Plan first
Decide what the survey is for before you write a question
Choose among six purposes: contact and consent, college and career outcomes, student support, engagement preferences, program feedback, and optional giving readiness. These alumni survey questions for high school alumni support decisions a K-12 advancement office can make. Map every question to a decision or CRM field. If you cannot name its action, field, owner, or retention reason, remove it.
Question bank
40 alumni survey questions, grouped by purpose
These 40 alumni survey examples are organized by the decision each answer supports. Adjust labels and choices to match your CRM, and clearly mark phone, profile, feedback, and giving questions as optional.
Contact and consent: questions 1 through 8
| Question | Answer type | Where the answer goes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. What full name do you prefer the school to use? | Short text | Preferred name and record review |
| 2. What is the best personal email address for school communications? | Primary email and review date | |
| 3. Would you like to share a mobile phone number? This is optional. | Phone or blank | Phone, source, and review date |
| 4. What city, state or region, and country do you currently call home? | Structured location fields | Current location and region fields |
| 5. Which channel do you prefer for individual outreach from the school? | Email, phone, text, mail, or no preference | Preferred contact channel |
| 6. May the school list your name, class year, current city, college, employer, and title in its private, school-controlled alumni directory? | Yes, no, or selected fields only | Directory consent, approved fields, and date |
| 7. May current students contact you through a school-controlled introduction or messaging process? | Yes, no, or ask me first | Student-contact consent and date |
| 8. Which school communications would you like to receive, and which should we stop sending? | Multi-select with an explicit opt-out choice | Preferences, opt-outs, source, and date |
College and career outcomes: questions 9 through 16
| Question | Answer type | Where the answer goes |
|---|---|---|
| 9. Which colleges, universities, or training programs have you attended? | Schools or programs | Education history |
| 10. What degree, credential, or field of study did you complete or pursue? | Repeatable short text | Degree, credential, and field-of-study fields |
| 11. What year did you complete, or expect to complete, each program? | Year for each education entry | Education entry year |
| 12. Have you completed graduate study, professional training, or an additional credential? | Yes or no with details | Additional education history |
| 13. What organization do you currently work for, if applicable? | Text or not applicable | Current employer and review date |
| 14. What is your current role or job title? | Text or not applicable | Current title and review date |
| 15. Which industry or area of work best describes your current role? | List with other option | Industry and functional-area fields |
| 16. Would you like to share a LinkedIn or other professional profile? | URL or blank | Profile URL and source |
Willingness to help current students: questions 17 through 23
| Question | Answer type | Where the answer goes |
|---|---|---|
| 17. Which ways of helping current students would you consider? | Multi-select: career conversation, mock interview, job shadow, internship, speaking, mentoring, or other | Student-support interests |
| 18. Which subjects, careers, industries, or life experiences would you feel comfortable discussing? | Tags with optional text | Expertise and conversation-topic fields |
| 19. Which groups would you be comfortable helping: middle school students, upper school students, or recent graduates? | Multi-select | Student-stage preference |
| 20. Would you prefer to help virtually, in person, or either way? | Single select | Format preference |
| 21. Where could you participate in person, if anywhere? | Location or virtual only | Geographic availability |
| 22. How much advance notice would you usually need? | Choice ranges with not sure option | Scheduling preference |
| 23. Is there anything staff should know before matching you with a student request? | Optional long text | Staff-only matching note |
Engagement preferences: questions 24 through 29
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education describes four modes of alumni engagement: communication, experiential, volunteer, and philanthropic. Use those modes as a planning prompt, then collect the preferences your office can actually honor. See CASE's Alumni engagement metrics that matter.
| Question | Answer type | Where the answer goes |
|---|---|---|
| 24. Which kinds of involvement interest you most: receiving updates, attending, volunteering, helping students, or supporting school priorities? | Multi-select with none right now | Engagement-mode interests |
| 25. Which event or program formats would you consider attending? | Multi-select by event format | Program-format interests |
| 26. Which school news or alumni topics are most useful to you? | Multi-select with other option | Content interests |
| 27. How would you prefer to receive alumni updates? | Email, mail, text, social, or no updates | Communication channel and opt-out fields |
| 28. How often would you like to hear from the school? | Frequency choices, including no updates | Communication frequency |
| 29. Which school communities or activities would you like to hear about? | Multi-select by community or region | Affinity and interest tags |
Program and school feedback: questions 30 through 35
| Question | Answer type | Where the answer goes |
|---|---|---|
| 30. Which current alumni offering is most useful to you? | Single select with none and other | Program value field |
| 31. How easy or difficult is it to stay connected with the school? | Verbal scale from very easy to very difficult | Connection-experience field |
| 32. What makes it easier or harder for you to participate? | Optional long text | Participation barrier themes |
| 33. What is one alumni program or service the school should improve or add? | Optional long text | Program backlog with review owner |
| 34. What would make an upcoming event or program worth your time? | Optional long text | Program-planning notes |
| 35. What is one thing the school should understand about your experience as an alum? | Optional long text | Qualitative feedback with restricted access |
Giving readiness: questions 36 through 40
Keep this group optional and gentle. Do not ask for wealth, income, or a gift amount in a general alumni survey. Ask whether the alum wants relevant information and respect no or not now as complete answers.
| Question | Answer type | Where the answer goes |
|---|---|---|
| 36. Which school priorities, if any, would you like to learn more about? | Multi-select with none right now | Impact-area interests |
| 37. Would you like a member of the advancement office to contact you about ways to support the school? | Yes, no, or not now | Follow-up permission and date |
| 38. If you selected yes, what contact channel and timing would you prefer? | Conditional channel and timing fields | Development follow-up task |
| 39. Does your employer offer a matching-gift program you would like help using? | Yes, no, not sure, or not applicable | Matching-gift interest |
| 40. What would make school communications about giving more relevant and respectful? | Optional long text | Communication feedback with review owner |
Copy-ready form
A five-minute alumni survey template you can copy
This alumni survey template keeps contact and consent first, followed by fields for outreach and student connections. Copy it into your form, make nonessential questions optional, and test the timing before sending.
