Alva Review-Courier -

The New Year is known to many as a time to reflect on the past and welcome new beginnings. For the Northwestern Foundation & Alumni Association, those “new beginnings” started with the re-structuring of its alumni membership program. The changes focus on two main areas:

• Effective immediately, all students are members of the Northwestern Alumni Association.

• New lifetime membership fees are now considered donations.

The introduction of the new membership structure aligns the alumni association programming with the needs and priorities of Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

“We are working to increase and maintain the emotional connection between our graduates and their alma mater,” said John Allen, director, alumni relations. “The successful relationship between our students and our foundation and alumni office has to begin as early as possible in the Northwestern student career. We are doing that with our annual Thank-a-Thon and other events, and this new programming will support the same relationships. We are convinced that connected students will be connected alumni, and they are vital to the health of a university.”

With an active, valid email address, students will now receive a monthly e-newsletter and emails providing links to the annual report and roundUP, Northwestern’s annual alumni magazine, at no cost.

New lifetime membership fees will now be considered donations to the RISE (Rangers Investing in Students & Education) scholarship endowment or to an established scholarship of the member’s choice. Single lifetime memberships cost $300 and family lifetime memberships cost $400. Lifetime membership fees are counted as charitable gifts and are tax deductible.

Active annual and lifetime members will continue to receive the same benefits as in the past, including receiving the Annual Report and roundUP in their physical mailbox and the monthly e-newsletter. Other member benefits are listed on my.nwfoundation.com/benefits.

“Changing lifetime membership fees to scholarship gifts provides reinforcement to our strategic goal to increase the number of student support recipients from 5 out of 9 to 7 out of 10,” added Allen. “We are at a good place where we can make this change and bring more benefit to our students.

“This is a new chapter in the Northwestern Foundation & Alumni Association, one that we see better serving our alumni and our students.”

If interested in becoming a member of the Northwestern Alumni Association, or for more information, visit my.nwfoundation.com/membership or call Allen at 580-327-8594.