Traditional alumni relations programs are about prompting graduates to do something--anything--for or with the institution. In this article, the author proposes something different: an outcome-oriented alumni relations programming model, which the author calls "strategic advancement," that focuses on smaller, targeted sets of graduates…

Increasingly, there is a growing realization in alumni relations that successful alumni programs, benefits, and services are not ends in and of themselves. Rather, alumni engagement is ultimately all about the institution. Success in alumni relations ideally advances an institution's overall forward progress. Twenty years ago, alumni strategic…