Major Conference Play: How Alumni Weigh-In on Social Media

Harvey Simmons
10/16/2013

It is hard to believe that just over a month ago the college football season kicked off. It already feels like this season is in full swing. Thousands of alumni have trekked across the country to watch their alma maters battle it out against their rivals. Even more have made the journey back to their campus to pack stadiums and to cheer loudly. We know that major football conferences like the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, PAC 12 and SEC score big on the field, but how do these powerhouse programs stack up when it comes to their alumni following on social media?

EverTrue took to alumni Twitter handles, Facebook pages and LinkedIn Groups to find out.

We looked at the number of Twitter followers, Facebook page likes and LinkedIn members for alumni specific accounts for each schools of the major conferences. We weighted the sum of these accounts for each school by dividing by the number of total students enrolled at that institution (in order to give a fair spread). For example, Boston College’s Twitter account for alumni has 7,330 followers, its Facebook Page for alumni has 4,181 Likes and their LinkedIn Group for alumni has 23,965 members. We divided the total following (35,476) by current total enrollment at the school (14,359) to get a following to enrollment ratio of 2.47 (2.47 alumni followers on social media for every student enrolled).

After some research and handy math, we were able to establish a good snapshot of which schools and conferences have the strongest alumni following on social media.

Take these weighted scores, on average, by each conference and you can see that the Big Ten takes the lead in alumni social following, quickly followed by the alumni of the ACC. Move over Alabama and LSU!

THE AVERAGE RATIO OF ALUMNI SOCIAL FOLLOWERS TO ENROLLMENT FOR MAJOR CONFERENCES

Want to take two steps back and see how each school from each conference performed?

Below we ranked each school in each conference, based again, off their individual average alumni social media following divided by enrollment. The order from top to bottom ranks the top performers from each conference.

ACC ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS

BIG 12 ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS

BIG TEN ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS

PAC 12 TEN ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS

SEC ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS

While not always cheering from the stands, you can be sure to hear many of these alumni rooting for their alma mater on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. By utilizing techniques like Facebook Ads and inviting members to your LinkedIn Group you can expand your reach with these important constituents. Who knows? Maybe those extra cheers from social media will land you the support you need for your next big bowl game!

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4. Continue to Steward Donors

Your relationship with the donors who give to your endowment doesn’t end when you secure their gifts. Because your endowment exists to make a difference in the long term, your supporters will want you to keep in touch about its progress. Ongoing stewardship means keeping donors updated about your endowment’s performance and impact. A report that strengthens your relationship with donors should cover:

The fund’s balance at the start and end of the year
Spending amounts and allocations
How the fund’s returns compare to your investment targets
A short narrative detailing the specific impacts the endowment achieved

Create a report for each endowment rather than sending an identical document to everyone. A donor who endowed a scholarship wants to hear about the students it supported, while a donor who endowed a building fund wants updates on construction projects.

5. Upgrade Your Endowment Management Tools

Your endowment management tools should make applying your spending policy across every fund easy. Investing in dedicated software is especially useful as your endowment grows. Handling unitization in spreadsheets might work for a few funds, but as you begin to manage dozens or hundreds of gifts, dedicated software can save your team time spent manually calculating gains and losses for each one.

Why Nonprofits Need Dedicated Endowment Management Software

Dedicated endowment software brings accuracy and consistency to every part of the management process, from tracking individual funds to improving security. See how these solutions compare to a spreadsheet-based approach:

nfographic table outlining the information below.

How These Methods Compare:

In managing your endowment with traditional spreadsheets, you may see:

High administrative burden: Manual entry across disconnected systems
Limited security and audit footprints: Reduced version control and audit trail visibility
Difficulty with donor transparency: Spreadsheets provide only static data that is difficult to turn into custom results.

By using dedicated software, you are likely to find the following improvements:

Lower administrative burden: Automated fund tracking and calculated allocations
Enhanced security and audit footprint: Audit-ready reconciliation with clear tracking
Greater donor transparency: Connects with reporting platforms

Dedicated endowment management software keeps your organization compliant while freeing up the time your team once spent manually managing spreadsheets.

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Additional Resources

To learn more about managing your endowment and other ways that technology can help your organization, check out these additional resources:

Webinar: Building a Seamless Relationship Between Endowment Finance and Advancement. In this webinar, we cover the keys to un-complicating your institution’s financial endowment reporting process. Explore how building a connection between your finance and advancement teams can lead to happier donors and happier staff.
The Best Alumni Management Software Solutions in 2026. Alumni management software allows your university to maintain an active community that supports your school in a number of ways. Review top software solutions.
Donor Segmentation: How Organizing Donors Boosts Retention. What is donor segmentation, and how can you use it to boost retention? Learn the need-to-know information in this guide from EverTrue’s fundraising experts.

Less stress, higher endowment funds. Discover how Balance provides the organization, security, and accuracy your endowment needs. Request a demo.

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