<p>Alumni giving is one way to measure, but the key to creating a devoted alumni comes down to one thing and one thing only:</p>
<p>COMMON EXPERIENCES</p>
<p>If a university can point out to students and alumni a few common, but important experiences that haven't changed over the years, then they're more likely to feel connected to the place and other graduates - whether the experiences are really all that unique or not. It's one reason why schools with big time college athletics tend to have strong alumni groups around the world - it's one easy thing to point to over and over again. At other schools it might be a unique thing tied to graduation (the tradition at Kansas is that only graduates are allowed to walk under the bell tower on campus, everyone else has to go around). </p>
<p>Those types of experiences, and Student Alumni Associations that make efforts to point out those common bonds are going to go farther in making dedicated alumni than most anything else.</p>