Affordable tools or DIY approaches to build an alumni community?
June 5, 2024 7:42 AM Subscribe
Do you know of any free or cheap tools or reasonable DIY options to build an online alumni directory to help 20+ years of alumni of a small, quirky high school find and connect with each other?
I'm on the Board of a small nonprofit affiliated with a small high school that is about 25 years old. There are some alumni facebook groups, but there has not been a coordinated effort to build alumni community in a way that is findable and easily accessible to all alumni. We are considering trying to create/operate an alumni directory so that current students and alumni can find alumni who are working in particular fields, especially those related to the school's programmatic niche, or who are living in different geographical areas. I've been tasked with figuring out whether this is feasible for our group. So far, I've found cheap and free options that offer tools to manage memberships and donations (ie Zeffy), but they don't seem to include an option to build a directory that would be accessible to members. I've also found options specifically aimed at cultivating alumni communities, but these are out of our price range (ie Hiverite, Almabase). Do you, fine folks of MetaFilter, know about other options I haven't found or have you DIY'd something similar?
I'd also welcome other ideas or cautionary tales from folks who have tried to build an engaged alumni network outside of Facebook.
Thanks!
I'm on the Board of a small nonprofit affiliated with a small high school that is about 25 years old. There are some alumni facebook groups, but there has not been a coordinated effort to build alumni community in a way that is findable and easily accessible to all alumni. We are considering trying to create/operate an alumni directory so that current students and alumni can find alumni who are working in particular fields, especially those related to the school's programmatic niche, or who are living in different geographical areas. I've been tasked with figuring out whether this is feasible for our group. So far, I've found cheap and free options that offer tools to manage memberships and donations (ie Zeffy), but they don't seem to include an option to build a directory that would be accessible to members. I've also found options specifically aimed at cultivating alumni communities, but these are out of our price range (ie Hiverite, Almabase). Do you, fine folks of MetaFilter, know about other options I haven't found or have you DIY'd something similar?
I'd also welcome other ideas or cautionary tales from folks who have tried to build an engaged alumni network outside of Facebook.
Thanks!
Best answer: I work with Alumni Relations at a large-ish university. I can tell you from experience that most alumni will not use an alumni directory. We have one, but it doesn't get much use.
A couple of questions for you -- what is your goal in doing this? Do you want alumni to be able to connect socially (in which case something like a moderated FB group is probably going to continue to be a good bet), or is this more about building professional connections?
Whatever you do you'll want it to be opt-in - there should not be a risk that any personal information would be shared without their permission.
Also, do you have a separate alumni database for internal use? Is the school able to contact alumni directly, either for fundraising or to ask them to join a group?
LinkedIn provides some robust tools for Alumni groups, however our experience has been that it takes some marketing to get people in there, and your org/school will want to continue to provide periodic updates that provide value. Our new-ish Alumni LinkedIn Group gets about 10x the traffic our pricey on-line directory does.
posted by anastasiav at 10:41 AM on June 5 [2 favorites]
A couple of questions for you -- what is your goal in doing this? Do you want alumni to be able to connect socially (in which case something like a moderated FB group is probably going to continue to be a good bet), or is this more about building professional connections?
Whatever you do you'll want it to be opt-in - there should not be a risk that any personal information would be shared without their permission.
Also, do you have a separate alumni database for internal use? Is the school able to contact alumni directly, either for fundraising or to ask them to join a group?
LinkedIn provides some robust tools for Alumni groups, however our experience has been that it takes some marketing to get people in there, and your org/school will want to continue to provide periodic updates that provide value. Our new-ish Alumni LinkedIn Group gets about 10x the traffic our pricey on-line directory does.
posted by anastasiav at 10:41 AM on June 5 [2 favorites]
An alumni LinkedIn group that I helped setup gets very little activity. Another group that uses a simple WhatsApp group chat is much more successful. But I think the real key is that there's a least one hyper-engaged individual who keeps it active.
posted by mullacc at 2:25 PM on June 5
posted by mullacc at 2:25 PM on June 5
My HS class of 1964 uses FB and has a spark plug member. I see it when I scan FB in the morning. Otherwise I wouldn't seek it out.
OTOH, I follow a hobby group the uses a traditional bulletin board. I think it runs pretty much hands-off for years at a time. Obviously, it does need to be hosted somewhere and a savvy tech for installation and probably a moderator to screen new members. phpBB Forum Software
I was involved with a long-running site on Google Groups which is now defunct. Some of those groups have found hosting somewhere, but I can't point you to where.
And there are email-based options like NextDoor.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:45 AM on June 6
OTOH, I follow a hobby group the uses a traditional bulletin board. I think it runs pretty much hands-off for years at a time. Obviously, it does need to be hosted somewhere and a savvy tech for installation and probably a moderator to screen new members. phpBB Forum Software
I was involved with a long-running site on Google Groups which is now defunct. Some of those groups have found hosting somewhere, but I can't point you to where.
And there are email-based options like NextDoor.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:45 AM on June 6
The Google Groups are now at Groups.io. This kind of site works quite well as long as you have an active moderator.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:19 AM on June 6
posted by SemiSalt at 6:19 AM on June 6
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posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:15 AM on June 5 [1 favorite]