Primary Research Group has published Alumni Relations Benchmarks, 2013 Edition, ISBN 978-1-57440-222-3.

The study is based on a survey of 89 American colleges and universities, covering a broad range of topics of interest to college alumni and advancement professionals including: total number of alumni; participation rates of alumni in alumni activities; trends in staffing of the college alumni office; governance of the alumni office and the academic chain of command. The study also looks at how alumni officials spend their time on tasks such as compiling email lists, or using Facebook or YouTube for alumni related tasks. The report also looks at alumni office budgets, including spending on travel, promotion, salaries, events and outreach and other items.

In addition, the study presents detailed data on revenues from alumni credit and insurance programs, as well as alumni office spending on consulting and information services. Other areas covered include: means of fundraising; use of alumni surveys; percentage of alumni who give in fundraising drives; attendance rates at college reunions; links with alumni associations and clubs; trends in dues paying for alumni associations; trends in alumni clubs; spending on alumni clubs; range of privileges provided to alumni; use of alumni mentoring plans; success rates in the use of email to reach alumni as well as trends in the use of social media; use of alumni publications and the future of such publications; use of alumni directories; and other issues of concern to college alumni and advancement professionals and their allies in alumni organizations and general college management.

Just a few of the report's many findings are that:

• Private colleges in the sample had a mean of 2.93 FTE employees in their alumni relations offices
• 39.58 percent of alumni affairs offices spend 10+ to 20 hours of staff time per week on online tasks such as editing the website, compiling and sending email lists and alumni newsletters, and developing web ads, whereas 27.08 percent spend 10 hours or less on this work and 25 percent spend between 20+ and 40 hours on it
• Nearly 45 percent of colleges in the sample performed their last major alumni survey in-house, while 4.17 percent did so with the assistance of a consultant and 26.04 percent outsourced it entirely to a research or consulting firm
• 38.54 percent of alumni offices in colleges in the sample have a presence on YouTube, including 50 percent of those in colleges with more than 6,000 students enrolled

The study is available in print and PDF format for $189.00. Site licenses costs $389.00. To view a table of contents, list of participants, and sample data, or to order a copy of the report, please visit our website at www.PrimaryResearch.com.