Case study

How West Point Association of Graduates gives its alumni what they want with Hivebrite

West Point Association of Graduates chose Hivebrite to consolidate alumni engagement activities and enhance alumni experience.

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“With Hivebrite, we can give 90% of our members 100% of what they want. Our impressive growth stats for 2023 are a testament to the value of our community and Hivebrite’s user-friendliness.”

Terence Sinkfield
Vice President, Alumni Support, West Point Association of Graduates

275

Average monthly new user activations in 2023

36%

Growth in member adoption rate

22,500

Average community visits per month in 2023

West Point

About the West Point Association of Graduates

West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG) is the Alumni Association for the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. The organization serves 55,000 graduates.

Mission

The mission of the West Point Association of Graduates is to serve West Point and its graduates; its purpose is to further the ideals and promote the welfare of the USMA.

Visit the community

The West Point Association of Graduates Alumni Network strives “To be the most highly connected alumni body in the world.”

The West Point Association of Graduates has been using Hivebrite since 2017. The team chose Hivebrite as their solution to fulfill their mission and engage with their alumni. WPAOG offers managed spaces for collaboration and sharing. Our platform enables them to stay connected, share experiences with other alumni, and promote West Point’s ideals.

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.

Hivebrite’s full-stack community platform enabled WPAOG to:

Facilitate organic connections

Foster independent sub-communities to enable connections while maintaining institutional governance

Create a repository of knowledge

Build a centralized knowledge hub that leverages member expertise

Encourage collaboration and innovation

Facilitate partnerships and networks to drive industry advancement and promote innovation

Gather data and insights

Monitor user behavior, engagement metrics, and content performance to measure the impact of initiatives

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.

Key features designed for alumni networks

Groups and sub-communities

Create targeted engagement through private, public, or invisible sub-communities that empower group leaders to manage their own branded spaces with distinct permissions and communications for specific interests, locations, or specialties

Jobs and opportunities

Create a versatile opportunities board that enables sharing of jobs, internships, and volunteer positions while integrating external sources and leveraging community engagement through customizable workflows, notifications, and peer-sharing capabilities.

Events and ticketing

Create engaging online and in-person events through an integrated management system that enables RSVP tracking, paid ticketing, QR code functionality, and virtual delivery options while leveraging community features to enhance attendee experience before, during, and after each event.

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.

“Our impressive growth stats for 2023 are a testament to the value of our community and Hivebrite’s user-friendliness.”

Terence Sinkfield
Vice President, Alumni Support, West Point Association of Graduates