PENN STATE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Our mission is to promote and strengthen the Penn State University brand in the region, and increase alumni membership and participation both online and locally through social and professional events. Larger membership inspires additional third party sponsorship, which results in a consistent increase in charitable donations, which allows us to create new programs and to expand our annual scholarship offerings without requiring chapter dues or fees.

We've relocated our recurring 'game watch' events to a downtown venue with more capacity, which has drastically increased attendance and the chapter's exposure. Our mailing list has grown 10% our and social media profiles have more than tripled in traffic and post/event interaction. This has led to new sponsors and significantly more donations to our scholarship fund.

In addition, we have taken steps to emphasize our 501(c)(3) status online, to provide transparency and benefit from our nonprofit status. There are grants and programs specifically designed to provide funding and/or services for organizations such as ours, and we are aggressively pursuing those opportunities.

We have a large, active membership base in the region who engage us on social media and attend events and fundraisers. As our online presence and chapter events increase in popularity, our donations and sponsorship opportunities allow for us to expand our offerings.

Penn State University also supplies the chapter with allocations and fundraising materials, as well as student data to help us find qualified sponsorship applicants in good standing.

We have greatly increased event attendance and donation volume with stronger online marketing and changing our event venue to accommodate larger groups and draw our younger members. We have also heavily promoted our nonprofit status in 2016.

We have not met our goal of engaging the local members in Penn State's THON benefit, and have a minimal recruiting presence at local high school and college fair events. We hope to improve in these areas in 2017.