From the Nominator

"Our School of Education has always been a strong part of what we do at the College. We have a reputation throughout the Northeast in education programs. 

We put together a marketing plan where the tactics discussed here fell in summer/fall 2021. The goal was two-fold: First, improve our overall alumni engagement by targeting education alumni, who make up more than half of our living alumni, by showing them our support during a difficult period in their careers (i.e., year two of the pandemic). Second, engage these alumni as influencers (as they have front-line access to prospective students) and annual fund donors (scholarships are essential for recruiting more educators to fill the shortage). 

We did this through a series of tactics: A commercial thanking teachers that aired at the beginning of the school year; theming our winter magazine around educators (we featured 14 educators in the magazine and made it the cover story), and sending "care packages," including a "Saint Rose made" t-shirt and Saint Rose pennant magnet, to 1,500 education alumni who signed up for them. This set us up for a segmented annual fund ask coming in 2022. 

The results: We received updated alumni information on 1,500 of our education alumni, including where they worked, data we never were able to get before through general requests. Teachers shared pictures of themselves wearing the "Saint Rose Made" t-shirts on their social networks (and we posted them on ours). And web traffic on our School of Education page grew 18%."

From the Judges

Terrific underlying purpose--to support their biggest alumni base during a difficult time. Judges really appreciated the thought and care behind this initiative.