Case Study: Coding it Forward streamlines alumni outreach with Handshake Advocates

Coding it Forward streamlines their alumni outreach with Handshake’s Advocates

Coding it Forward is a nonprofit that connects early technology professionals with public sector opportunities, placing students in more than 40 federal, state, and local government agencies. With only two employees and a highly manual alumni outreach process, the team needed a more scalable way to involve alumni, increase application volume, and improve diversity in its fellowship recruiting. It turned to Handshake and its Advocate user role to help streamline that work.

Using Handshake Advocates, Coding it Forward centralized candidate communications, let students connect directly with alumni and current fellows, and used Campaigns to send introductory messages at scale. The result was a 61% open rate versus a 23% average for nonprofits, a 22% increase in students viewing Coding it Forward year over year, a 46% increase in student job views, and a 187% increase in applicants from underrepresented groups.

Coding it Forward

Rachel Dodell

Cofounder and Executive Director