Alpha Phi Omega (APO) national service fraternity is one of the largest collegiate fraternal organizations with over 500,000 initiated members. APO has very strong affinity with its alumni, but knew they could do more to harness it and to increase alumni engagement. This was especially important as they headed into a capital campaign for their Centennial.
APO partnered with LifeWeb 360, a community engagement platform honoring members who have passed, to engage alumni in a meaningful and authentic way—helping brothers feel connected to something bigger than themselves or their collegiate chapter.
APO partnered with LifeWeb 360 to reach engagement goals
APO faced similar challenges to many fraternities in re-engaging or deepening engagement with alumni. The strongest APO affinity lives at the chapter level, and can be difficult to harness for national fraternity initiatives. Further, as time passes, many alumni take the mindset of I was an APO brother, not I am. And, the complaint every fundraiser hears from their donor base – “We only hear from you when you want money!”
To overcome these challenges and achieve their engagement goals, APO and LifeWeb 360 did the following:
Transformed In Memoriam section: LifeWeb digitized the In Memoriam section of APO’s magazine, the Torch & Trefoil, already a well-loved part of the magazine. They transformed it into a website branded for APO with tribute pages honoring each brother who passed. Besides informing the community of deaths on a more timely basis than possible in the magazine, the site makes the In Memoriam section a dynamic, 2-way communications channel where brothers can also share memories honoring the person who passed and show up for each other when it really matters. APO continues to print its In Memoriam section in the magazine alongside a full page announcement with a QR code to drive traffic to their LifeWeb site.
Personalized Email Notifications: LifeWeb launched email campaigns to notify APO alumni about the passing of fellow brothers who they overlapped with in college. The notifications aimed to make members aware of their brother’s death in a timely way, drive traffic to the APO LifeWeb site, and identify engaged alumni via email opens and clicks who may have been missed by traditional engagement metrics.
“Growing alumni engagement with alumni that have been out of school more than a few years is really hard. LifeWeb 360 provides a unique opportunity to engage these alums in a way that is meaningful to them.”
Impact of engagement initiative
Email Engagement:
Open Rate: The personalized email notifications achieved a 53.5% open rate compared to APO’s average 42% open rate, showing a high interest in finding out a brother has passed
Click Rate: 43.0% of brothers who opened the email clicked at least once to read the brother’s obituary (i.e. 43.0% click-to-open rate) with a 25.5% overall click rate, over double APO’s average 11% click rate
Alumni Interaction:
Site Traffic: On average, more than 300 unique brothers visit the site each month, and over 40 memories were shared in the first quarter of launch alone
Positive Reactions: Across 3,000+ emails delivered, the unsubscribe rate was just 0.31%, showing the vast majority of alumni appreciate these communications
Deaths Reported: In 10 months, 161 brothers were reported by the APO community as deceased, many of whom had died years earlier and APO headquarters had not been made aware
Additional Benefits:
Fundraising Impact: The LifeWeb email campaigns tied to an increase in donations from previously lapsed donors, signaling the impact of providing an authentic benefit to alumni before making an ask. Of alumni who both donated to an APO fundraising appeal and had previously received a LifeWeb email, half had not donated in three or more years. Tribute giving has also increased, with brothers specifically using the Donate in Honor button on APO’s LifeWeb page to make a memorial donation.
Alumni Chapter Engagement: The site was launched with tribute pages honoring brothers who passed in recent years, as well as prominent fraternity brothers including founders and former national leaders. Alumni of two collegiate chapters leaned into the initiative in a meaningful way and further added all deceased brothers from their chapter to the site, describing the service as a valuable benefit provided by the headquarters team to their chapter.
Updated Alumni Information: The LifeWeb site includes a button to “Honor a Member” where anyone can easily report a brother as deceased or create a tribute page for them (subject to review by APO), streamlining and increasing reporting. Through the alumni chapter engagement described above and because the initiative makes clear why it’s valuable to report a brother as deceased, APO headquarters learned of a number of deceased brothers they were previously unaware of. This will both yield savings on marketing materials mailed to deceased brothers, as well as reduce the likelihood of accidentally making a solicitation to a deceased brother’s family.
“We have heard from families of members who have passed, how appreciative they are of having access to these stories and memories.”
Testimonials from APO alumni
Mike H.
Anonymous Brother
Gretchen R.
Conclusion: From alumni engagement to awakening affinity
APO’s partnership with LifeWeb 360 not only honored the legacy of deceased brothers, but also reignited the passion and commitment of living brothers. The result was an increase in engagement and positive alumni feedback, demonstrating the power of giving alumni an authentic, meaningful benefit. This underscores the fraternity’s commitment to its members and amplifies what they care about most—their lifelong friendships fostered through Alpha Phi Omega.
It’s one thing to engage your alumni, but can you awaken their affinity?