Societies' Toolkit

Why involve alumni in your Society?

We are in touch with more than 150,000 alumni many of whom are really keen to come back to Exeter to support its students and societies. Our alumni have a huge breadth of knowledge and experiences and can offer invaluable benefit to your society through activities such as talks or workshops and through offering their advice and guidance.

What you need to do...

Think about what you want from the alumni;

• Do you want them to do a talk or workshop, if so for how long?
• When would you like them to come to Exeter? Any evening or a particular day?
• Do you want them to attend a dinner or other event?
• Give careers advice?
• Can your society cover expenses?

Be as clear as you can and this will help us narrow down our list of alumni to find the best person possible for you.

Also think about times and dates for the event. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a set date in mind yet but a rough idea of when the activity will be held will help to secure alumni help more easily.

We find that alumni, particularly those more senior in their career, have their diaries booked up well in advance so we do require at least 8 - 10 weeks’ notice.

Think about budget. Volunteer expenses need to be covered, think about whether you have funds available in your budget to be able to do this.

Getting in Contact

To contact Exeter alumni, whether it’s a specific person or a large group, you need to get in touch with us on alumni@exeter.ac.uk

Please get in touch with us first rather than trying to approach alumni on your own; they could already be involved in another event, or already helping Exeter in a different way. We want you to get the best response, it also means we can advise you on the best alumni to contact and give you the best chance of success when it comes to securing help for your society.

Once you get in contact with us we can work with you to identify possible volunteers for your society and help to put you in touch with them.

Running your event

We can help you to run your event as successfully as possible, take a look at our Society Alumni Event Checklist to make sure that you have all the details covered.

Keep in contact and let us know if you have any questions or need to make changes to your activity

Thanking alumni

Once alumni have volunteered it is really important that their generosity is acknowledged. A simple thank you not only shows your appreciation of their support, but it may encourage them to help your society again in the future!