Only four percent of Tufts graduates consider themselves "very active" in the alumni community, according to a recent survey conducted by the Tufts University Alumni Association (TUAA).
As part of its rebranding effort, the TUAA reached out to alumni this summer with an extensive questionnaire, inviting around 10 percent of living graduates to offer feedback on their involvement with the university and their opinions on how the association conducts business.
"The purpose of [the survey] was to take a look at the alumni organization's identity, its messaging and its visual appearance to the outside," Director of Alumni Relations Tim Brooks said. "We have a desire to keep Tufts alumni together but have never taken a marketing or branded study to reach our constituents and communicate with them."
Since 2005, the TUAA has conducted upwards of half a dozen alumni surveys in various formats, Brooks said. This one, the TUAA's first to be written with an outside communications contracting company, elicited responses from about 1,300 of the 9,000 alumni who received it.
The total number of living Tufts alumni is approximately 90,000, according to Brooks.
"Considering that most schools expect survey responses from fewer than one percent of the people [the surveys] were sent to, the number of responses was very high," Brooks said.
The survey covered an assortment of topics, including how active Tufts alumni are in university matters and how often they are in touch with other graduates.
The questionnaire revealed that less than half of graduates feel involved in the alumni community.
When asked, "How active do you consider yourself in alumni programs and activities?" four percent responded "very active," 29 percent responded "somewhat active" and 67 percent said "not active."
But Brooks guessed that the true level of involvement among alumni is actually higher. "What we found is that people's own perceptions of how active they are can vary greatly," he said. "The numbers [from the survey] were a bit deceiving in that people have a different understanding of what being active means than what it means to [those who work for TUAA.]"
Brooks said that he would call one-third of Tufts alumni active, one-third "fence sitters who may become involved at different points in their lives," and the other third unlikely to become involved.
"A lot of schools are lucky if they get 10-percent alumni participation. In terms of [alumni involvement], we're in a prestigious group of schools," Brooks said.
The survey results also asked participants what benefits of belonging to the alumni community they considered valuable.
Seventy-eight percent said maintaining a connection to the school, 75 percent keeping up correspondence to friends and 62 percent retaining professional and networking connections.
"We learned that Tufts alumni are interested in staying connected and are in touch with other alumni on a regular basis," said Costa Nicolaou (LA '00), the chair of the TUAA's Marketing and Branding Committee.
According to the survey results, around 75 percent of respondents said they communicate with other Tufts alumni at least once a year.
The survey did not look at specific TUAA programs, but Nicolaou said a program evaluation is "the next phase of committee tasks."
Brooks agreed. "In terms of programming, we are going to take a full assessment in the future of our programs from top to bottom and evaluate where these programs are in their own history," he said. "For now, we're trying to craft a program that gives people opportunities … that cater to a wide variety of tastes."
The TUAA hired Sametz Blackstone Associates to compile the survey. This marks the first time that TUAA has hired an outside group to help design a survey.
"It lends a higher level of credibility when you hire people whose job it is to take on these projects," Brooks said.
A committee of alumni who work in specialized marketing fields helped to edit the final product.
