Contacting Alumni
Meaningful connections to faculty, students, and our programs provide strong ties for Albion College alumni with their alma mater. Our goal in Institutional Advancement is to assist you in facilitating regular engagement with alumni while protecting private contact information and honoring individuals’ communication preferences.
Albion College faculty, staff, and students wishing to contact a particular group of alumni: please follow the guidelines below.
Academic Department or Institute Email Newsletters
The cadence for academic department or institute newsletters is up to 4x/year (quarterly), sent during the second week of the respective month.
- Departments: September, December, March, June
- Institutes: October, January, April, July
The audience for these newsletters is alumni from the related program as well as donors who have given to the program.
Newsletters will include a link to give a gift in support of the program.
Department/Institute contacts: submit content (via email, [email protected]) for your upcoming newsletter by the 15th of the month prior to the scheduled quarterly newsletter.
- Content to consider: departmental updates including staffing and recent events/activities; recent student accomplishments/highlights; ways alumni can get involved; related photos.
Institutional Advancement staff will work with Marketing/Communications on any necessary content edits for brand standards.
Institutional Advancement will send a final formatted draft to the departmental contact, along with information about the scheduled send day/time and audience.
Replies to the email newsletter will come directly to the department (either the department’s general email address or specific department contact, at your choice).
Faculty/Staff Outreach to Regional Alumni - Student Trips
Faculty and staff traveling with students and wishing to contact regional alumni regarding the travel itinerary and/or an alumni dinner: please contact [email protected], including the dates, location(s), and purpose of your trip. If you would like to meet with alumni who work in particular industries or who were involved in specific activities at Albion College, please also include that information.
Please give at least six weeks’ lead time prior to your trip.
At the discretion of Institutional Advancement staff, some funds may be available to assist with the cost of alumni meals.
Student Organizations
All student organizations wishing to contact relevant alumni must coordinate with Institutional Advancement. Please email [email protected], copying your faculty/staff advisor, and include as much of the following information as possible:
- Content for your email, as well as your organization contact who should receive email replies.
- Goal for your communication (what you want to happen as a result of this communication) and what types of alumni you are hoping to reach.
- Event date (if applicable) and when you want the communication to go out.
- Indicate if your communication or event has a fundraising component. Staff may direct you to the Fundraising Activity Request form.
Please give at least two weeks’ turnaround time for email communications and at least eight weeks for events.
Planning an Alumni Event
Departments, programs, or organizations wishing to plan an event with alumni: please contact [email protected] at least eight weeks prior to your event to coordinate, including as much of the following information as possible:
- Date and location of your event
- Goal for your event
- Audience: who do you want to attend?
- Does this event have a fundraising component?
- Do registrants need to pay a registration fee?
- Who is your point of contact / project manager for this event?
With questions or to discuss a need that does not fit these categories, please contact us at [email protected]. Please give at least two weeks’ turnaround time for communications and at least eight weeks for events.
To adhere to industry best practices, protect the privacy and security of our alumni and donors, and maintain the most up-to-date communication preferences of our constituents, all email communications to alumni groups of ten or more must be sent through Institutional Advancement.
In the case of a small email for coordination, email addresses should be entered via BCC to protect the privacy of contact information.