Following the annual Educational Travel Conference sponsored by the Educational Travel Consortium last week, it is a good time to consider the purpose and the impact of affinity travel programs. We live in an age of travel – more people travel more often and to more places than ever before. To address that interest, more institutions from universities to museums to zoos and aquariums seem to offer educational or affinity travel opportunities to their communities of donors and volunteers. The purpose of offering the trips is generally a blend of “engagement” and revenue generation. Revenues can come from pricing (commission) or indirectly as donations before or after the trip. It is no surprise that those who can afford to be travelers are likely to be donors and to give again, perhaps at a higher level, after a trip. And most institutions have found that the trips generate loyalty – the best prospect for a trip is someone who has traveled with the institution before.
But what about future engagement with the institution beyond participation in another trip (and giving)?
The structure of affinity travel is ideal for building community. With the limited marketing and self-selection of travelers, the group is generally compatible and congenial. The lecturer or host from the sponsoring institution provides identity and branding to the trip as well as an enhanced experience that can be provided only by the institution. With this combination, participants are likely to be interested in opportunities to engage beyond merely the next trip.
For the institution, the intensity of affinity travel provides a unique opportunity to learn about the people and the ways that they want to engage. Each trip creates its own community through shared experience, so each trip should provide fertile ground for fostering engagement around the institutional mission and the shared values of the group. It might take some additional planning and different preparation to generate engagement, but it is likely to be well worth it. For example, museums might find new docents and universities might find new mentors or leaders.
An interesting way to frame the possibilities is to look at the corporate sector. In the corporate world, there is a lot of cross-marketing; in the non-profit world, it is about enhanced volunteer stewardship. Affinity travel can be volunteer stewardship at the highest level. Here are three ideas to consider for “cross-selling” engagement opportunities to volunteers and alumni who travel:
Develop specific opportunities to share information between travel planners and the volunteer stewardship team. The hosting institution should provide printed material that describes opportunities for volunteering and engaging. The stewardship team should review traveler lists so that they can alert the lecturers and hosts about engagement and fundraising VIPs.
Lecturers and hosts need to be fully informed about the opportunities for engagement so that they can discuss them with the travelers. Throughout the trip, the leader (lecturer or host) can talk with the travelers to promote attendance at a reunion, participation in an affinity group, mentoring or other opportunities. Preparation for the trip leader needs to ensure that they know enough about the opportunities for engagement to be able to ask the right questions and to provide some answers.
There should be follow up with the travelers to discuss engagement possibilities based on their interests and expertise. Upon returning from the trip, the trip leader should provide info to the institution’s volunteer management and development teams, so the right person/people can follow-up for all types of gifts.
Last but not least, there needs to be a way to know if your travel program and intentional management generate more engagement. Periodically, perhaps every three months, review a sampling of your travelers; see if they are attending more events than before they joined a trip or if they became involved as a mentor, a leader, an ambassador, or some other way.
Also, consider if engaged alumni are more likely to travel (taking into account age and financial capacity) so you can focus on the most likely travelers. Looking at both (i) travel-leading to-engagement and (ii) engagement-leading to-travel will indicate causation (or correlation) and help make both volunteer stewardship and trip marketing more effective.
What are you doing to engage your travelers on behalf of the institution? Please share your thoughts.
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