IU Alumni Association, Foundation team to revamp alumni database

The IU Foundation and the IU Alumni Association recently signed an agreement to appoint one person as responsible for both organizations’ data and information technology issues.
Both organizations — with the help of the University Information and Technology Services — will now collaborate on the data and information technology of all of IU’s alumni.
The collaboration will be lead by Chief Information Officer Don Grinstead, who was chief information officer for the IU Foundation since 2006. Grinstead will also lead the development of an advanced database and records system, the Enterprise Advancement System.

“IU has a database of all of its alumni and donors of over a million people. It’s coming time to update our systems which is used for all that,” IUAA Executive Director J T. Forbes said.

The new system will make it easier for alumni to decide what information that they want to receive from the University, said Brad Wheeler, vice president for UITS.

“One of the things we’ve got to do in the digital age is we’ve got to empower our individuals to express how they want to interact with IU and we needed to get common systems together to be able to do that,” Wheeler said.

The IUAA also announced that because of the impending retirement of two employees, Debbie Lemon will now become IUAA’s deputy executive director.

With this new system, Forbes said IU will be able to foster a stronger reputation for the organization.

“This new system will put alumni in a role where they can lead and help students throughout the whole University,” Forbes said. “In the past we’ve kind of run things where everyone does their own things, but this new way will be one team working to help serve alumni and get them involved in moving IU forward.“

— Katie Dawson