“Alumni engagement is a strong component of our short and long range plans. The EAi survey method was a quick and easy way to see how engaged our alumni are and how their engagement compares to our peer institutions. We have already been able to make use of the information we received.“
David McBride , Director of Advancement, Bishop’s University
“We have found the results from the Alumni Engagement Survey we did this past summer very valuable. We were impressed with the volume of our alumni who responded and the quality of the data we now have. Access to the “raw” data has proven extremely useful, and simple for us to manipulate. We’re quite pleased that we decided to move forward with this initiative.“
Lisa Demers, Director, Alumni Relations, Laurentian University
“EAi’s alumni engagement survey has been a great source of information for University Development. The feedback received will provide valuable information to support future programmatic direction”.
Wendy Zufelt-Baxter, Director of Development, Wilfrid Laurier University
“The Alumni Engagement survey we performed has proved very valuable. It has provided both confirmation of the value in what we were doing and challenged some established views. The survey was easy to use and allowed us to add questions specific to our institution, which provided very useful results.
The results have led us to change aspects of our alumni relations and fundraising programme for the better and provided strong evidence when working with senior management and the wider university. We have been very happy with the level of support that we received from EAi throughout the process.”
Miles Stevenson, Director of Development, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
The University at Buffalo was seeking specific, metric-driven methods to connect with its more than 250,000 alumni around the world and gauge their perceptions of UB’s alumni engagement initiates. Our objectives led us to Engagement Analysis, Inc. and Ray Satterthwaite. EAi, Inc. had the tools to strategically reach alumni who were more likely to connect, and it was Ray’s expertise and consultation that allowed us to develop our first Alumni Engagement Scorecard that directly measures an individual alumnus’ activity with the university. Subsequent data analysis, under Ray’s supervision, has resulted in a direct correlation between both metrics (connection level and activity) to philanthropy, and has validated alumni engagement efforts for the university. The UB Office of Alumni Engagement has never been more strategic or relevant than we are today, and EAi played a big role in getting us here.
Kristen Murphy, Senior Director of Alumni Engagement
University at Buffalo
The insights and data we were able to obtain through the engagement survey allowed us to make immediate tactical adjustments in our communications and programming. The analysis provided key understandings of priority areas to develop as we entered into our strategic planning process with our board. Having a current read on alumni engagement and differences between demographic groupings of alumni provided a great foundation for our strategic planning discussions. The overall process from question development to survey execution, reporting and analysis was very smooth and easy to manage. We would recommend participating in this type of research to any advancement shop.
Anne-Marie Middel, Associate Director, Alumni
McMaster University
With budget cuts looming we needed to be sure we could derive optimum return from our investments in alumni programming. We were also looking for a way to reinforce the value the University derives when it invests in its Alumni. We turned to Engagement Analysis Inc and Ray Satterthwaite's team because we wanted clarity and a convincing argument. Our Alumni Engagement Survey highlighted new information that addressed both objectives. Ray joined us at the University for a presentation of survey results to the University's Executive Team, senior administrators and our Dean's Council. Our Alumni team has since developed a three-year strategic plan, based on survey findings that we hope will propel our program forward -- even during years of restricted funding.
Peggy MacDonald, Director, Alumni and Community Engagement
University of Regina
In early 2016 I began initial conversations with Ray Satterthwaite at Engagement Analysis Inc. to find a better way to conduct our next Alumni survey. As an independent School of some 80+ years, we have a significant and growing network of alumni globally, and it was important at this stage of our growth to really dive deep into how well connected they felt to their School and what mattered most to them. I had the pleasure of working closely with Ray to develop the architectural support and planning for the survey, but more importantly to ensure that at the end of it we had data that would drive us forward strategically and in a meaningful way. Ray worked for several months with our Alumni Office, our Alumni Board and other volunteers, as well as my office to ensure that we all had full input and understood the decisions we needed to make in order to obtain our objectives. We have been very satisfied with the whole project, especially with Ray’s responsive and professional support as we worked together.
Adrienne Davidson, Director of Advancement
St. George's School
The EAi program is one of the best investments we’ve made in Alumni Affairs in the past few years. We thought it was going to be just for Alumni Affairs, but we’re bringing the results to departments across campus, such as Athletics and Communications, because there’s so much in there that will help them in their strategic planning.”
Mary Jessie MacLellan, Director of Alumni Affairs
St. Francis Xavier University
