CHERRY HILL, N.J. – Alumni Channel, a web provider of online alumni communities for schools and other non-profit organizations, announced today that St. Mary’s High School of Manhasset, New York, is relying on the company’s online community solution to develop closer relationships with its alumni.
Jay McDonnell, high school alumni director made a commitment to begin implementation of the Alumni Channel for their online alumni community. The St. Mary’s High School Alumni Association is an alliance of more than 13,000 St. Mary’s graduates across the United States and worldwide. With a growing base of graduates, the high school wanted to cultivate stronger bonds with and among alumni that would lay the foundation for fundraising in support of critical programs such as scholarships and the endowment. St. Mary’s needed a technology solution that would enrich its existing Web site while reducing costs associated with direct mailings. This would enable the school to provide an interactive, customized experience for each visitor, including opportunities to connect with each other, view school and class events, and eventually make online donations.
To this end, St. Mary’s deployed the services of Alumni Channel for online community building. The school now has a single point of entry that allows alumni to self-maintain their profile information which can then be used to update the master donor database.
“Schools face a real challenge in keeping connected with alumni who, after graduation, scatter throughout the world,” said Chris Gehringer, president of Alumni Channel. “St. Mary’s is taking a leadership position in how it uses technology to give its alumni – regardless of whether they live on Long Island or the Far East – an easy way to stay involved.”
Empowering Graduates through Alumni Channel
With Alumni Channel, St. Mary’s High School will be able to replace a static Web site with an interactive online community and enhanced electronic communications. Like most other organizations launching a new Web site, getting people to visit the site is a key step. With only 10,000 email addresses on file for its 13,000 alumni, the school will embark on an integrated marketing campaign to increase awareness and introduce the benefits of registering on the new site. Included in St. Mary’s service is a new web site address that can be used on all marketing to promote use of the site. Through this effort, the number of email addresses will increase over time.
To visit St. Mary’s Alumni Channel, go to http://www.StMaryAlumni.ws/ (that’s .ws, not .org or .com).
About St. Mary’s High School
Founded in 1949, St. Mary’s High School is a Roman Catholic, Parochial, coeducational, college preparatory school serving the diverse educational needs of New York families in the Diocese of Rockville Centre and the Diocese of Brooklyn.
About Alumni Channel
The Alumni Channel online alumni system is designed to increase alumni connections through a secure online alumni directory that will help connect an organization’s entire membership. Alumni Channel offers alumni a community of their own to contact each other, plan reunions, share stories and photos, and it enables the parent organization/school to maintain and build an alumni database providing with valuable alumni contact information. Schools have the ability to not only announce upcoming events and campaigns on the site itself, but also customize and send mass e-mails, run reports, export data and distribute surveys. Founded in 1998, Alumni Channel is headquartered in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. For more information, visit www.alumnichannel.com.