For those who remember the days before Y2K, finding someone’s contact information was a breeze. You simply flipped open the thin paper pages of the phone book, and there it was: their telephone number and address, right at your fingertips! But now, it’s 2024. Phone books have disappeared, snail mail is fading, and smartphones have become the central hub for communication. Today, everyone has a preferred way to stay in touch: email, social media, texting, and apps like Discord and WhatsApp – and that’s just scratching the surface. New communication channels seem to pop up every year.
Now, imagine being the University of St. Thomas Advancement Systems team, responsible for keeping track of 120,000 alumni (not to mention their parents and other friends). Where do you even begin? There’s no central database for contact information anymore, and people are constantly moving, changing their communication preferences as their careers and lives evolve. As data engineers, we aim to make this challenge more manageable. Using a good old-fashioned Pareto principle approach, we’ve decided to start with the most common and still widely used form of communication: email.
Even though some parents of teenagers may disagree, email remains a vital communication tool. Nearly 90% of Americans over the age of 15 use email, according to Porch Media Group. It’s closer to 94% for those ages 25 to 44.
But there are plenty of challenges in maintaining an up-to-date email contact list. First, there’s no single source of truth. People use multiple email addresses – professional, personal, family-specific, spam accounts – and don’t forget that old “aol.com” email that’s still out there among older adults, even if it hasn’t been used in years.
So, how does the university collect new, relevant, actively used email addresses? And how does the Advancement Systems team process them to ensure our database remains accurate and valuable to the university? Until now, the department has relied on a patchwork system of serendipitous data collection, manual entry, and goodwill. But to have a more systematic approach to collecting and verifying data – and scaling the operation without doubling team size – we had to rethink the process.
Fortunately, technology offers an effective solution: Connect as many sources of email addresses as possible. This includes event registrations, change-of-contact forms, St. Thomas purchases, giving forms, surveys, in-person contacts, out-of-office notices and more. These sources typically provide reliable email addresses, though typos happen. The goal is to automatically funnel all these addresses into a single “hopper” for review and approval, and even use AI, like ChatGPT, to automate these tasks, reserving human intervention for more complex decisions.
Why does St. Thomas need your email or any contact information? It’s because Tommies want to stay engaged with the university and hear St. Thomas news, major announcements and upcoming events, including the latest developments from faculty and even opportunities to connect with peers. To do this, the university needs to have the most relevant address ready for future communications.
At the same time, St. Thomas respects alumni privacy and preferences. The university will never sell your information to third-party companies. St. Thomas also recognizes many alumni have specific communication requests, such as “Please use ONLY this email.” The goal is to remain as alumni-centric as possible by honoring these preferences, including expanding it to safeguarding your other information, such as phone numbers or employment details, while ensuring the contact database stays as accurate and useful as possible.
While the challenges of maintaining contact in an ever-changing digital world may seem daunting, by automating and optimizing, the advancement team not only keeps up with the times but also enhances the university’s ability to stay connected with its vast alumni network.
This process isn’t just about email; it’s about building a scalable system that keeps us in touch with the Tommie community, no matter where they are or how they prefer to communicate.
This post was written by Faculty and Staff Innovation Fellows Patrick Sanchez, senior director of Advancement Systems, and Paula Baingana, associate director of data analytics. Both are part of the team whose role it is to maintain and make accessible contact information to the University Advancement division at St. Thomas and other internal partners in order to allow them to communicate externally. Their project for the fellowship centers on revolutionizing the management of alumni communication through the implementation of an automated process for collecting, validating, and consolidating email addresses from external sources. This initiative aims to bolster effective communication with alumni, fostering enhanced engagement and support for university initiatives.
