Not all alumni have the same experience as their alma mater, either as a student or an alum. Each individual’s experiences are filtered through their individual and cultural lens. Research reveals, however, that there are similarities (of such perceptions) among members of distinct demographic groups. A few critical demographic distinctions for alumni groups are age, area of study, and ethnicity. The better we are at targeting our communications to these unique distinctions, the better we will engage those alumni cohorts.
Our alumni feedback projects usually show distinctions about the best ways to engage older alums versus younger (age-based) or engineers versus nurses or teachers (field of study-based). However, sometimes we do not have as much data by ethnic group and, in those cases, cannot isolate differences between ethnic groups for individual clients. On the other hand, in the aggregate, we can see some interesting differences in how alums from different ethnic groups feel about their alma mater. The rest of this article is devoted to probing some of those differences. Data for the analysis are based on a set of alumni responses that includes 230,000 alumni responses from 70 different projects. 
First, there are differences in how alumni utilize different avenues of communication. While all ethnic groups reporting indicate a preference for reading the alumni magazine, Caucasian alumni read the magazine more frequently than other ethnic groups. Younger grads tend to read the magazine less regularly than older alumni, and the difference between the age groups is most pronounced among Caucasians.
These usage patterns contrast rather significantly with the perception of importance. Across all demographic groups, African-American alumni are most likely to say that the magazine is essential to them. However, they collectively report the lowest reading frequency (the magazine). This is something to consider when making young alumni communication choices. African Americans attribute the highest importance to six of the ten communication criteria we regularly look at.
Another interesting difference between ethnic groups is how they view solicitations and invitations to alumni activities. As expected, alumni want more invitations and fewer solicitations. Interestingly, Caucasian alumni are less likely to say they are getting too many solicitations than the other three ethnic groups and Asian alumni are the most likely to feel like they are getting too many solicitations.
On the other hand, Hispanic alumni are the most likely to want more invitations to events. This is consistent with Hispanic alumni having the highest satisfaction index of all ethnic populations. Also, the Caucasian alumni are the most passive on both issues. They are least bothered by solicitations and least anxious for more invitations.
In another question, we ask alumni about their perceived importance of invitations and how well their alma mater does at
Several of our clients have ethnicity-based alumni groups. Based on their specific alumni feedback, we have presented findings to these different groups. We observe a noticeable increase in energy levels in these presentations. There is more political pull to focus on groups like business or law school alumni. Still, our data indicate there might be more upside to concentrating on other longitudinal (alumni affinity that goes across many different ages and years of graduation) groups like African American, Hispanic, or Asian alumni. Our data show that these groups are collectively other (perceptually speaking) and have differing needs. Focusing on the specific needs of each group can significantly increase your success in developing the most effective programs and communications possible.
As universities and colleges seek to enhance their use of longitudinal affinity models, ethnicity should be an evident and high-priority choice. We know that many universities and colleges are successfully targeting programs for different ethnic groups while others are wondering how to improve their effectiveness in those segments.
Authored by Rob Shoss with analytics support from Jonathan Gaines