creating a non dues membership program for alumni associations

1. Building a Non-Dues Based
Membership Program That Gets
Results
Lynne M. Wester
UNC Charlotte
Donor Relations Guru
@donorguru

2. UNC Charlotte
• Founded in 1946
• 27,900 Students
• 113,000 Degreed Alumni
• 400,000+ Non Degreed Alumni
• 7.5 Alumni Staff- No, SERIOUSLY
• Lack of engagement and a data problem

3. The Problem:

4. The Concept:
• Updated Contact Information
• Engage Alumni (80% live within three
counties)
• Build Business Community
• Provide Value

5. PERKS Program
• Board led effort
• No Separate 501c3
• Lofty goals
• Tangible ROI
• Metrics based program

7. How to Stretch Yourself

8. Benchmarking Poll
• Who Else Doesn’t Charge Dues?
• Are You looking to move away from dues
based?

9. Data Collection Made Easy

10. The Benefits of Membership:
• $5 off at every alumni event
• Discounts on Continuing Education
• Discounts with more than 75 partners
• FREE Career Webinars (TalentMarks)
• Priority entry to events

11. The Cards

12. The APP

15. The Businesses

16. Advertising

17. Digital Billboards

22. Welcome letter

23. Success- Looks like-

24. Businesses
• Over 75 Established Partners
• 85% managed or owned by Alumni
• 400 plus warm leads generated by board
members and volunteers
• Adding 5-8 businesses a month
• Huge revenue driver for the businesses

25. Everyone is in the game…

26. Data Collection
• Over 3000 members
• Over 18,000 new data points collected since
November
• Continual address updates and information
streaming into central database

28. THANK YOU!
• @donorguru
• www.donorrelationsguru.com
• lynnewester@uncc.edu