leaders and changemakers—yet this incredible resource is going underutilised by universities. Here’s how to turn them into advocates and allies.

29th April 2025

This is a common response to alumni communications—but it doesn’t have to be this way! (via memeguy.com)

Welcome to part 4 of my series on how to galvanise your allies. So far, I’ve explored how to shift your mindset from communications to advocacy and how to galvanise government on a sectoral level and on an individual level. 

In this newsletter I wanted to talk about your most powerful allies that are wildly underutilised: alumni and students. 

Alumni: The Untapped Network

Alumni and students are more than just names on a mailing list or faces in a lecture hall. They are your funders, your influencers, your future partners—and, crucially, proof of your impact. 

And, importantly, they are ready supporters—a network of champions at your disposal. Who doesn’t want to say their alma mater is changing the world? But how many alumni or students, current or prospective, can actually name their university’s top achievements? How many can explain the impact of their alma mater’s research? And how many students choose your university because they know what you’ve accomplished, not just because of your ranking?

I speak from experience. As a University of Queensland alumna, I know about Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine, only because of my background in science publishing. I’ve asked dozens of UQ alumni what they know about the impact of UQ. Every single person I have asked knows about Gardasil, but doesn’t know the link to UQ. 

This isn’t a story about one university. It’s about all of them. It’s a huge missed opportunity for the entire sector. 

Alumni: Focusing on Fundraising is Missing the Bigger Picture

There is a major strategic misstep underlying this problem. Instead of equipping alumni with easy-to-share messaging about the crucial impact of universities in everyday life, the focus is almost entirely on fundraising. It’s a legacy approach that simply doesn’t work—especially in today’s socio-economic climate. 

Globally, the cost of higher education has soared over the past two decades, with student loan debt rising sharply in many countries. In numerous regions, student contributions and tuition fees have multiplied several times over, while graduate salaries haven’t kept pace. Student debt now constitutes a significantly larger burden relative to starting salaries, even before factoring in escalating costs of living and housing.

In this context, why would younger alumni donate—especially if they don’t know what their money will achieve, and they’ve paid more for their degree than any previous generation? Increased fees may not be the fault of universities, but they are the reality. Alumni communications must evolve, particularly for recent graduates and future alumni who will face even higher costs. 

But even more importantly, if you want to galvanise your alumni to become allies and advocates—not just donors—you must move beyond donation-focused outreach. There is a significant opportunity here to be proactive and focus on building social capital, not just funds. 

Your alumni are everywhere, from boardrooms to parliaments to startups and classrooms. They are donors, industry leaders, investors, parents and policymakers. They can help you supercharge industry relationships and critical collaborations, or help you access funds. The breadth of your alumni networks means that they can likely help with almost any problem faced by the university sector today. 

That is a resource most organisations can only dream of. Yet alumni networks are critically underused. Think of the amazing opportunities opened up by a reciprocal relationship with this powerful group—yet the only ask is for more money. 

Students: From Recruits to Advocates

The same logic applies to students. A few years ago, STEM Matters worked with a university to overhaul its student recruitment strategy. We shifted the focus, moving from job prospects to the opportunities for prospective students: the chance to work on global challenges, with a university that had a demonstrated impact on those challenges. The result? Transformation. 

Gen Z is purpose-driven; they want to make a difference. Connecting them with your stories of impact can be a game-changer.

Students represent the next generation of leaders, changemakers and community members. Enormous effort is invested in attracting them. Yet similarly to alumni, there is a missed opportunity to connect with them, and to turn them into advocates. 

By sharing compelling stories of your research impact—showing students how you’ve changed the world—you will transform your recruitment. 

This approach can also guide students to choose important subjects, especially those that suffer from poor branding and communication (notice a theme?!). Take agriculture, which is seen as old-fashioned, regional based, and as a major driver of climate change. But this perception couldn’t be further from the truth. Agriculture is an incredibly important tool to help with climate change–and for many, an opportunity to have an exciting and dynamic career. Why aren’t we telling those positive stories?

Similarly: exciting, inspirational stories around impact in “tough” STEM fields like physics, engineering or computer science will attract more students—and can contribute to increased diversity in these fields. 

Finally, communicating your work and research impact will help turn students into advocates. For most universities, it’s likely that students will know only your ranking. That might get them through the door, but it won’t turn them into lifelong supporters.

How to Connect: A Strategic Reset

So, how do you make the shift?

It begins with a strategic reset. Instead of thinking about alumni as opportunities to build your funds, consider them as a resource to help you build your social capital. Instead of thinking about student recruitment as a matter of ranking and jobs, think about what would excite and inspire them. What would incentivise both of these groups to talk about you, share your triumphs, and advocate for you? 

Too often, I hear poor communications are blamed on the comms team. This is a strategy issue. Poor communication means that communication has not been invested in, resourced, valued or championed by the executive. 

Start with an audit. Don’t assume, ask. Survey your alumni and students. What do they know about your achievements? Where are the gaps? It’s crucial that you establish that baseline. 

Set goals and measure your progress—and set accurate timelines. What do you want to achieve? Be specific. If awareness is low, set a target to change that over the next three years.  Track your progress and be ready to make changes. 

Fixing low levels of awareness and perception will take time. Commit to doing this over a number of years. 

Identify your key messages and examples—and be audacious. You’ve changed the world—now make sure everyone knows about it. Don’t be shy with your message or your goals. What are the top one to three stories of research impact everyone should know? Make them short and memorable. You want your alumni and students to easily share these stories with their friends and colleagues. 

Tailor your channels for your audience. Tailor your communications—email, social media, events—to your audience. 

Don’t neglect your website. Make sure those messages are front and centre on the website. Social media is important, but the decision-makers and donors will look at your website to learn more about you.

If more people knew about your research impact, how many more students and supporters could you attract? How could that have further impact that would benefit you now? Take a look at how Harvard University has shifted to a focus on research impact. This approach should imbue every aspect of your communication.

There’s a lot to unpack here, and much more to explore, but these steps will set you on the right path.