Template instructions: State the purpose, who will see answers, and how an alum can change a preference. Do not add sample responses or fake results.
- What full name do you prefer the school to use?
- What is the best personal email address for school communications?
- What city, state or region, and country do you currently call home?
- May the school list your approved details in its private, school-controlled alumni directory?
- May current students contact you through a school-controlled introduction or messaging process?
- Which colleges, universities, or training programs have you attended?
- What organization do you currently work for, if applicable?
- What is your current role or job title?
- Which ways of helping current students would you consider?
- Which event or program formats would you consider attending?
- How would you prefer to receive alumni updates?
- What is one alumni program or service the school should improve or add?
Distribution
How do you improve alumni survey response rate?
Improve your alumni survey response rate with a specific, recognizable request. State the time cost, use a personal sender, and explain what the school will do with the answers.
- State the time cost: use “Please update your alumni record, about five minutes.” Verify it with an internal test.
- Use a personal sender: a recognizable staff member should sign the request and provide a reply path.
- Send one reminder: suppress completers and opt-outs, and make it a helpful second chance.
- Use a student-written note: for young alumni, a genuine note can make the purpose concrete.
- Ask one thing at a time: use branching and avoid dense mobile matrix questions.
- Use natural timing: reunions create context, but send early enough to use the answers.
Pre-send checklist
- Every question has a CRM field, decision, or owner.
- The required path works on a phone.
- The subject line states the time cost.
- The sender and purpose are clear.
- One reminder suppresses completers and opt-outs.
- The thank-you screen explains the next step.
Treat nonresponse as unknown, not disinterest. Respondents do not prove that the rest of your alumni base shares their preferences or outcomes.
Follow-through
How should you use alumni survey answers?
Protect preferences first: apply opt-outs, preserve consent evidence, update structured fields, route tasks, and then build segments.
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Map each answer to a CRM column
Keep separate fields for contact, career, interests, consent, and preferences. Store open text as a note.
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Record source and review date
Mark the alumni survey as the source and its completion date as the field review date. Preserve history when possible.
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Apply opt-outs first
Update suppression and channel preferences before outreach uses the record.
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Route willingness into a real program
Send “willing to help students” responses to the directory or your student-alumni mentorship program. A willingness answer becomes actionable only when the separate student-contact consent permits it.
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Resolve conflicts and blanks
Flag conflicting non-empty CRM values for review. Use the alumni database cleanup checklist to assign owners and resolve duplicates, stale fields, and missing dates.
Coverage gap
What can an alumni survey not tell you?
A survey updates only reachable alumni who answer. Everyone else remains unchanged, so results are not a complete picture of your alumni base.
Reviewed professional-data matching can propose an employer, title, industry, location, college, or LinkedIn profile when evidence supports the identity. It cannot supply consent, preferences, feedback, or giving readiness. Those answers must come from the alum.
Keep the boundary visible: do not label inferred data as a survey response or infer directory permission, student-contact permission, or an opt-in.
Studiously addresses this gap by starting with your school's existing roster from Raiser's Edge NXT, Veracross roster and identity fields, or a reviewed CSV. It matches those existing records against professional data sources, applies confidence and conflict gates, preserves raw results, and sends uncertain matches to human review. Read the full alumni data enrichment methodology, then keep respondent-supplied answers and reviewed enrichment clearly labeled as different sources.
Privacy and recent graduates
How should you handle privacy and recent graduates?
Collect only what your school needs, explain why, and separate consent choices. Recent graduates may still be minors, so account for age, school policy, and who may see each answer.
- Use specific consent: say whether an answer updates the CRM, appears in a directory, supports outreach, or permits a student introduction.
- Separate permissions: do not bundle directory, student contact, communications, and development follow-up.
- Avoid sensitive categories: omit health, immigration, political, income, and other details unnecessary to the stated purpose.
- Limit access: keep feedback and staff-only notes out of the member-facing directory.
- Honor changes: let alumni withdraw directory permission, revise preferences, or opt out.
The U.S. Department of Education's What is FERPA? page explains that FERPA gives parents rights over education records and that those rights transfer to the student at age 18 or when the student enters a postsecondary institution. Your school's counsel decides how FERPA and other privacy rules apply to your records, form, recent graduates, and intended uses.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
What should an alumni survey ask?
An alumni survey should ask only for information that supports a decision or updates a field. For an independent school, the core topics are contact and consent, college and career outcomes, willingness to help students, engagement preferences, program feedback, and optional giving readiness.
How long should an alumni survey be?
Keep the required path short enough to finish in about five minutes. Put the most important contact and consent questions first, make sensitive or lower-priority questions optional, and use branching when your form supports it.
How often should we survey alumni?
Run a broad alumni survey when your school has a clear decision to make and the capacity to process the answers. Between broad surveys, use shorter, purpose-specific check-ins and record the date each response was reviewed instead of assuming old answers are current.
What tool should we use?
Use whatever your CRM or forms tool supports securely and your team can maintain. The important choice is not the brand of form; it is where each answer lands, who can see it, how consent is recorded, and how opt-outs are applied.
How do we survey alumni we cannot reach?
You cannot survey alumni you cannot reach. First repair known contact channels and use a careful lost-alumni search; for the remaining base, reviewed professional-data enrichment can propose current career, location, college, and profile information without pretending that a nonrespondent completed the survey.