This page has a planning overview and a projection of revenue and expenses for a typical high school alumni association. We've structured the plan to produce about $50,000 per year in net revenue at maturity (est. 1-3 years). Imagine that as your contribution to your school's annual scholarship fund. (No scholarship fund? We can help there, too.)
The real strength of your alumni association lies in your relationships with local merchants and service providers. We believe that the projection below shows only a small part of the potential revenue to an association. One purpose of the association is to add value to the association that can be quantified. You'll be able to tell prospective sponsors that you have X readers per month who spend $Y on donations and activities. Since the online magazine is your main communication tool, local businesses will want to donate and to stay in touch with your members.
Alumni Services
Personal and Family Web Sites
Each member can have a site similar in structure to this one, but with their own "look and feel" complete with their own color scheme and graphics. Each can have its own newsletter, picture gallery, etc. Sites range in price from $10 to $30 per month, and you earn from $2.50 to $12,50 per month, depending on the features your members use. All you really have to do is publicize the opportunity to your readers, but you can also derive revenue (for yourself or for student interns) by providing creative services to the users, e.g., editing and posting text and graphics, or by offering seminars on how to use the sites.
Business Presence for Web Sponsors
A "web sponsor" is a local business or organization that wants to communicate with your readers. Strong candidates are travel and entertainment industries, employers, and retailers. Each can have an "online brochure" in your magazine. The "brochure" is actually a full-featured site, linked from your directory and/or from banner ads within the magazine or elsewhere on your site, depending on your own preferences. You can provide a turnkey site, or you or your interns can create a revenue stream based on creative activity on behalf of your sponsors.
Advertising and Promotions
Many community events will want to advertise in your magazine and your calendar. Ask for a donation. Depending on the size and location of your constituency and the regularity of your readership this could be a substantial revenue stream.
Special Considerations
Compensation of Editor(s)
We think a large association should pay its site's editor. Most of the home-grown alumni sites that have come and gone have failed due to overdependence on a single person, who happened to know how to make up simple web pages. With Sitemaker and Journalmaker, the editor's task is simplified, and the manager's task is amplified. Maintenance of quality lists and quality information flow is not an amateur activity. Pay your editor! This is normally a part-time activity; large associations with hundreds of registrants can be managed in a few hours each week.
Competition
Why not just rely on generic, commercial alumni sites? There are two reasons. First, they don't care about you. Their charming stories about re-awakened love between old grads are fictional, and they don't know where your town is, let alone your school. Second, they spend your money on condos in Key West; you'll spend it on local youth and alumni oriented activities and scholarships. Seems like an easy choice to us.
Revenue and Expense Projection
Assume an institution graduating 300 persons per year. A mature institution of that size will have an alumni count of appoximately 15,000 persons. Further assume half are interested, half of those register and half of those pay a membership fee for enhanced services. We've used a base of only 12,000 for the following projection.
| Item | Unit | Extended | |
| Factors | |||
| Alumni, 12,000; registrants, 3,000; subscribers, 1,500 | |||
| Revenue | |||
| Membership Fees, N=1,500 | $19/yr | $28,500 | |
| Alumni Sites(1), N=150 | $5/mo/site, net | $9,000 | |
| Advertising and Promotions(2) | $1,000/mo, net | $12,000 | |
| Web Sponsors(3), N=100 | $30/mo | $36,000 | |
| Products, services, misc. donations; N=150 | $5/mo | $9,000 | |
| Total Revenue | (7) | $94,500 | |
| Expenses | |||
| Publishing fee (AMS:Sitemaker) | $195/mo | $2,340 | |
| List maintenance. n=3,000 | $0.35/mo/person | $12,600 | |
| Editorial fees(5) | $1,000/mo. | $12,000 | |
| Total Expenses | $36,940 | ||
| Overhead | |||
| Utilities, telephone...(6) | $500/mo. | $6,000 | |
| Total Overhead | $6,000 | ||
| Net Income | |||
| Revenue - (expenses + overhead) | |||
| Total Income | $51,560 | ||
(1)Provide personal and family web sites to your members. You earn from $2 to $13 per site monthly.
(2)Use your calendar and other parts of your site to earn advertising revenue. E.g., have the local auto dealer sponsor the calendar or let others sponsor the newsletter or the sports page.
(3)Provide web sites to local businesses with special products and services for alumni. Build a mix of online services they can use to reach your members with special offers.
(4)No longer applicable.
(5)We think there's enough work in this activity to justify a part-time salary for the editor. If you can find a volunteer, use this money elsewhere.
(6)You'd know better than we the actual local costs for these overhead items.
(7)We believe additional revenue is possible from local efforts; we've shown only the revenue sources directly related to the publishing effort. Be creative!