Alumless

We've got a great Alumless this week. Join us and special guest John Feudo, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement at UMass Lowell and author of seven books, including Alumni Relations: A Newcomer's Guide to Success, and I'd Rather Eat Live Spiders: A Definitive Guide to Becoming a Successful Speaker. We chat with John about his career in advancement and discuss his observations on volunteer e...

Join us for a special edition of Alumless, where we delve into the world of alumni and donor engagement metrics. Our esteemed guests, Jenny Cooke Smith, Senior Director, CASE Insights Solutions, and Melissa Schipke, Founder and CEO of Tassl, bring their extensive expertise to the table. On the show, we’ll explore what the CASE Insights survey on Alumni engagement has taught us about the field and...

On this episode of Alumless, we're featuring special guest Sallie Sistare, Executive Director for Alumni and Family Engagement at Denison University. We chat with Sallie about the school's unique value proposition and how they've worked to develop and strengthen approaches to providing students and alumni involvement opportunities in the career space. We also chat with Sallie about her 20-year alu...

This episode of Alumless we're featuring special guest Andrew Gossen, Executive Director for Communications, Marketing, and Participation in the Office of Alumni Affairs & Development at Cornell University. We discuss with Andrew how digital advancement strategies have evolved over the last decade and the essential techniques, tools, and tactics for today's high-performing advancement shop. We...

On the next Alumless, we're going to tackle organizational effectiveness, employee engagement, and talent management with special guest Sue Ballard from Rensselaer Polytechnic University (RPI). We've got a great conversation planned for listeners, where we'll discuss the nuances of ensuring our advancement organizations are high-performing.  We'll discuss with Sue where things are situated in...

This week, our special guest on Alumless is our colleague Nicole Kempton. Nicole joined CMAC in November as Vice President and Senior Consultant. We chat with Nicole about her experiences working for her alma mater, Duke University, as the Chief of Staff to the Vice President of Alumni Affairs and development. During the show, we focus on the idea of becoming more constituent-centered, what it mea...

On this edition of Alumless, we're featuring special guest Cheryl Harrelson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni, Annual Giving, & Pipeline Development. We asked Cheryl about her remarkable tenure at UCSD, leading a unique combined engagement model that includes career services. We also chat with Cheryl about what she thinks about the transition to Vice President of University Advancement at...

This week we're chatting with engagement strategist extraordinaire Sarah Schutt, Chief Alumni Officer at the Wisconsin Alumni Association and Foundation. We'll ask Sarah about the challenges of merging two independent organizations that become one. Chris and Ryan will also explore with Sarah what makes leading constituent engagement at the University of Wisconsin unique and how she works to keep p...

Join us for our conversation with special guest Laurence Bolotin, Assistant Vice President for Constituent Engagement at Loyola University Chicago. We discuss with Laurence the opportunities to intertwine faith-based narratives into engagement strategies. Chris and Ryan will explore with Laurence how his prior experiences working with different types of association organizations have informed his...

This week on Alumless, we're excited to feature a conversation with special guest JT Forbes, President and CEO of the Indiana University Foundation. Before taking over the reins at the IUF, JT led the Indiana University Alumni Association as the CEO for almost 12 years. During that time, JT established himself as one of the top leaders in the field. We'll discuss his work at the IUF with JT, wheth...

We're psyched to bring you a great Alumless as we kick off 2024. We chat with special guest Scott Mory, Vice President for University Advancement at Carnegie Mellon University and discuss how Scott's background leading alumni engagement teams informs his approach at Carnegie Mellon. We also chat about the field's progress in measuring alumni engagement and assessing ROI. Thanks to Protopia for bei...

Happy holidays, Alumless community. We've got a great episode to kick off the winter break. Join us for our conversation with special guest Monica Keith, Vice President for Advancement at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Monica brings over 20 years of experience leading advancement operations teams to the VP role. We chat with Monica about how her experience leading "back of the house" teams h...

Hey, Alumless listeners! We've got a great show for you with special guest Rod Grabowski, Senior Vice President for Advancement & Partnerships at the University of Central Florida. We chat with Rod about the nuances of building successful engagement and fundraising strategies at huge, complex universities. We spent some time with Rod chatting about his leadership style and how to develop the p...

