The Three T’s And The Missing Multiplier

MBA alumni are portrayed to be amongst the most philanthropic graduates in higher education. They fund scholarships. Endow faculty chairs. Back entrepreneurship centers. Underwrite global immersion programs. Open doors for internships. Mentor founders. Interview applicants. Host admitted student receptions.

They give.

But ask many alumni privately about their relationship with their alma mater and a more nuanced story emerges.

They often hear from their schools only when the institution needs something. Making the relationship unidirectional.

As business schools intensify capital campaigns and track alumni participation metrics with increasing precision, the classic framework of philanthropy in higher education rests mainly on Treasure. Talent, and Time given by Alumni is sought after too but the lion share goes to Treasure.  Funding by alumni is more tangible and easily appreciable in the form of named assets or endowment chairs. Talent and Time on the other hand is less visible but an important part of giving back by alumni.

The question whether the relationship between the alumni and the business school is reciprocal or transactional continues to haunt many, so what is the missing link?

This article discusses analyzes the role of the three T’s which are the needs of the business school and the missing T which plays the most important role in determining the reciprocity of the relationship.

THE FIRST T: TREASURE AS STRATEGIC CAPITAL

Financial contributions remain the most visible and celebrated form of alumni philanthropy.

At institutions like Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and The Wharton School, alumni treasure fuels scholarships, faculty research, global programming, and entrepreneurship initiatives. Participation rates are benchmarked. Campaign milestones are announced. Donor names are etched into buildings.

Today’s MBA graduates approach giving with investor logic. They seek measurable impact, governance clarity, and strategic outcomes. Increasingly, they ask what the return on social investment looks like, how their gift expands opportunity, and how it strengthens the long term network. Moreover such graduates also desire visibility gains from such philanthropic actions.

 Adequate visibility coupled with tax benefits and ego massaging justifies such give backs, making it a complete transaction in the eyes of the Institution.

During volatile economic cycles when the Alumni are in need of financial support, true reciprocity demands that . the institution stand behind its alumni with the same intentionality as it applies to fundraising during it’s time of need.

The promise of a lifetime network carries particular weight in downturns.

THE SECOND T: TALENT AS INTELLECTUAL LEVERAGE

MBA alumni possess deeply transferable expertise in strategy, finance, leadership, operations, and venture building. When deployed toward mission driven organizations or their alma mater, that talent often produces outsized impact.

Consider a common model at top MBA programs. A younger alumni cohort is invited to design and run a challenge, such as a startup pitch competition, a social impact sprint, a regional innovation showcase, or a student mentorship marathon. They recruit participants, judge submissions, host events, and promote outcomes. They invest Talent

Graduates routinely also serve on nonprofit boards, mentor student entrepreneurs, provide pro bono advisory services, speak in classrooms, and host industry treks. Schools such as Columbia Business School and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management actively integrate alumni into admissions, programming, and student career development.

This talent serves the institution very well to achieve its end. The institution assumes that the opportunity to share wisdom, knowledge and expertise with students leads to immense satisfaction and gratification and along with some honorarium completes the transaction.

Except, notably, when the school has an executive education program to promote.

Many alumni observe that one of the most consistent post graduation touchpoints is a brochure or email inviting them to enroll in a high priced executive course. The message is clear. Come back as a paying participant. Upgrade your skills. Invest again.

Executive education are valuable. Programs at leading schools generate significant revenue and extend faculty expertise beyond degree programs. But when outreach during a career downturn is framed primarily as a sales opportunity rather than structured support, it can feel misaligned with the spirit of lifelong partnership. No special fees for the alumni during hard times to enroll into such programs surely leads to heartburn.

The modern MBA career is nonlinear. Portfolio careers, entrepreneurial detours, geographic mobility, and economic shocks have made continuing education a necessity, institutions need to take cognizance of this whilst pricing their executive education programs for their Alumni.

THE THIRD T: TIME AS THE MOST DEMOCRATIC CURRENCY

Time is the most accessible philanthropic asset, the most precious and the most under valued

One of the clearest patterns in alumni engagement is that Time is easier to activate than Treasure, especially among younger graduates.

Early career alumni may not yet have significant liquidity. But they have energy, networks, and creativity. They are willing to organize, convene, mentor, build, and mobilize.

