Friendly, Generous and Easily Overtaxed

Rallyers (20% of U.S. alumni) are unabashed in their enthusiasm for the institution and their interest in supporting it and staying involved. They are the most active across the board, but desire to be even more active. Their activities have no strong biases.  Athletics, academics, social and professional networking – all appeal to Rallyers.

Rallyers are active as alumni because they were active as students. Almost without exception, Rallyers had great student experiences. They made friends, and have tended to maintain those friendships as alumni.

Rallyers are three times as likely as any other segment to participate in alumni activities, and four times as likely to be current dues-paying alumni association members. Their attrition rate as members is much lower than that of other segments. fake franck muller watches

Demographically, Rallyers tend to be a little on the younger side (median age: 36), and therefore are a little less likely than other groups to have children. While not all Rallyers are rich, wealthy alumni (incomes over $150,000) are more likely to be Rallyers than any other personality. They also are inclined to give – five out of six have made at least one gift to the institution.

While most of your best-giving, best-participating alumni are likely to be Rallyers, not all Rallyers give and participate – so they still represent an opportunity for marketing, especially since they are so favorably inclined. About half have never attended an alumni event or activity, and two-thirds have never joined the alumni association as a paying member.

A key to relating to Rallyers is identifying and keeping up with them, particularly from a young age. One way to identify them is to document students who exhibit high involvement and follow them closely as alumni. Another is to look at who tailgates before football games. Perhaps the best way, though, to track Rallyers is through other Rallyers, as they tend to stay in touch with one another.

Campbell Research has developed a survey-based model to identify which of your alumni are Rallyers. If you are conducting an alumni survey, be sure to contact Campbell Research to get details about adding a six or seven questions that can be used to classify your alumni.

About the only danger with Rallyers is burning out the best leaders among them by asking too much of too few.

In short, Rallyers don’t need to be sold on the worth of the institution; they desire – and are inclined – to be positive. However, they need to see that positive feelings can and should be translated into tangible support and participation. This isn’t difficult, because Rallyers tend to feel a duty to support their alma mater. But their giving and participation should not be assumed – they still need to be invited to give, join and participate.

How do you identify Rallyers in your database? Well, being who they are, you probably already know quite a few of them by name! However, for deeper insight, Campbell Rinker has developed a survey-based model to help you categorize alumni into each of the R4 Matrix alumni segments. If you conduct an alumni survey, be sure to include the handful of questions that can be used to classify your alumni.

Methodology: Data based on Campbell Research’s AlumniPoll 2002, Campbell Research’s syndicated online survey of more than 3,000 North American alumni. Data were weighted to match national proportions for public/private enrollment, as reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Segments were defined through K-means cluster analysis.