The Office of Institutional Advancement will be advertising the 50th Anniversary Celebration Weekend broadly to alumni and the campus community via emails, social media, printed mailers, and other advertising. However, individual outreach will help you highlight the special events you want your alumni to know about.
So, where to begin?
- If you haven’t already, fill out the calendar request form so your event can be added to the main online calendar at 50.umbc.edu/celebrate.
- At this point in the game, the quickest and easiest way to reach alumni is to make full use of any existing social media channels already owned by your department or program, and to send individual emails to engaged alumni you already know. These methods will benefit you most in the long-run, moreso than an email blast, because you’re spending your time engaging with people who have already made it clear they want to be involved. Plus, building within social media gives you a solid foundation for future outreach.
Feel free to create a Facebook event for your specific event and share the link with umbc50@umbc.edu so the link can be added to your event description on the main online calendar. You can share this event, and even collect registrations there!
- If you want to try to send emails to larger groups, you can request a file of your department’s alumni data by filling out this form. (Requests take a minimum of two weeks to fulfill.) Once you have this data, you may choose to send an email using your UMBC Google account; however, please note that the system limits sends to 500 addresses at a time. Other cheap options for sending out batch emails include MailChimp (their “Forever Free” option allows for 12,000 sends per month), MyEmma, Constant Contact, and others.
- Before communicating with alumni and others about UMBC events, please be sure to consult the UMBC Style Guide for guidelines on logo use, photography and fair use, and other information.
- Be sure to visit the 50th Toolkit online for further information and resources.