Building an Alumni Data Base for a College Ministry

 "A College Minister should be fired, if he or she does not work with alumni." is my way out there statement.

The most common reason I hear is, "There is no alumni list where I serve."  Someone has to start it and if no one before you started it, then you are the one.  Just start! If there is already one, then you must continue to develop and update it.  Nothing goes out of date quicker than an alumni list.

Starting an Alumni list:

    1.  Just start.  Who have you met at church or in the community that says, "I used to go to the BSU/BCM/Red Wolves for Christ, etc.  Get their mailing or email address.  

    2.  Send out a letter or social media message asking them to send you the names and contact information of any friends who were involved in the ministry when they were.  Even if they do not know any contact info, just getting some names will be helpful. List the names you may have gotten.  

    3.  Keep the letter to one page but just share some of the good things happening in the ministry in a paragraph or maybe two.  DON'T MAKE IT A FUND RAISING LETTER!

    3.  Look at pictures that the ministry may have on the wall or in scrapbooks, etc and make a list of all the names.  Some may be ones you will recognize in the community and you can get an address.

    4.  Buy lunch for any alums you have met and find out if they have contact info for any of those on your list.

    5.  Some colleges publish an alumni book and people have listed organizations they were active in during their time in school. Buy or borrow one and go through it.  

    6.  Another way to start is this spring list all of your ministry graduates and start with them and add to it each graduation.  I am aware of one ministry that adds all of their freshmen to their alumni mailing list, so as to not lose them over the next four years.  That Campus Minister shares that one of his biggest alumni donors was only involved her freshmen year.

    7.  At graduation get a copy of the graduation program that lists all the grads and go through it looking for names of students who were involved some time during their college career, but were not active the last year or two.  Not all that dropped out did so because they did not want to be active.

    8.  Look at annuals from the past and if there is a picture of your ministry group, it will often have names of those pictured.

    9.  Contact former Campus Ministers and ask for any alums they have current info on or ask them to post a request on social media.

Updating and Maintaining an Alumni List:

    1.  Always request an address correction on bulk mailouts.  You will have to pay for those returned, but it will be worth it in getting new addresses or at least knowing not to continue to send to someone at that address in the future. If you find an old outdated list, do a mailing with this request on the outside and it will quickly update your list....most likely paring it down, if there has not been recent mailings.

    2.  When possible, keep a woman's maiden name in the name on your list such as, Sue Pollock Dickerson.  That specifically identifies them and helps when sharing information about them in the newsletter.

    3.  Mail to the specific person, not to Mr. and Mrs. or The Jones, etc.  When there is a divorce or death, you can lose the one who the newsletter was actually intended for.

    4.  In a newsletter do a list of names of those whose addresses you have lost and ask anyone to share an update that has it.

    5.  Having alumni news and fun pictures from the past is the key thing in alums WANTING to receive the information you mail out.

    6.  Always, Always, Always, Always enclose a return envelope to get back any family information for future newsletters, contact info of other alums and possibly a contribution.  We found that those envelopes continued to come back for the next several months.

When do you do some of this work?  December and May are great times for alumni work.  Writing down a quick squib about some news you see on an alum on social media and throwing it in your Newsletter File Folder can be done throughout the year.

 Even if such a list does not bless you in your time on that campus, it can bless your successors.  It will bless the ministry in years to come.

Arliss Dickerson's book, Almost Everything About College Ministry, is available at Amazon.com/dp/B08CMD9CXX and Reaching MORE College Students is at Amazon.com/dp/B0BMW8NPMN.