Are You an Event Planner or an Engagement Officer?
Alumni Relations Has Outgrown Its Old Identity
For decades, alumni officerss were seen as the “party planners” of campus — responsible for happy hours, reunions, and friend-raising.
That era is long over.
Today, alumni relations teams play a strategic role in:
Supporting institutional goals
Fueling volunteer pipelines
Bridging connections across departments
Guiding alumni from casual attendance to broader and deeper involvement
What Exactly Is an Engagement Officer aka an Alumni Relations Professional?
An Engagement Officer wears many hats. For the purpose of this post, here’s what they do as it relates to events:
Design experiences that move alumni along the engagement continuum
Coordinate with development, faculty, admissions, DEIB, career services, international relations, and anyone else on campus developing an event strategy involving alumni
Use events as strategic tactics, not end goals, to influence giving, volunteering, advocacy, and institutional loyalty
Empower and guide volunteers to be partners in gathering alumni, parents, and friends
Use qualitative and quantitative data to inform business decisions around annual event planning
Report beyond the outputs (signals of activity, like # attended) and tells stories of Impact (deeper ripple effects of the event)
