In a classic scene from Back to the Future II Doc explains to Marty the disastrous effects of interfering with the space time continuum, the result, of course, of Biff having stolen the Sports Almanac and wrecking havoc throughout Hill Valley. 

 

Great movie, you say, but what does this have to do with fundraising? 

The topic of this article is the role of the alumni director in the life of a school as an intergenerational time traveler.

The alumni director is a time traveler. In the morning he’ll pick up the phone, or text, to find out the latest from a recent graduate. He’ll ask about the classes he’s taking in college and what he does with his free time. In the afternoon he’ll connect, perhaps this time in person, with an alumnus nearing his retirement. They’ll chat about the causes he cares most about and how he plans to redirect his energy going forward. The alumni director meets each alumnus where he is in the present, and then through their conversation travels back with him to a specific point in time in the life of the school, to fort building during lower school recess in 1982 or to the high school hallways in 2003. He is there at the missed shot and the made free throw. The highlights and the lowlights. And even the thin slices of time, such as a passing word from a teacher, that made all the difference and was for that alumnus the complete school experience. Together they relive those moments that meant the most, when the spirit of the school most resonated.

However, unlike the plot of Back to the Future, the alumni director is precisely interested in interfering with the space time continuum. This is his chief concern. And this is where things get interesting.

He is a time traveler in search of those inflection points in the life of each alumnus that hold the school’s space time together and directs their meaning to the present. For the most part these are welcome memories that renew enthusiasm, the friendships made and the victories earned. But perhaps they are also something bitter which needs to be addressed, a brutal shove on the playground or a misunderstood comment from a teacher, which has kept the alumnus from engaging with the school in a meaningful way for so many years. The alumni director returns to those points in time and uses them as the impetus for a new beginning, an apology, a clarification, an invitation to attend a school event, a chance to mentor a young alumnus, or even, out of an overflow of gratitude, the opportunity to make a meaningful investment in the place that made him who he is today and which continues to impact so many others. 

While many lead lonely lives the alumni director calls out to individuals one by one and reminds them that they are a part of something great. The alumni director is a compiler of memories, a steward of the culture, and a guide to the future. He is at home in all eras, with the young and the mature, and a central touch point for the community. He defends the founding mission while always directing it toward the horizon. He is like “the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

As a time traveler, his job is to help people remember. To the young, he brings advice from the future about pitfalls to avoid and goals to pursue. And to all he helps to recall the moments that made them who they are, and to be grateful and proud.

This is the work of all fundraisers, but the awesome vocation of the alumni director. No Delorean, just a phone. Beer also helps.  

Of course, if he is able to get his hands on the Sports Almanac he won’t have too many issues with fundraising either. 

 

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