Tracking when Students become Alumni

Q: How can I easily track current students and alumni?

A: The best way is to create a custom field to track graduation year

Step 1: Create a custom field for Students

  • Navigate to Administer > Custom Data and Screens > Custom Fields
  • Create a fieldset for Individuals called 'Student Info' (Or any name you prefer)
  • Create a new date field called "Graduation Year" that only includes the Year ( you may choose to have the whole date, it is up to you)
  • Save

Step 2: Add in your data

  • When adding students to the CRM, make sure to enter their graduation year.
  • You may also add the graduation year field to an online sign-up form that the students can fill out themselves on your website
     

Step 3: Making lists

At this point anytime you want to pull up a list of CURRENT STUDENTS you can: 

  • Navigate to  Search > Search Builder
  • Select individual - Graduation Year - Greater than (>) - (put today's date)
  • Click Search
     

Or if you want to pull up a list of ALUMNI you can:

  • Navigate to  Search > Search Builder
  • Select individual - Graduation Year - less than (<) - (put today's date)
  • Search
     

 

TIP: You can create SMART GROUPS 

Option 1: Create your smart group for alumni

  • Navigate to  Search > Search Builder
  • Select individual - Graduation Year - less than (<) - (put January 1st of this year)
  • Search
  • Select all results 
  • action > smart group
  • Call the group: Alumni

Option 2: Create your smart group for Future Graduates

  • Navigate to  Search > Search Builder
  • Select individual - Graduation Year - Greater than (>) - (put December 31 of this year)
  • Search
  • Select all results 
  • action > smart group
  • Call the group: Future Graduates

Option 3: Create your smart group for Graduating This year

  • Navigate to  Search > Search Builder
  • Select individual - Graduation Year - Greater than (>) - (put January 1st of this year)
  • Select individual - Graduation Year - less than (<) - (put December 31 of this year)
  • Search
  • Select all results 
  • action > smart group
  • Call the group: Graduating This year

 

NOTE: You will need to update the smart group criteria once a year, for the groups to be accurate