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PARTNER INTERVIEW

Using the Power Of Storytelling To Energize Alumni Relations

A Conversation With Scott Dahl, Director of Business Development, University of Missouri Alumni Association

Partner Interview (1)

Q: PAM DAVIS, Director of Market Intelligence, Publishing Concepts Inc. (PCI)

Scott, you’ve been doing alumni relations for more than 20 years and obviously, connecting with alumni has changed throughout all of that. So, what's changed the most?

A: SCOTT DAHL – Director of Business Development, University of Missouri Alumni Association (MIZZOU)

I think the way that we communicate with alumni. Early on – we're talking 1999 here – it was maybe 80% direct mail, and, you know we're just starting to get into doing things electronically. And now, it's email, social media. Social media wasn't a thing. I think maybe Myspace was around. I'm kind of dating myself here. But, I think, more importantly, the one thing that has not changed is how people feel about their universities. And the need for the Alumni Relations profession is still there just as strong as it as it always has been.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

What are some of the most difficult challenges now?

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

Back when I graduated, joining the Alumni Association was just something you did. It was almost part of a multi-generational tradition.. Alumni Associations have always thought of themselves as the keepers of traditions at a University. For me, that's one of the challenges now. Especially with younger alumni, tradition maybe doesn't seem to be quite as important, or it's not as big of a thing that's going to lead them to become members of the association or to become donors to the university. So that makes our work a little bit more difficult to reach out to that group. Finding ways to really stay relevant, not just to them, but all alumni. As the world changes, we need to make sure we're continuing to change along with it. And if we're not able to do that, then ultimately, that's going to have a huge impact in a negative standpoint, on all universities moving forward. So, again, it’s the relevance, I think, that’s the biggest challenge.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

Would you think the college experience has changed too, and that traditions aren't what they were when the past decades of college students were going through?

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

I would say yes and no. When you look at a lot of the universities that have been around forever, they still have the same traditions. Homecoming is a perfect example. Students today are really having the same experience that students 70-80 years ago had. The formats might be a little different. Certainly, social media is probably the biggest change. I'm kind of glad there wasn't social media around when I was in school, you know? Or phones with cameras. Things like that. But I think the way students interact now with each other is way different than certainly when we were all in school. They're more likely to be sitting next to each other Snapchatting each other, or texting, as opposed to actually talking.

I think the diversity of the messaging that we have to send out now is completely different than it used to be. It used to be much more of a one-size-fits-all type of mindset. And now, it's not just different messages. It's different formats in different vehicles for reaching the audiences.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

How has COVID affected the way you connect with alumni?

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

I think that making some of these changes early on as far as how we communicate really led into being able to do more of that when COVID was here. We all had to become more creative, is probably the main thing. Figuring out how to continue to engage alumni when our traditional events are not happening. How do we take advantage of reaching out to people when they're at home as almost everybody was? So our traditional events like homecoming – we turned it into homecoming at home. But this year when, knock on wood, we're all going to be back doing in-person events as we traditionally have, we're keeping a lot of those same online elements that we used to engage people who would not normally have been engaged in an event like homecoming. And so, in the long term, it’s really going to expand our reach.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

Obviously, with your past experience, you have a wealth of alumni relations ­– 20 years. So, you've worked with PCI in that time, five times, if not more. What are some of the qualities about PCI that brought you back to return to work with them?

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

For me, it's always been that I know they're going to deliver on what they promise. I've known Drew and Rex for such a long time. If I have an issue or anything, I know I can call them up and it'll get handled. But fortunately, I haven't had to do that, and that's a good thing. PCI has great customer service. I never worry about that. I think when you’re doing a project, either like the directory, or the Oral History Project that we're finishing up now, having that customer interaction really determines how people feel about the overall project.

The marketing aspect of it, is what it is. It gets proven results. It's a lot of contact, before each alum out there that you're making. But once someone actually does respond, I have 100% confidence that they're going be treated well. That they’ll have a better experience I think than what they're expecting. I've always felt that with PCI – and again, it's even back when there were multiple competitors, we did not issue RFPs for competing projects because we knew that it was PCI – it's as much about the relationship than just a business transaction. That’s why I've always encouraged whoever I've been with to keep coming back to PCI.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

With those projects, there are a lot of data components. What kind of data is most important to you?

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

Well, that's certainly changed over the years. Early on with the directory projects – I think the first one I did was in 2000 – address updates were probably most important for us at that time. But since then, there are other sources where you're getting your address updates from. It's much easier. Now the difficult things to get are accurate email addresses and business and occupation information. These projects are really our only, certainly large-scale source of knowing where someone works or what they're doing. And when we're targeting people or trying to find contacts at certain companies, that's valuable information. And of course, email. If we don't have someone's email address, we're not communicating with them, period.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

Touching back on your time at Iowa State. Do you believe those directory projects were helping you achieve your goals there? With gaining those information points.