Leading business schools increasingly design engagement models around this reality.

Alumni interview candidates. Lead regional chapters. Organize reunions. Participate in fundraising drives. Coach case teams. Show up.

For younger graduates especially, time often precedes treasure. Over decades, engagement compounds. Relationships formed through volunteerism frequently translate into deeper involvement later.

The institution compensates Time of the alumni by honorariums, felicitations and sometimes just the feeling of gratification, thereby completing their end of the transaction.

From the alumni perspective reciprocity demands more during labor market contractions and adverse market conditions. Loyalty could be earned by institutions by counselling, opening job opportunities and demonstrating care during such times.

THE FOURTH T

Treasure builds infrastructure.

Talent builds impact.

Time builds connection.

But none of them compound without Trust.

Trust determines whether alumni respond to the next campaign. Whether they volunteer again. Whether they recommend the program to prospective applicants. Whether they enroll in executive education because they see value rather than pressure.

Trust is reinforced when institutions show up during downturns as deliberately as they do during fundraising cycles. When alumni are navigating layoffs receive structured support, not just promotional emails. When data is used to anticipate needs, not simply optimize revenue timing.

The Three T’s describe how alumni give.

The fourth T defines why they continue.

BUILDING TRUST

Time creates energy and engagement.
Engagement Leads to Transparency and Credibility.
Credibility Builds Trust.

By contrast, when engagement begins with a direct financial ask, particularly from alumni who have not felt recent institutional support, the response can be friction and destruction of Trust. Alumni who are solicited primarily for donations without prior activation of community often interpret the outreach as transactional.

Engagement that begins with participation feels relational. Engagement that begins with payment can feel extractive.

The order matters.

When schools design engagement pathways that start with Time, they build trust capital before requesting financial capital. Over time, that sequencing compounds. The alumni who first volunteer often become the alumni who later fund. The alumni who first organize often become the alumni who endow.

Treasure rarely precedes connection.
Connection frequently precedes Treasure.

LEVERAGING THE DATA OPPORTUNITY AND THE 360-DEGREE VIEW TO BUILD TRUST

For the first time, business schools have access to unprecedented real time alumni data. Career moves, promotions, geographic shifts, and entrepreneurial launches are visible through platforms like LinkedIn.

Advanced data intelligence tools now aggregate and structure publicly available professional information at scale. Institutions can see alumni career trajectories, industry clusters, influence networks, and hiring patterns with remarkable clarity.

The implication is significant.

Schools no longer need to rely solely on self reported updates or reunion cycles to understand alumni journeys. With responsible data use and privacy compliance, they can identify alumni recently impacted by layoffs, spot graduates launching startups, detect promotions into hiring authority roles, map industry concentrations by geography, and recognize career pivots in near real time.

In other words, they can engage alumni at 360 degrees, not just when a campaign launches.

Imagine proactive outreach to alumni who have just changed roles. Structured peer introductions for those entering new industries. Executive education access triggered by career transitions. Targeted networking events based on emerging sector clusters.

The data already exists.

The strategic question is whether schools will use it to deepen reciprocity or merely to refine fundraising segmentation.

Treasure, Talent, and Time remain foundational to alumni philanthropy. But in a data rich era, engagement cannot be episodic. It must be continuous.

If institutions can track liquidity events to optimize gift timing, they can also track career disruptions to offer support.

If they can identify high potential donors, they can also identify high potential mentors, founders, and hiring managers.

A true partnership model treats alumni data not simply as a development tool, but as a community building asset.

Because philanthropy is not just about capital flows. It is about relationship equity.

In a competitive MBA landscape defined by rising tuition, volatile industries, and increasing scrutiny around ROI, the schools that thrive over the next decade may not simply be those with the largest endowments.

They may be those that treat alumni engagement not as a campaign strategy, but as a lifelong compact.

Because philanthropy is not just about what graduates contribute.

It is about whether they believe the relationship is built to last

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Benjamin Stevenin is former Director of Business School Solutions and Partnerships at Times Higher Education. Sanjay Padode is President of India’s first liberal professional university, Vijaybhoomi University, in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Andre Guerassimov is co-founder and CEO of Justfind, which enables companies and alumni associations to keep their contact database constantly updated.

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