Case Study: McMaster University achieves record alumni engagement and 1,182 Welcome Notes with Anthology Encompass

McMaster University - Customer Case Study

McMaster University faced declining participation in its Welcome Notes initiative—alumni-written messages for first-year students—after limitations like sending postcards only to students in residence, a drop in submissions, and the labor of hand-writing each note. To revitalize the program, McMaster turned to Anthology and its Encompass tools, seeking a more scalable digital solution.

Using Anthology’s Encompass email system (with merge fields) and a Scoreboards trial, McMaster ran leaderboards across graduation decades, faculties, and residence buildings, captured messages via an event, and offered prizes to spur submissions. The results: 1,182 notes in year three, global participation, tailored emails to on- and off-campus students with 91.4% and 87.6% open rates and 22% and 16% click-through rates respectively, zero unsubscribes, and shareable content for social and online channels.

McMaster University