We've got a BONUS episode this week! Join us for a conversation with the incomparable Kim Infanti, Executive Director for Digital Engagement in the Office of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving at Syracuse University. On the show, we get into the weeds on all things digital and make predictions for the future.  During our conversation, we dive into how digital plays a crucial role in bringing...

In this week's episode of Alumless, we sat down with Carla Willis, Principal at Washburn & McGoldrick LLC. We discussed with Carla what it takes to be successful at consulting in educational advancement. Carla also shared her thoughts on campaigns and why it feels like colleges and universities are always in campaign mode. Carla detailed her perspective on HBCUs and how their history has shape...

Hey, Alumless community, we have a great show for you this week. Join us for our conversation with Kris Davitt, Senior Vice President for Philanthropic & Alumni Engagement at the University of Pittsburgh. Kris is also the Chief Development Officer for Pitt's academic medical partner, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.  We chat with Kris about her prior experiences leading develo...

Hey, Alumless community, this week's special guest is Mark Davis, Vice Chancellor for University Relations and President of the UC Santa Cruz Foundation. Mark's advancement origin story begins on the alumni side of the shop. We'll ask him what that meant to approach advancement with his set of experiences that includes a lens on engagement. We'll have a wide-ranging conversation with Mark about th...

On this episode of Alumless, we're featuring special guest Lyndsey Crum, Assistant Vice President for Alumni & Community Relations at the University of Northern Colorado. We discuss with Lyndsey how she's remained focused on strengthening key relationships with campus partners in the colleges, schools, and units. We'll also discuss with Lyndsey some of the changes her team has gone through int...

On this episode of Alumless, Chris and Ryan chat with Rob Shoss, President and Managing Consultant at PEG Ltd. and the Alumni Attitude Study. We discuss with Rob the idea of value perception and some of the unique findings he's observed conducting alumni surveys over the last twenty years. We also discuss what it takes to execute a great alumni survey project, and how important it is to involve ev...

On this episode of Alum-Less, we're featuring special guest Annie Quade, Associate Vice President, Advancement, at the University of Texas at El Paso. Annie's team at UTEP is working on merging alumni and donor engagement strategies, which include advancement marketing and annual giving. In addition, Annie leads talent and recruitment for the Institutional Advancement division. We discuss with Ann...

We've got a special edition of Alum-less this week! We're featuring special guest Max Leisten, Founder and CEO of Protopia. On the show, we'll have a wide-ranging conversation with Max about AI's impact on advancement. Max and his team at Protopia have been helping universities use machine learning to stimulate and scale engagement. We'll discuss with Max the challenges universities are having ado...

On this episode of Alum-Less, Chris and Ryan catch up with Brandon Buzbee, Vice President for Advancement at the University of North Texas. In his role at UNT for a year, Brandon previously led the Global Networks unit at the University of Denver, which included career services as part of advancement. We discuss with Brandon the challenges of working for two completely different institutions and h...

Join us for our first Alum-Less post-CASE Summit in NYC. This week, we feature Temi Akin-Aina, Associate Vice President, Alumni Relations at Western University in London, Ontario. Temi is our first guest from Canada and rising star in the higher ed engagement space. We're excited to discuss with Temi some of the challenges facing advancement teams that might differ slightly in Canada versus the U....

Hey Alum-Less listeners, we've got a great show this week. Join Chris and me for a chat with Erica Arroyo, Associate Vice President for Engagement at the University of Miami. We'll chat with Erica about her team's fully integrated approach to philanthropy-focused engagement. All advancement teams need help with the degree to which alumni engagement strategies should be designed and resourced to pl...

On this week's episode of Alum-Less, we chat with Christine Fairchild, Direct of Alumni Relations at the University of Oxford. We'll discuss some of the challenges and opportunities that come with leading a centralized alumni team within Oxford's college system. Also, last week Christine announced that she's departing Oxford after twelve years. Chris and I will ask Christine to reflect on her tenu...