Project Repat: Alumni Social Enterprise

In this post EverTrue is proud to highlight a startup of social enterprise called Project Repat. Project Repat upcycles excess t-shirts into fun, fashionable and functional products while creating fair wage employment opportunities. This post comes from their President, Nathan Rothstein.

When I graduated from Umass-Amherst in 2006, I joined AmeriCorps and did a year of service in New Orleans. I was from far the Pioneer Valley, but the Umass alumni network still kicked in. There was a fellow alum working for the same non-profit, and a few other recent Umass grads joined AmeriCorps over the next year, and after seeing my name in the paper, a retired University of New Orleans professor invited a few young Umass alumni for brunch at Commander’s Palace. When students from Umass came to New Orleans to do service work, we helped them find places to work and people to meet with to learn about the different challenges and opportunities in post-Katrina New Orleans. Over the next few years, more students came for alternative spring break, and as more networking opportunities became available to newcomers, more Umass students moved to the city.

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EverTrue Loves the Loomis Chaffee Spring 2012 Alumni Magazine

I recently read an article on the Loomis Chaffee site via Twitter featuring accomplished Yoga teacher and writer Rebecca Pacheco, Founder of OmGal.com.  I met Rebecca earlier this spring through her brother Reece, a fellow alumnus of Brown and TechStars and CEO of NYC-based Shelby.tv.

I loved Rebecca’s story because it was a reminder of how many alumni are able to retrace the steps of their careers back to a single point of inspiration on campus.

When I finished the article, the cover of the Spring 2012 issue of the Loomis Chaffee Alumni Magazine caught my eye.   An iPhone viewing the historic campus via augmented reality, surrounded by social network logos, emoticons, and even a couple of “LOL’s” ?!? It was almost too good to be true! Historic institutions like Loomis are at the intersection of a rapidly changing social and mobile landscape and Dan Baxter’s illustration captured that.

Meet Pin-Bo, EverTrue’s Lead Designer

The post below is by Pin-Bo Tsai, the newest member and lead designer of the EverTrue team. Follow Pin-Bo on Twitter at @yopinbo.

EverTrue is all about nurturing and facilitating relationships, and in general, so isn’t having a successful life?

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Old School Goes New: Woodberry Forest Alumni Reunion

This is the second post of EverTrue’s Reunion Month Series, a time for reflecting on best practice and new ideas around alumni gatherings. In this post Jennifer Dowling, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications at Woodberry Forest School, reflects on how her community released EverTrue at their school during this year’s reunion.

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Mr. Bardo Goes To Washington

I traveled down to DC a week or so ago for a number of reasons.

First, Woodberry Forest was launching their EverTrue Alumni app at reunion. Opportunities like reunions are great to get the word out about our alumni engagement tools. This also gave me a perfect reason to head down to DC to visit both current and prospective clients.

At EverTrue, we love going to our client’s events to help show off their technology and learn new ideas to bring back to the rest of the EverTrue schools!

Foursquare checkins from day 1 in DC

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3 Lessons Learned From Alumni Reunions Past

This is the first post of EverTrue’s Reunion Month, a time for reflecting on best practice and new ideas around alumni gatherings. Our first guest post for the month comes from Sujata Adamson-Mohan, Director of Alumnae/i Relations at The Masters School and a client of EverTrue. In this post Sujata reflects on three lessons her office has learned from alumni reunions in the past.

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‘Bid for Good’ with Alumni Auctions

Alumni auctions are a common, but great way, to connect the supporters of your institution. Amidst the innocent bidding battles of alumni and parents, and the gracious volunteering of students, faculty and staff, auctions effectively bring together school communities under the cause of the institution.

For these popular fundraisers, alumni and development offices take creative approaches with theming. For example, Francis Parker School in San Diego puts a fun annual twist on their auction with themes such as “Cajun Carnivale” or “Haute Harley Nights”, while Lawrence Academy of Groton, MA looks to “Celebrate the Art of Teaching” this upcoming Saturday!

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Alumni App Promotion Spotlight: Isidore Newman School

In this bi-weekly series of blog posts I will highlight creative ideas that clients have leveraged to roll out EverTrue. Whether aimed at the launch of an app, or as part of a greater alumni communications strategy—we hope this advice will help you build awareness about your alumni app!

Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, LA launched their EverTrue app over a month ago at their annual reunion crawfish boil. The app was a hit at the event but what has been most impressive about Newman is their ongoing efforts to draw alums back to the app and infiltrate it into their alumni relations program.

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Education Rocks the Blackbaud Online Giving Report

Every year Blackbaud releases their Online Giving Report to provide an analysis of giving trends on the web in the non-profit sector. In this annual report, Blackbaud provides insight on a multitude of trends. For EverTrue’s purpose, alumni, we took a particular interest at their findings in the education and higher education sectors, while also examining their most popular months of online giving.

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Alumni Networking: It’s Who Knows What you Know

The post below is by Mike Palladino, the newest member of the EverTrue team. Mike is a proud Taft, Northwood and Wesleyan alum and is excited to help EverTrue better connect alumni to their alma mater and one another! Follow Mike on Twitter at @PalladinoMike

I still remember my first week as a freshman at the Taft School in Watertown, CT. In the midst of meeting new friends, being cut from both the Varsity and the JV soccer teams, and having more homework than I ever thought possible, I noticed a recurring theme that seems to be at the heart of social and professional advancement: “Networking.”

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