Commencement is a Beginning (Alumni Development, of Course!)
Douglas Spadaro, Ph.D.
President
Premier Communications
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David Waggoner, M.A.
Vice President
Premier Communications
As graduation speakers often point out, commencement is a time of celebration and new beginnings. Administration, faculty and staff are happy about another job well done. Parents and families evidence pride in children and relatives. And, most importantly, new graduates exalt in their accomplishments and look forward to the future.
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A significant aspect of this future is the ongoing lifetime relationship that graduates have with the college as alumni. From your perspective, commencement is the start of cultivating positive relationships with your alumni. Clearly college administrators want to make the most of this day of transition as young adults move from being accomplished students to being loyal benefactors.
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In the spring of 2009, Premier was approached by one of our long-term clients with a unique challenge: Was there a way to utilize our specialized collegiate communications expertise and technologies to enhance a rather routine ritual ? commencement? After much brainstorming, the client and our creative staff developed the novel idea of a personalized graduation announcement and invitation. This concept plays off the idea of the diploma. Each diploma is personalized, so why not carry this theme to the commencement announcement as well?
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An example of the finished product can be seen below. We have incorporated personalization in three places in the announcement: The graduate?s name, the degree earned, and the college by which it is awarded. Each student received five personalized invitations and matching envelopes. These were mailed by Premier in a college envelope directly to the graduating students. Also included in the package was a letter from the college?s Provost congratulating graduates on their achievement. In addition, an editable version of the invitation was made available on the college?s website so that students could download it and create their own personalized invitations if more were needed. Finally a supply of generic invitations and matching envelopes were provided directly to the college registrar for last minute additions to the graduation roster.
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The results of this unique development effort were outstanding. The college received accolades from family, friends, and most importantly, new graduates – now alumni! Many of these new alumni framed the personalized invitations along with their diploma.
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Providing graduates with personalized graduation announcements to be sent to family and friends is a small token of appreciation for their selection of your institution in the first place, and their perseverance in earning a college degree. It is a gesture that they will long remember as alumni. Above all, it?s an important step in the cultivating of a positive relationship with future donors!
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Premier Communications is a strong proponent of variable data printing, and our technology enhances the image of those colleges and universities with whom we partner. Our print technology has reached the point where each piece coming off one of our high resolution printers can be unique. Of course personalized graduation announcements are only one application of this advanced technology, which includes personalized admissions postcards, personalized college flyers and brochures, personalized recruitment HTML e-mails, personalized development solicitations, and ? (use your imagination!).
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Premier believes that the application of personalized printing technology to the alumni development area offers our clients a unique opportunity to develop and maintain close, personal relationships with your most important benefactors. We urge all of our clients to take full advantage of commencement as the beginning of this life-long relationship.