26 Mar
Planning Engagement Events: Interview with Candie Fredritz of The Kent School
The Challenges and Opportunities of Alumni Engagement Events
For independent and private schools, alumni engagement is critical. Alumni engagement events not only serve as a means to maintain connections between former students and their alma mater, but they also play a key role in securing donations, fostering networking opportunities, and cultivating an active alumni community. Successful alumni engagement can translate into stronger financial support for scholarships, infrastructure improvements, and overall school development.
However, planning and executing alumni engagement events comes with unique challenges. Coordinating invitations, tracking RSVPs, and ensuring seamless event communication require significant administrative effort. Schools must also manage donation processes and attendance tracking, often while juggling limited resources. Without a streamlined system, event planning can become chaotic, leading to low attendance, missed fundraising opportunities, and unnecessary stress for school administrators.
To explore the impact of an effective event management software system on independent school event planning, RSVPify talked with power user Candie Fredritz of The Kent School to learn more about how event software has transformed Kent’s alumni engagement events.
How RSVPify Helped Kent School
As Kent School’s Director of Alumni and Parent Engagement, Candi needed a reliable event management solution. After an intensive weekend search, she found that RSVPify offered the perfect balance of ease of use, efficiency, and robust features:
Quick + Easy Setup – “I spent a Saturday searching for a platform that would let me just go ahead and start to build something. And by Monday morning, we were on the phone with RSVPify and had an event live and ready within 24 hours.”
Comprehensive Event Management – “Being able to set everything up at the beginning—having the event registration site, setting up all of those emails and the reminders, everything from start to finish—meant we weren’t rushing at the tail end to get something accomplished.”
Advanced Tagging & Data Management – “The tagging ability and being able to mark the guests in a way that means we can pull out some meaningful information after the fact is key.”
Integrated Payment & Donation Processing – “It’s increased attendance, which helps with the gift processing piece. Our guests aren’t having to click out of something to make two separate transactions; instead, it’s all one seamless transition.”
Reliable Customer Support – “RSVPify’s support team is top-notch! There is not a moment where I hit that chat button to ask a question, and somebody is not there within minutes to answer.”
The RSVPify Impact
By implementing RSVPify, Kent School saw tangible improvements in their alumni event planning process:
Increased Attendance – “Definitely, it’s increased attendance.”
Simplified Event Logistics – With all aspects of alumni engagement event planning managed in one platform, administrative workload was significantly reduced.
Boosted Donations – “That seamless transition from registering for an event to making a gift right through the payment processing has been key and valuable for everything.”
Higher Efficiency & Time Savings – With automated reminders and a centralized dashboard, Kent School staff could focus on strategic engagement rather than getting bogged down in administrative tasks.
Long-Term Commitment to RSVPify – “Customer service is why we at Kent School stay with certain programs. Every time a new program is brought into my office, I say, ‘Nope, not switching. We’re here, we’re good, and we’re making things happen.'”
