Alumn.Us: A Social Network for Public Schools and Community Colleges

Watch Out, Facebook: A New Social Network Targets Alumni. (MindShift, 1/23/2012)

Excerpt: While public schools might not have a strong alumni network, private schools certainly do. Indeed the endowments from alumni at private K-12 schools are substantial, if not mind-boggling. These donations fund “wonderful touches: computers in the classroom, trips, enriched curriculum,” noted a New York Times story on private schools’ alumni funding. 

Alumn.us wants to be able to develop just this sort of network for the public school system, as well as for the community college level — both of which have failed to ever develop a strong network that keeps alumni interested in what happens at their schools. It’s less about connecting alumni with their fellow graduates (indeed, Facebook does seem to have won that game) than it is connecting alumni back with their schools — in terms of fundraising and in terms of mentorship.