The key way SPH alumni engage with SPH and the University of Minnesota is through communications. The level of their engagement is directly tied to how many emails they open and click on from SPH and the University of Minnesota as a whole. The SPH Advancement Office is thrilled to partner with academic divisions and programs to foster connections with alumni through communications.
Alumni Signature Communications
The alumni and donor communications plan created and managed by the Office of Advancement is robust. We send the Alumni SPHere, our newsletter to all alumni, each month except for December and the summer months. The Alumni SPHere focuses on sharing research, information, opportunities, events, and more in a quick, digestible format. During the summer months, we send our Summer Rewind. Summer Rewind curates recordings from the academic year for alumni to watch throughout the summer. Additionally, we send stand-alone emails highlighting alumni or donor stories throughout the year.
If interested in including a story or feature in Alumni Sphere, please include a high-resolution image with a 50-word description. See the example below.
Division/Program/Unit Alumni Communications
We have two specific formats for divisions, programs, or units looking to send an email communication to alumni.
- Letter to alumni from a division, program, or staff leader with up to four blocks.
- Letter to alumni from a division, program, or staff leader with a PDF link to a newsletter curated by the division, program, or unit.
Criteria
- Divisions and programs must submit and provide their full communications to the Advancement Team at least two weeks before the preferred send date.
- Divisions and programs can provide their communication to the Advancement Team as a Google Doc or via Mailchimp.
- PDF newsletters must be uploaded to a Google Drive with settings set to “anyone with the link can view.”
- The link should then be shared with Advancement. Once your communication submission and all materials are received, we will build your email via Salesforce with an email query from the University of Minnesota Foundation.
If you have questions, please contact Associate Chief Advancement Officer Kablia Thao at thao0245@umn.edu.
Frequently Asked Alumni Communication Questions
Salesforce emails are sent using a query pulled from our donor management system. We can only add additional people if they are in the Donor Management System and have opted into receiving communications from the SPH. We can create new DMS files for people as long as there is a valid mailing address. People in DMS can be alumni, donors, or friends of the University.
Please note that Salesforce emails can be easily copied or forwarded to other people.
Our promise to alumni is to include the most pertinent SPH events, information, stories, opportunities, and research. Our team reviews all submissions and we will always do our best but sometimes we will need to make hard decisions and cuts. All submissions are also viewed to see if there are other alumni channels to share content.
The death of an individual is highly sensitive and preferences to announce a death can vary greatly. We do not typically announce the death of graduates.
The Advancement Office does not write features or stories on a topic. We curate already-developed content to share with alumni. However, every year we do work with freelance writers to do alumni profiles or donor stories. If you know of an alum with a great story please connect with us.
Unfortunately, due to University of Minnesota and Foundation policy, we cannot share alumni email addresses. However, we are always happy to work with divisions, programs, and units to email alumni directly.
