Often we are asked why an organization should go with Alumni Channel? Is it worth it to pay? Couldn’t we just build it ourself? How about one of those free services like Reunion.com, Classmates.com or AlumniArchive.net?
Here’s an excerpt of a reply given to one such school in November 2007 . . .
We are a small, approachable company. We began working with schools in 1998 with our first site for Cherokee High School in Marlton, NJ. In 2006 we started working the business full-time and have added over 20 more organizations and now have over 24,700 members in our database. We currently host the alumni sites of seven Burlington County schools and fourteen within New Jersey. “Mercer County Technical Schools” and “High Technology High School” are our clients too.
As you know, good alumni relations can benefit you through donations, volunteers, community goodwill, student mentors, senior networking opportunities, after graduation surveys and more.
Our service can help with:
- accurate and more frequently updated alumni contact information
- secure alumni directories for your graduates (e-mail addresses are not revealed to other members)
- the ability for you to send e-newsletters by class or to your entire online membership
- a place to post your news and needs for alumni to read
- a full set of features to keep alumni coming back and interested (message boards, reunion planning, reunion and events listing, photo gallery, class directory and more)
- self registration and profile updating by the alumni themselves (which saves you time)
- direct access to your data at any time / reports and queries of your data
- online fund raising / online payments
- ownership of all data collected; it’s yours and you can have it at any time; because of this, we cannot sell or distribute it to anyone
Being a small, local company allows us to give you prompt and efficient service. I am available at any time to help with your alumni relations goals and to assist making your alumni site(s) as successful as possible. I am also available to come out for a demonstration if need be.
Currently, and for the last year, we have been offering our service at a very competitive price which includes the web-based community, web site hosting cost, web address registration, unlimited support, and never-ending upgrades to the software. Your alumni site(s) are branded with your school’s color and logo, and contain your messaging for each and every visitor to see. This low annual fee includes all community features, future enhancements and upgrades, customer service, support, continued training and up to 5000 registered members! Our only additional cost is for accepting donations online.
We offer a discount for multiple schools within the same district, as well as discounts for referring our service.
Not many of the other vendors that offer this kind of community service have their pricing available on the Internet, but a little research shows that Classmates.com isn’t in the business of helping schools keep in contact or benefit from their alumni. Classmates is all about collecting $30/year from each and every graduate. I don’t think you can own the data that is collected, nor become an administrator of their site.
YourMembership.com’s prices include $995 for setup and a $495 monthly fee. Other vendors such as BlackBaud, iModules, Harris, Golden Parachute, and Alumni Research all have their own offerings, but I don’t think you’ll find they match the basic simplicity of our service and how well it attracts alumni to within your reach.
All in all, we think you’ll find our price-value ratio very attractive.