Cross-campus alumni relations is a lot like space flight. You may have several satellites—your unit communicators and alumni and development officers—receiving and transmitting information with alumni, but without regular maintenance and care, you could be losing valuable data.

Grinnell College alumni love talking about their alma mater, but that enthusiasm hasn't always translated into high reunion attendance. Advancement staff members at the Iowa college saw a way to increase alumni engagement by creating more opportunities to help out at reunion, beginning with revamped training for its 50th reunion volunteers. With better structure and more-detailed tasks, the program led to an overall higher level of engagement.