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

Without a doubt, in a couple of different ways. Our database was run through a foundation at Iowa State. It was two separate organizations and this was really one of the alumni association’s ways to contribute to maintaining that database, which was 97% accurate. And I know that for a large public institution, those are incredible numbers. The staff there did a great job and they were always appreciative of how we were able to contribute to that.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

Self-reported data too. Such a great, great component to have added.

Well, hopping over to the Oral History Project. A newer product for PCI, and it's only been about two years since OHP launched and you're about to finish your first project. What is it about this project that brought you to it?

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

I think that it was something different. Something that I thought was pretty innovative, something nobody else was doing. I think it was the right time for a project like this with COVID, with people being at home, maybe having a little bit more time on their hands to respond to something like this. Because if it's done right, it can be a 20- or 30-minute conversation. And so it was, again, something that we had not done here. We're used to the directory projects. And while I know they continue to be successful, I think that this was something that is less intrusive, or it was just something that was more of a feel good project, probably. It made people feel good to tell their stories. And we were very happy to be a part of that. Certainly, during a time when some revenue streams, such as event revenue, travel revenue, were decreased, or completely eliminated, this was a nice source of revenue for us. I always look at a project like this and measure it on the one hand in the number of complaints that we receive, and, you know, very few. Very few complaints and considering how many touches were made during the course of the project, I thought it was incredible.

One thing, is that a lot of people were touched that we cared what happened to them after they left school. We weren't asking for donations. Of course, we asked them to purchase this package, but it was in a different way that I think people felt like it was something that they were actually a part of.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

No you will have these thousands of story assets. And I've seen with you online, Mizzou has a goal to amplify those alumni voices, that's obviously one way you could use it. But what other ways do you plan to use these stories?

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

I think that from a donor relations perspective, this is the kind of intelligence that we just don't have in our database. We've got biographical data. We have if somebody attended an event, or gave to the school or a specific project. But this will really help us on a kind of grassroots level, being able to see what people's interests or experiences really were and identify them as a prospect for those areas.

I know during the course of the calling and the interactions, we actually had a couple of larger gifts come out of this, just because somebody expressed an interest and so we followed up with them. I know in one case it turned into a scholarship. That’s just one example of how a project like this can really work for you in many different ways.

Once we have the database, we'll use it not just for that, but also to share some of those stories or to follow up with some people from a magazine perspective, from a newsletter perspective. Now, nobody can ever, ever say – not that this was ever the case – “I have no idea what we're gonna write about.” Now we can just look somebody up and start from there. As far as the physical book, I think it's gonna be a centerpiece of our Alumni Center. Once we start getting our regular supply of visitors coming in, I think that a lot of the pages are going to be dog eared and they're going to get a lot of good use. I think we're going to be spreading these all across campus - in every college, every department. I think that it'll really end up being a neat thing that people will appreciate for years to come.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

All right, you've just made a great spiel! I'm not sure there's much else you would tell an alumni director about starting an OHP, but do you have any advice to give an alumni director who is thinking about this project?

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

I would say call me if you have any questions about it. I'm happy to be a reference. I think there's probably an idea out there that a project like this is super time consuming, takes a lot of staff time - and everybody is overworked as it is. And that's really not the case. It can be a very easy project to implement. It engages a huge number of people, and engagement numbers are a huge part of national rankings now.

If you're looking for an alternative to a directory project, this is a great way to approach that. I think the other thing – you want to record these stories of people before the people who have institutional knowledge, go away, or pass on, because once they're gone, if you don't have something like this, then their knowledge goes with it. We're making sure that we give a copy of our Tiger tales book to our University Archives. Overall, I don’t think we’ll see the full impact of this project until years down the road.

 

Q: PAM DAVIS (PCI)

I think it will be really neat when you have the digital, searchable vault and if somebody were to pass away and you want to go back to hear their voice and hear their story. That’s going to be one of those things that gives everyone the chills because this person's legacy, story or experiences living on and their family and friends can cherish it. There's so much impact with having that recording.

A: SCOTT DAHL (MIZZOU)

I was really just kind of thinking of the stories themselves not thinking of the audio aspect of it. But you’re right. That's going to be something that you'll maybe hear. If somebody was in the news, a popular athlete, or even a popular professor, there are going to be audio recordings of them. But to the average Tiger, what has there been like this for them to share their stories and to have it permanently recorded and be a part of their university history that we’ll always maintain?

 

A big thank you to Scott Dahl for his time and partnership. He continues to be a great leader and strengthens the alumni relations industry every day.

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