May 11, 2012 •

Mr. Ron Nicola, this is your impact

Me (2002): I don't know which college to attend.
Mr. Nicola: Whichever you choose, you will make it your own. I believe in you.
Me (2012): Thank you, Ron (still feels weird). You are one of the best teachers I know.
April 9, 2012 •

Why I started Alumn.us

by Kevin

When I first entered college, I was shocked to hear stories from my classmates about the resources they had at their private schools.

Compared to the modest public schools I attended from K-12, the disparity was stark: extensive individualized college advising vs. FastWeb searches and two counselors for 2200 students; team buses and the latest basketball shoes vs. jerseys inherited from the women’s team; corporate internships and language immersion programs in Costa Rica vs. my summer job at Target.

Two weeks before graduating in the spring of 2007, while sitting in church, a thought struck me which I’ve been thinking about ever since: why aren’t successful graduates from under-served schools asked to help the next generation of students at their schools? I thought alumni could make a big difference: as mentors, as champions of current students, as gatekeepers of invaluable social networks.

That summer, I teamed up with a few friends and put together a series of “College 101” presentations to students and families in my hometown. The program was a success (see this article, but ignore our silly name). That fall, I left to study social capital and community life at Cambridge University.
While in graduate school at Cambridge, my mom passed away after a battle with breast cancer. After taking a leave of absence and finally finishing my masters degree, I returned to my hometown to fix-up my abandoned childhood home. My unlikely homecoming and loss afforded me the opportunity to reflect deeply on what mattered to me in life.
A few months into the house work, I started BetterGrads, an education nonprofit that connects high school students in the East Bay to alumni mentors through 1-to-1 online college mentoring and in-person presentations.
Since mid-2009, our core team of volunteer staff has worked with over 2000 students, published 240 articles on our College 101 blog, and given away thousands of dollars in college scholarships through local partnerships.
And yet, although we continue to have a surplus of students, alumni, and schools interested in the program, we cannot meet the demand. Like many education nonprofits, we rely on a modified “case manager” approach to program management and development. And so the schools wait for us, as an outside organization, to cultivate and utilize their own alumni base.
After completing the work on my home, I left for one year on a Rotary scholarship to serve as an Ambassador of Goodwill in Oaxaca, Mexico. Before I left for Mexico, I decided I would return to the Bay Area afterward to create an easy, scalable, sustainable way for anyone to support students at schools in need. And so unleash the social capital potential of communities, and end the wait for and reliance on outsiders.
I moved to San Francisco in August, pitched my idea for Alumn.us at a startup competition in October, won the competition with a great team, and have been bootstrapping full-time ever since. 
With an incredible team, a working product, our first business sponsors and channel partners, and paid pilots at local schools with many more on our waiting list, we’re excited to take the next step very soon.
March 27, 2012 •

Ever in Need of Money, PRIVATE Schools Intensify Fund-Raising Efforts (NYTimes)

With states on track to spend $2.5 billion less on PUBLIC K-12 education in the 2012 fiscal year, in an ideal world the title of this article would replace the word “private” with “public” and the article would focus on the increased efforts of public schools nationwide to cultivate their alumni, parents, and wider community support networks.

Fund-raising is important for private schools as well, which the article describes. But with an annual alumni giving rate of 23% at private high schools (roughly 1 in 4 alumni donate each year) compared to less than 0.1% at public high schools (less than 1 in 1000 alumni donate) and the median amount of annual giving raised per private school of $895,614 (an increase this decade of 63 percent, or from $548,651) it is essential for public schools to build the infrastructure and capacity to fundraise beyond the bake sale.

March 24, 2012 • 1 note • • kevinfadler

Evidence that Alumn.us empowers entire communities to support students at local schools

Alumn.us: Next week, we will launch our first student-led fundraising campaign.
Students: Sweet.
Alumni: Rad.
Teachers: Excellent.
Parents: Bravo.
Admin: Tubular.
Businesses: Nifty.
March 20, 2012 •

Network Mapping of #Fundraising

Guest post by Bennett Resnik

Mapping communities has been done for quite some time; graphing roads, schools, businesses, and natural resources.  

We map these communities to have a better understanding of space, connections, room for development, and so forth. Through the collection of substantial online data, we now have the ability to map online conversations and relationships. 

There are mutual benefits for mapping conversations and online relationships; for both the business or organization and the individuals within the mapped community.  Network analysis is the online and offline mapping of the relationships, teams, the exchange of content and the distribution of resources.

The two community maps for “online fundraising” and “fundraising” shows the conversations surrounding the two themes from Twitter.  There are several key influencers and important network connections that allow for the spread of conversation on fundraising topics.  Below are key members of the two communities. 


Online Fundraising Discussion

@blackbaud

@gdnvoluntary

@paulseasymoney

@franswaa

@pattonmcdowell

@fundchat

@miratel

Fundraising Discussion

@brockwarner

@blackbaurd

@101fundraising

@afpmasschapter

@firstgiving

@fundraisingnews


Bennett Resnik is a consultant on social capital and networks, and the creator of “The Hands We Shake” lecture series on how to build, grow, and sustain social capital.

Alumn.us thanks Bennett for his guest post!

March 6, 2012 • • The New York Times

What we can learn from ‘bad’ teachers

Last week, a teacher who was rated as “unsatisfactory” by his former school shared his compelling perspective on the many difficulties of simple teacher assessment. 

All schools need to provide the a basic quality in facilities, support, and supplies for all members of the school to do their jobs well. As the teacher wrote, “until we provide equal educational resources to students and teachers, we can’t say how well or poorly they’re performing.”

March 2, 2012 • • The New York Times

Seeking Money, Public Schools Turn to Advertisements

Should public schools, hard-strung for cash after state budget cuts, allow advertising on their school buses, football turfs, and rooftops?

February 13, 2012 •

More community support = less crime at schools

A school’s success depends, in part, on having a wider community of support, according to a 2010 paper:

Fostering trust and a sense of community among teachers, principals, parents, and students should enhance the capacity of a school to provide a safe, productive learning environment (Coleman 1987; Bryk, Lee, and Holland 1993; Bryk and Schneider 2002; Kirk 2009). The solution to educational inequality, and the crime problem, is thus not to be found primarily in the criminal justice system but is embedded in social contexts. 

How involved is the wider community (parents, teachers, alumni, local businesses) in your school? What difference does it make, if any?

February 13, 2012 •
Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.
Einstein
January 27, 2012 •

Alumn.us: Building an Alumni Network for Public Schools

We’re honored to be featured in this insightful KQED MindShift piece by Audrey Watters.