Challenges, opportunities, and best practices for an alumni association

A research project entitled “Challenges, opportunities, and best practices for an alumni association” was undertaken with the objectives of ascertaining the key factors that have an impact over the performance of an alumni association, understanding the challenges faced by an alumni association in its operations, and growth, and development, identifying the opportunities for an alumni association to make an effective contribution, and identifying best practices for an alumni association. 400 Indian HEI alumni associations were surveyed through a questionnaire. The average agreement for Section I responses – key factors impacting performance of alumni association was 86% and was found to be statistically significant. The average agreement for Section II responses – challenges in operations, growth and development of an alumni association was 86% and was found to be  statistically significant. The average agreement for Section III responses – opportunities for an alumni association to make effective contribution was 72% and was found to be statistically significant. The average agreement for Section IV responses – best practices for an alumni association was 87% and was found to be statistically significant. The eight demographic factors related to the Indian HEI alumni association do not have any impact on the four sets of responses. Overall, the study shows that there are certain challenges that are faced by an alumni association; at the same time, it has opportunities to make effective contribution. Further a set of best practices for an alumni association have been identified.