AlumniFutures, a blog by Andy Shaindlin on Ideas, Trends and New Directions in Alumni Relations and Higher Education, has two resources worth pointing out about Twitter.
Don’t know what Twitter is? Haven’t used it? No problem — the resources below give a crash course in what Twitter does and how it’s used.
Is Twitter a Tool for Alumni Relations?
and
White Paper: Activating Alumni Networks with Twitter
Prep Sportswear’s Partnership with Alumni Channel Targets Core Market of Nostalgic High
School Alumni
SEATTLE, WA, May 1, 2009 – Prep Sportswear, the largest school and team sports marketplace for high school apparel and merchandise, announced an alliance with Alumni Channel. Prep Sportswear will provide print-on demand high school gear for their hosted online communities. Alumni Channels clients consist of small colleges, high schools and special interest membership groups throughout North America seeking an official alumni web site.
Alumni Channel was founded in 1998, with a platform that contained a simple guestbook and links to photos. Today, they’ve grown to hosting and creating dynamic alumni communities and building better alumni relations programs.
Prep Sportswear offers the ability to customize t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, caps and hundreds of other sportswear and apparel items with an individual’s sport, activity, class year, number, or name. While maintaining a focus on schools and teams, Prep Sportswear is rapidly growing into the collegiate, corporate, and recreational sports markets.
Kelly Holmes, Business Development Manager of Prep Sportswear, said, “Alumni Channel is such a great fit for us as a partner. The company’s database of registered alumni and group members allow us to directly target one of our core markets with product images that are completely customized to what that user is looking for.”
About Prep Sportswear
Prep Sportswear is the leader in the school and team sports marketplace for customized school apparel and merchandise. We’ve supported more than 4.3 million teams and 1 million custom web stores, encouraging participants, coaches, students, parents, alumni, and fans to create, design, and buy personalized products. Prep Sportswear offers more than 1,200 high-quality items from a variety of premium brands, including Nike, Adidas,
Champion, OGIO, and American Apparel.
The company helps schools, teams, booster clubs, and community service organizations improve fundraising capabilities, increase revenues, and reduce the cost and complexity of managing and marketing apparel and uniform purchasing. Prep Sportswear is privately funded and located in Seattle, WA.
Media Contacts:
Leslie LaRue
Prep Sportswear
206.876.2800 x127
llarue@prepsportswear.com
Michigan City, Indiana –– Alumni Channel, a web provider of online alumni communities for schools and other non-profit organizations, announced that Marquette Catholic High School of Michigan City, Indiana, is relying on the company’s online community solution to develop closer relationships with its alumni.
Jennifer Quinlan, Marquette’s Director of Advancement, made a commitment to begin implementation of the Alumni Channel for their online alumni community. Continue reading
Please allow me to introduce Martin Reed, a 20- or 30-something that enjoys running online communities, and has created a web site devoted to the topic. Community Spark is a community building blog. Martin shares tips and advice on how to build and manage successful online communities whether they are forums, blogs, chat sites or social networks.
In his blog he hopes to share much of what he’s learned (and still learning) when it comes to developing and managing a successful online community.
Here are a few of his favorite articles:
His site is broken into various categories, including:
Each month Martin contributes several new articles to his blog, of which the archives can be found by searching or browsing http://www.communityspark.com.
By Derrick Feldmann and Dave Sternberg for TheNonProfitTimes
Here’s a common question: If we hire a director of development (a fundraiser), how long before that position pays for itself?
Typically, this question is asked when a nonprofit has secured funding for a development director for one year, or when an organization has adjusted its budget to fund the position.
Either way, this question reveals a common error: assuming that funding is the biggest consideration when adding a director of development. That error often is compounded by a second mistake: creating the position with short-term funding. Either error (and, certainly, both together) can doom a development director before the person even takes the job.
With the addition of two communities for the Somerset County Vocational & Technical Foundation, Alumni Channel is now hosting over 60 communities for elementary and high schools, colleges, alumni groups, and other non-profits. This milestone has come after two and a half years of working with school and non-profit leaders to develop a program that helps them reconnect with their constituents. Attractive features to alumni of all ages draw alumni back to the site for reunion updates, message board conversations, member searches and more. The data collected is then available to our clients in the way of reports and downloads, as well as reaching alumni through our e-mail blast technology.
This year we plan to develop further relationships with many more schools and education foundations. Alumni Channel is exhibiting at the National School Foundation Association conference in March, and the National Catholic Education Association conference in April. We also look forward to our presentations at many regional and area events in the areas of development and alumni relations.
From the Association of Fundraising Professionals . . .
(March 9, 2009) This week AFP featured social networking/web 2.0 tools in its newsletter, eWire Skill Builder. Here is their full coverage of the topic.
This 39-page book provides a road map for schools to follow in developing effective alumni associations that enhance the alumni themselves and assist the schools. The book gives practical guidance and includes an example of by-laws, tips for effectively using volunteers, and a job description for an alumni director. As the title indicates, alumni are essential to the creation of an effective and comprehensive school development program.
Get it online for less than $10 at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or from the publisher, NCEA.
Alumni Channel will be exhibiting at the 4th Annual NSFA National Conference will be held in Dallas, TX, on March 25-27, 2009 at Dallas/Fort Worth Marriott Solana.
This conference will be a fantastic opportunity for professional development. It will feature innovative sessions, inspiring workshops, and of course opportunities to network with other foundation professionals.
New donor management software will improve your life, solve all your organization’s problems and make all your goals a reality. Right? And it comes with prime waterfront property in the Everglades. This last sentence is only slightly less true than the first, but we take it as common wisdom. In fact, many non-profits change systems when they don’t need to, for the wrong reasons, or in an ineffective manner—and sometimes all of the above!
The truth is, new software may not make anything better—in fact, it could make things worse. While it’s easy to get caught up in all the features of a new system, the only guarantee is that moving to a new system will cost you money and staff time.
Read this Idealware article to find out: