Tracesmart Corporate, leading suppliers of consumer tracing solutions, have announced that their marketing manager, Adam Smith, will be presenting at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Europe Annual Conference 2008, which is to be held in Brighton. Smith presented to CASE members on day 3 of their conference, which was held on Wednesday 27th August 2008, at the Hilton Brighton Metropole. The presentation is entitled “Alumni Trace – how data cleansing, member tracing, and member profiling will help to build long and fruitful alumni relationships” and will highlight how universities can regain contact with alumni members.

In addition to discussing how conducting an alumni search can benefit educational institutions, Smith will also be conveying the advantages of data cleansing and data enrichment, “A successful fundraising campaign should employ data cleansing prior to commencement; this process not only ensures that the contact details held are correct but will also highlight gone aways, allowing the institute to identify and, subsequently, trace those who have moved. In addition to data cleansing, it is advisable to profile each and every member by wealth and socio-demographics – this can highlight potentially large donors, allowing the University to conduct highly targeted communications.”

Commenting on their own portfolio of services, Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, noted “We have developed a suite of bespoke services specifically for Universities, to assist them in re-locating and profiling their alumni. Already employed by many institutes throughout the UK, our solutions have been used to relocate alumni members for reunions and to support philanthropic fundraising campaigns. The imminent introduction of the state driven, matched funding scheme makes this the ideal time for Universities to reconnect with their gone aways.” The matched funding scheme for voluntary giving, referred to by Trezise, starts on 1 August 2008 and runs for three years. £200 million of funding is available to match eligible gifts raised by all English higher education institutions (HEIs) and directly funded further education colleges (FECs). Trezise further commented, “It is imperative that institutions proactively trace people in their alumni database who they have lost contact with, as it will broaden their support base and could considerably assist in developing the University as a whole.”

In addition to presenting at the conference, Tracesmart have a prominent role at the event as a whole. As well as being platinum sponsors, supporting a keynote speaker and exhibiting, they are also hosting a drinks reception on Wednesday the 27th August for delegates of the conference.