MSCHE Self Study April 2021

celebrate the College’s 50 th (the Foundation’s 65 th ) anniversary in 2021 through events, fundraising, and a history project to capture the oral history of faculty, alumni, and industry leaders. The Office of Institutional Advancement oversees alumni affairs, government relations, communications and marketing, and fundraising from private grants, individuals, and corporations. The Institutional Advancement Organizational Chart can be found in the Area Organizational Charts. It is the office primarily charged with promoting the various programs and activities within the College, raising additional sources of revenue through philanthropy, and deepening relationships with various constituencies that advances strategic initiatives. Since May 2018, the College has seen a dramatic increase in alumni participation through event attendance and volunteerism. To connect with alumni, we host receptions at key conferences such as Academy (AAO) each fall, an event that has seen a 134% increase in attendance drawing well over 100 people. Reunions, which were reformatted to include volunteer alumni ambassadors have seen a 31% increase in attendance. Further, the attendance remained strong in 2019 when we moved reunion to an offsite location and required a nominal fee to help offset costs. In the last year alone, 34 alumni stepped up to volunteer as presenters, orientation speakers, reunion ambassadors, and Giving Tuesday fundraising ambassadors. Media placements promoting the College have increased, leading to higher visibility. Since July 2019, we have had more than 30 articles appear in periodicals such as Crain’s, Gotham Gazette, Politico, among others. Our social media presence has grown substantially in the past year, nearly doubling our College followers to 1,716 and increasing the UEC followers by approximately thirty percent to just over 1,000 followers. Our website, one of our most valuable tools for visibility and publicizing key College achievements, has had 3,861 clicks on the news page with nearly 165,000 views on our main page, which includes a rotating banner on our feature articles. New websites for both the College and the University Eye Center are in progress to continue to enhance our marketing efforts and visibility. COVID ‐ 19 Impact : The current public health crisis forced the cancellation or postponement of several events, including our spring fundraiser, Eyes on New York. Our biggest vulnerability is reduced fundraising due to the volatile economy and many of our donor pool (which is highly dependent on alumni) having been furloughed or experiencing a reduction in practice income. Overall, the team adapted quickly to host online alumni events, provide relevant articles and coverage of activities on campus, and engage volunteers virtually, all of which focus on raising visibility, and building stronger relationships so that fundraising sees only a minimum decline. (We anticipate a 20 ‐ 30% reduction in revenue in FY20 ‐ 21.)

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