Alumni Programme Strategy and Business Case

Project Overview

What: Alumni programme strategy and investment business case
Where: Ara Institute of Canterbury, a public education organisation with no formal alumni infrastructure
Primary Focus: Strategy, research, stakeholder engagement, business case development

Project Context

Despite a large graduate base, there was no structured alumni programme to support engagement, advocacy, employer relationships, or long-term value creation. Any proposal required clear evidence of feasibility, value, and ROI due to constrained resources and competing priorities.

Objective

To assess the strategic and financial viability of an alumni programme and deliver a defensible, phased business case to inform executive decision-making.

My Role

I acted as project lead and principal consultant as part of an MBA capstone, independently designing and executing the research, modelling, and recommendations.

Approach

  • Conducted 12 in-depth interviews with alumni leaders across NZ and Australia

  • Designed and deployed internal stakeholder and graduate research

  • Benchmarked comparable organisations and maturity models

  • Designed a phased operating model aligned to organisational capacity

  • Built conservative, moderate, and upside ROI scenarios

Key Deliverables

  • Alumni programme operating model and phased roadmap

  • Stakeholder insights synthesis

  • Financial projections and risk analysis

  • Executive-ready business case

Proof Points

  • $200K projected first-year ROI under conservative assumptions

  • First evidence-based alumni strategy produced for the organisation

  • Scalable model designed for incremental activation

Next

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