- Find local alumni networks
- How to start a local Danida alumni network
- Danida Fellowship Centre's expectations and support
- Advice for developing a local alumni network's Guiding Principles
- Annual General Meeting
- Activity Guide & Toolbox
- Activity grant reports
- Share your experience
- Danida Fellowship Centre’s expectations and support
Communication & Mobilization
Clear communication between members is critical to an effective and active alumni network. Being able to quickly and efficiently distribute information will not only help keep network members informed but, importantly, also keep them engaged.
Inform everyone
Even if the activity may be perceived as only relevant to members in one geographic location or a specific field of expertise, every member of the local alumni network should receive information about the initiative. Even those for whom it may not be relevant to participate, it is still possible that they have contacts and insights that can benefit the planned activity.
By sharing information with all fellow network members, you help foster an inclusive culture, which is the foundation for building a supportive and active community. The overall value and therefore also attraction of the network for its members is created through the sum of all activities and initiatives, regardless of the topic and organiser.
Is the activity relevant for partners or other stakeholders? These include the Danish Embassy, Consulates, NGOs, businesses, universities and other organisations. If so, invite and inform them of your plans well ahead of time.
Local networks and Danida alumni should not be dependent on the Danish Embassies and Consulates, but if they are willing and able to support special activities and events, it can offer great benefits since they have contacts to relevant Danish stakeholders in your country.
In good time
As soon as the date of an activity has been decided, a “save the date” should be sent to all invitees – i.e. to both alumni and partners. You might ask your invitees for a preliminary sign up to give you an idea of how many people are interested and available.
Ways to mobilise
Social media: Talk to the local alumni contact persons or committee members (if any) to clarify if there are dedicated social media groups for local alumni, this may be on WhatsApp, Facebook or LinkedIn, where the information/invitation can be posted. These groups are particularly useful when you want to get information directly and quickly to alumni in your area. If no such social media group exists for alumni in your country, then you may want to consider establishing one.
Word of mouth: In some instances it may be appropriate to consider whether any particularly well-connected alumni may be able to help you spread the word about the activity amongst their own networks. For this to be effective ensure that you have prepared content for them to share with their contacts on your behalf, and follow up with them to ensure that you receive information concerning any replies.
Personalised contact: Finally, calling alumni or sending them personalised emails can make them feel valued and thereby help motivate them to participate or support in other ways.
The global Danida Alumni Network: The global and closed DAN Facebook and LinkedIn groups can be used to contact and inform alumni, who are not already members of the local network, about upcoming activities. The Danida Alumni Network and its social media groups are expanding with new members joining weekly. So be aware of the risk that the intended people may not see your invitation or post. These social media groups may therefore be more useful for broadly informing the international network about your activities, rather than encouraging participation.
The DAN portal is nonetheless very useful for finding new alumni, and you can also contact them directly here by email.
In certain situations, and if it is a larger scale event, the DAN team in Copenhagen can assist with sending out an email/invitation to the relevant alumni members.
Please note that we are restricted from sending networks members’ data to third parties according to the General Data Protection Law, but we may assist you by sending out an email or invitation to those alumni, who you do not already have the contact details for.
Encourage feedback, share and inspire
Create an inclusive environment and provide network members with a platform for offering feedback and sharing their ideas before and after an activity. This will strengthen their sense of ownership, create value through exposure to fellow alumni, drive engagement through discussion and build community.
Always share reports, photos and outcomes of an activity with all members of your local alumni network, regardless of whether they attended. Prior to doing this, it is a good idea to find out through what channels and in what format the majority of the alumni want to receive this information.
Whenever you feel it is appropriate then please also share your activities in the DAN Facebook and, LinkedIn groups. Feel free to share images, a summary and perhaps even key learnings from your activity. In this way Danida alumni from around the world can draw inspiration from your initiatives.