How to Streamline Alumni Card Fulfillment with Digital Cards
GuestUser · August 20, 2020
Alumni associations can be some of the most important communities and networks for professionals, as well as vital sources of support for universities. There are a variety of benefits that come along with being a member of an alumni organization. For alumni, the networking, social, and career development opportunities can be unparalleled benefits. For colleges and universities, alumni engagement helps build the university brand, secure financial support, and recruit future students.
Many alumni organizations have traditionally issued an alumni card or membership card to their members, which has been both symbolic and a means of accessing alumni events and benefits. However, with the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, the traditional process of printing and distributing physical membership cards has been severely disrupted.
With the fulfillment process backlogged and many alumni associations simultaneously trying to ramp up their digital engagement, Digital Membership Cards can be a timely way to ensure alumni receive their cards and stay informed at the same time. Additionally, Digital Membership can save countless hours in the day for staff, thousands of dollars a year, and allow you to make the most of your limited resources.
Check out how Digital Membership can streamline your card processes:
Alumni Card Fulfillment, the Traditional Way
Alumni associations operate in a variety of ways, depending on the university. For example, some require dues to participate, and others are free.
In both models, alumni association members often receive a membership card with their personal details and graduation year. For alumni organizations, issuing these cards has always been costly. Typically, staff spend many hours collecting and updating alumni information, printing and mailing these cards, or otherwise outsourcing these duties to a vendor for a significant cost.
Many associations also offer replacement cards at no additional fee, which adds to the time and labor required to maintain this type of membership system.
New Alumni Card Challenges Due to COVID-19
With the onset of the pandemic, the challenges of alumni card fulfillment have been further exacerbated, and the traditional card fulfillment process has been entirely disrupted.
If you print and mail alumni membership cards in-house, but have been working from home since the pandemic escalated, you may be facing a significant backlog of card fulfillment. Even if you’ve returned to the office, limited resources and staff layoffs may be slowing down card fulfillment. Similarly, many vendors have shut down or slowed down their operations.
Additionally, many universities are facing significant financial challenges and budgets are under heightened scrutiny. With limited resources, many organizations may be looking for effective ways to save time and cut costs.
Revamping Your Card Process with Digital Membership
With the disruption of many traditional alumni membership card processes and the need to reduce spending, now may be the ideal time switch to digital.
With Digital Membership Cards, you don’t have to worry about a manual card fulfillment process and the obstacles “work from home” can bring to your traditional operations and processes. Rather, digital allows you to quickly and easily generate and distribute cards to new alumni and new members!
As a bonus, Digital Membership Cards are a key way to drive digital engagement among your alumni base. The back of the digital card can be used as a centralized place to store information, and it can be customized to provide up to date information for different segments of your alumni, based on their local chapter or club. Whether it’s used to promote virtual events, networking opportunities, or other engagement channels, there’s no limit on what to include on the back of your digital card.
Additionally, rather than an entire app, which can take up a great deal of space on a mobile device, the digital alumni cards are native to the mobile wallet, and take up no more space than a single photograph.
Universities alumni associations at University of Michigan, University of Texas San Antonio, University of South Carolina, Western Washington University, and more are already using Digital Membership for their alumni cards. According to Veronica Dominguez, Associate Director of Alumni Engagement at University of Texas San Antonio, she was one of only a few colleagues in her industry who was able to distribute alumni membership cards to all of the new graduates this past spring, thanks to Cuseum Digital Membership Cards.
Now may be a better time than ever to revamp your cards and go digital!
From simplifying alumni membership card fulfillment, providing new avenues for engagement, and cutting costs, Digital Membership Cards can be a key asset for your alumni association in the age of COVID-19. As we move forward into the digital era, embracing new technologies will be critical for alumni organizations of all kinds to stay relevant and offer value to their members.
Looking for more information? Schedule a free consultation with Cuseum today!