Driving Scalable Alumni Connections at the University at Buffalo

Hi. I'm Patricia Starr. I'm assistant director for volunteer engagement at the University at Buffalo. We were looking for a way that students and alumni could engage with each other and help each other, and alumni to help other alumni, and People Grove was that answer. We were looking to do more flash mentoring, and we wanted to find something very quick and easy to do on both sides for every constituent at university. We've seen Connectable make a difference for my team and our university as a very easy engagement opportunity for our alumni, not only locally, but across the world. And it's great to share with our campus partners. They find the value in it. They're sharing it with their students. And we're just excited to see all the connections that are being made. A student reached out to me and expressed that they were a little bit intimidated about using Connectable, but they were on it and they saw a a particular person that they wanted to connect with. He connected with that person, found that this was a very, very approachable person. He was able to apply for an internship with that company, and it was a paid internship, and he received it. And that Connectable alumni mentor was able to then meet with him on the first day and show him around to meet with his fellow coworkers. And it's all because he connected on Connectable. Peoplegrove is actually helping me to do my job, not only engaging alumni, but we're able to use the metrics within the platform to align with our case AEM metrics. When I look at the connectable data on the back end, what I see is lots of demographics, lots of stats and metrics that tell me where the alumni are at, where the students are at, and it's helping me to inform better what our next steps will be. How do we keep engaging alumni? How do we keep them, happy and connected to the university, as well as students thinking about staying in touch and staying connected after graduation. I love the Peoplegrove platform because not only is it a scalable way to engage our alumni through groups, through the bulk email tool, but it's also a way through our metrics to discern who isn't being engaged and how we can be intentional with them and bringing them into our community. In the next two years with I'd love to see it grow and spread the good word about it so that we have more students and alumni joining because they're inspired to join. They see value in it. They see themselves in it. And I think that's really important. I'm just excited to make those partnerships, whether they're on campus or a fellow alum or alumnus.