Located in Tasmania, Australia, but with 5000 alumni living all over the world, the Hutchins School created a new digital alumni community in 2020. Since then, over 700 alumni have joined to connect with their old classmates and meet alumni living and working close to them. When COVID hit the world, Hutchins went above and beyond to engage their alumni digitally and create opportunities during unusual times. 

Welcoming home their new school leavers

Schools have consistently found that engaging alumni from when they leave school is important to build a lifelong relationship with their alma mater, and Hutchins have taken the opportunity to build a landing page specifically for new leavers to introduce them to their new virtual community and encourage them to sign up. Personalised with images from their class, it’s a great way to make their digital community feel like home. HSOBA also drove registrations by sending each member of their class an email with their leaving year magazine attached, requiring them to sign into their online community to view the content. 

New ways to catch up with alumni from across the years

An alumni from the class of 2012 launched a podcast which is proudly hosted on the community site, catching up with various former students from 1988 to 2011 and inspiring peers with their stories of Olympic careers to performing live on stage. It offers a new perspective on the career achievements that are often posted on alumni sites by giving their Old Boys an opportunity to get to hear the weird and wonderful stories that their guests have to tell since leaving Hutchins, and to learn more about their journey both in their personal and professional lives. 

Organising safe and engaging events during COVID

While COVID threw a spanner in the works for many events programmes, Hutchins Old Boys’ Association have used their ToucanTech system to plan and host events this year. Their upcoming golf event sold out weeks before the event, thanks to their brilliant social promotion that encouraged alumni to log in and sign up. To keep their alumni safe, they have also been monitoring government advice and ensuring their registered guests are kept in the loop if events are rescheduled, such as was the case for their Sydney reunion drinks.

With a beautifully branded website that is packed full of exciting content and innovative ideas to engage their alumni, the Hutchins digital community is thriving and connecting alumni across the world. 

ToucanTech customers are creating strong community connections all over the world. Discuss ways to make your community more engaged with an experienced ToucanTech engagement evangelist; organise a time to talk to the team here.

You’ll find more fundraising, alumni and community management success stories here.