How West Point Association of Graduates gives 90% of its alumni 100% of what they want

The community challenge

Leaving active military duty can be challenging, so connecting alumni with others who understand their experience is especially important. WPAOG’s vision is to be the world’s most highly connected alumni body.

The organization formally ran its alumni community on another platform that was discontinued. This presented an opportunity to find a new platform to improve and modernize the alumni experience.

The team previously used multiple tools to engage alumni. Finding one platform that could consolidate and optimize all engagement efforts was a top priority. Syncing data between the online community and WPAOG’s CRM was another non-negotiable requirement for the new platform.

The Hivebrite solution

With Hivebrite, WPAOG offers an exclusive branded space for its members to exchange, support each other, and collaborate. Members can search and connect with peers through the interactive custom directory based on 19 criteria, including class year, interests, and cadet company.

Hivebrite’s group feature empowers alumni leaders to create chapters and affinity groups within the global community to offer more tailored engagement opportunities. As of January 2024, WPAOG counted 265 vibrant sub-communities.

The team can now save time and improve member experience by managing memberships, events, and resources from one platform. Events and resources can also be shared across chapters and groups, boosting visibility and engagement.

Hivebrite teamed up with Zuri Group to enable seamless integration with WPAOG’s Blackbaud CRM system and its community platform. With all vital data in one place, WPAOG can understand membership and event participation data at a regional level and make data-driven decisions to refine engagement strategies.

The outcome

WPAOG employ two primary key performance indicators to evaluate the success of the community:

1. Adoption rate
2. Aggregated unique users over a year

As of January 2024, an impressive 36.3% of users have been activated on the community platform. In 2023, WPAOG grew its user base with an average of 275 new user activations each month, highlighting the value and appeal of the community.

Throughout 2023, the community averaged 3063 active users and 22,501 visits per month.

An average of 46 events per month were organized in 2023, offering members diverse engagement opportunities and underscoring how streamlined and straightforward event organization is with the Hivebrite platform.