It always helps to have a visual interpretation of a concept so I have been working on that for alumni relations. The breadth of alumni activity means that the visualization is also an opportunity to prioritize – there is room for only a limited number of ideas in the graphic.

Here is a representation of the impact of eight types of alumni engagement.

Determining your eight priorities that get included in a wheel like this will help you establish your metrics as well. Concentrate your programming resources in these activities – and encourage your alumni to focus their efforts accordingly as well. Of course, you can have fewer or more items than eight in your priority impacts wheel.