Strategic Directions 2006-2010
Alumni engagement and philanthropy - lifelong relationship and friendship
Our future success will increasingly depend on our ability to engage our alumni, friends and the business sector, to leverage our national and worldwide reputation and create the additional financial resources necessary to accelerate achievement in research and innovation, and learning and teaching. We need to communicate in clear terms our strengths and successes to alumni and external audiences and convey the important role these groups have in determining our future.
Successful engagement will create a shift in the attitudes of our alumni and the external community in the manner in which they understand and take pride in our achievements and will engender support for the challenges we face as a university.
Our priorities are to:
- develop amongst our students an awareness of lifelong association and the importance and benefits to them of continued involvement
- engage alumni in the life of the University through innovative service programs and compelling communications
- commit to ongoing market research to better understand community and alumni attitudes, to inform our communications and assess the effectiveness of our programs
- develop ways to communicate effectively our strategic priorities in order to nurture a culture of philanthropy, and an expectation that gifts and private sector funding will be an increasing and critically important driver of University sustainability, quality and success
- build frameworks, expertise, policies, and program capacity to undertake ambitious and sophisticated alumni relations activities and fundraising campaigns, and
- establish an Alumni Centre on main campus that is the hub of activity and a space that effectively supports all programs engaging alumni with the University.
By 2010, we will have a robust spirit of volunteerism which will propel a unified Alumni Association with a single charter and an extensive cohort of national and international chapters that reflect the diverse interests and affinity of alumni across academic, geographic and cultural boundaries.
Standards of performance and benchmarks
- Annual increases in income generated from University-wide capital campaigns
- Continuous improvement in communication and engagement of alumni, friends and affiliated entities
- Improved coordination and management of foundations and other fund-raising entities