Building a Sustainable Alumni Ambassador Program in Slate for Bennington College

The Challenge 

Like many higher education institutions, Bennington College was navigating staffing constraints while looking for new ways to strengthen engagement with prospective students.  

Admissions team members were dedicating significant time to applicant interviews and yield outreach. Bennington saw an opportunity to involve alumni more directly in these efforts, creating an additional network of ambassadors who could connect with prospective students while reducing demands on the admissions team. 

To make this possible, the college needed a centralized and sustainable way to recruit, manage, and engage alumni volunteers. Bennington also wanted a solution its internal team could understand, maintain, and continue expanding over time. 

Why Bennington Chose SIG 

Bennington College was looking for a strategic partner that could provide both deep Slate expertise and a collaborative approach to problem-solving. 

After evaluating multiple Slate Preferred Partners, the college selected SIG based on the team’s demonstrated knowledge, consultative approach, and commitment to knowledge transfer throughout the engagement. 

From the beginning, SIG focused not only on delivering a technical solution, but also on ensuring Bennington’s team developed the skills and understanding necessary to maintain and expand the solution over time. 

The SIG Approach 

SIG partnered with Bennington to design and develop an Alumni Ambassador Portal within Slate. 

The engagement followed an iterative and collaborative process. Rather than simply delivering a completed portal, SIG involved Bennington’s team throughout the project, helping staff better understand the architecture and functionality behind the solution. 

The work included: 

• Designing the architecture for an Alumni Ambassador Portal 
• Creating a framework for alumni registration and participation 
• Supporting alumni-led applicant interviews and yield outreach 
• Introducing configurable joins, entities, reporting, and newer Slate functionality 
• Providing a repeatable schematic Bennington could use for future portal development 
• Building the internal knowledge needed to maintain and expand the solution 

The Solution 

The Alumni Ambassador Portal created a foundation for Bennington to recruit and engage alumni as active partners in the admissions process. 

Through the portal, alumni can participate in outreach efforts designed to strengthen prospective student engagement while providing additional support to the admissions team. 

The initial phase focused on establishing the portal’s architecture and supporting alumni involvement in yield outreach. Future phases may expand the solution to include: 

• Applicant interview management 
• Additional communications and automation 
• Raiser’s Edge integration 
• Enhanced branding 
• Continued user-experience improvements 

The Initial Results 

The first phase of the project successfully established the foundation for Bennington’s Alumni Ambassador Program. 

Early outcomes included: 

• Successfully registering and engaging an initial group of alumni for yield outreach 
• Creating a scalable framework for future applicant interview management 
• Reducing the need to build and manage the program through disconnected manual processes 
• Increasing Bennington’s internal knowledge of advanced Slate functionality 
• Developing an architectural model that can inform additional portal initiatives 

Bennington described the first stage of the project as approximately 90% complete at the time of this writing, with additional enhancements planned as the program continues to evolve. 

Building Long-Term Internal Capacity 

A key benefit of the engagement was SIG’s emphasis on education and knowledge transfer. 

Bennington’s team gained a deeper understanding of configurable joins, entities, reporting, and newer Slate capabilities. This knowledge allows the college to maintain and modify the portal internally rather than relying on an outside partner for every future adjustment. 

The architecture created through the engagement has also become a valuable model for other institutional challenges. Bennington is now exploring additional ways to use Slate portals across the college, with multiple portal initiatives in development. 

Looking Ahead 

Bennington views the Alumni Ambassador Portal as the beginning of a broader opportunity to expand how Slate supports the institution. 

As the alumni program grows, the college plans to continue refining the portal, introducing additional automation and integrations, and expanding the ways alumni can support prospective students. 

The project has also provided Bennington with a repeatable framework for developing future Slate solutions that address operational needs across the institution. 

“SIG really forced us into a lot of the problem-solving—getting more informed around configurable joins, entities, and some of the newer functionality,” said Patrick Bredehoft, Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing. “It’s so helpful to have a schematic that you can then build from. The architecture becomes informative in all kinds of ways that are super valuable.”