What is Wavelength?

Wavelength is where alumni engage. It’s a platform that keeps alumni connected with your organization - its people and fundraising efforts.

Types of People

Let’s start with the who. There are two types of people on Wavelength:

• Wavelength Admins
• Wavelength Users

Most people on Wavelength are Users. They can update their data, set their privacy settings, donate, and search.

Admins are power Users. They maintain the network. They are Users that can update other people’s data and group email.

Check out more on Roles and Permissions

Elements of Wavelength

We will go over the following elements, so that you get the most out of Wavelength.

• Networks and Organizations
• Search
• Data
• Privacy
• Donations
• Group Email

Wavelengths and Organizations

Wavelength is made up of networks. Networks are groups of users that are members of the same organization. Each network is a standalone entity and has its own organization structure. For each network, you can donate (if enabled), change your privacy settings, and search.

Search

Wavelength lets you find people in your networks. Think about when you need your network the most - to land jobs, gain mentors, find available apartments, reconnect with old friends. These are the best times to use Wavelength. Instead of wracking your brain for relevant people, Wavelength finds them.

Say you want to find a mentor in Boston that is a doctor. Search for “boston doctor” and Wavelength returns all relevant results in your network. Click on a few profiles and check out their social media accounts for some extra research. When you are confident you want to reach out, use their contact info to find a time to chat offline.

You never need to spend time “connecting” or “friending” anyone to get these helpful, personalized results. And you can search for anything. Mix and match the following fields to narrow your search:

• City
• State
• Country
• Position
• Company
• School
• Degree
• Interest
• Class year
• Bio
• First Name
• Last Name

Learn more about getting the most out of search with Best Practices: Search.

Data

Wavelength’s search is so good because it is built on good data. It takes your network’s data and finds relevant data on you and your peers from across the internet. All the data Wavelength finds is publicly available and is used to help you find the people you need.

When you log in for the first time, you should check out your profile and update it.

Why? Well, with your updated data, Wavelength can find you better results. In addition, other users can find you easier. Finally, your organization cares about sending you helpful information. Keeping your profile up to date will help them keep you in the loop!

When you are searching for people, you may find some data that is a little outdated or not quite right. While Wavelength’s data is really good, it isn’t perfect. It’s a group effort to keep the data up to date. If you do see something inaccurate, users can let Wavelength know on the platform. Admins have the added ability to update other users data on the platform.

Read more about Wavelength's Data Policies.

Privacy

There is a lot of helpful data on Wavelength and it is all password protected so only members of your network can see it.

When onboarding networks, Wavelength uses sensible privacy defaults so that your contact data is appropriately hidden. If you want to further customize your privacy settings to show or hide certain details, it’s easy. You can change the visibility of your contact info, unsubscribe from organization emails, and indicate whether you want to be a resource in your privacy settings.

Read more about Privacy Settings.

Donations

Some networks let you donate on Wavelength. With Wavelength donations, you can make a one time, monthly, or yearly donation on any device with any major credit card.

Even if you are not logged in when you donate, if you use your email address linked to your Wavelength account, you can login and view and manage your donations.

It’s a simple place to check when you gave last, and how much. Makes tax time easier!

Group Email

Admins can turn their search results into email recipients. Any group that an admin can search for, they can email. For instance if an admin wants to set up a Boston minireunion, they can type “boston” and click the email button. They can craft the subject and message and send an email to all the people that live in Boston.

Users then get a branded email with the look and feel of their organization, directly in their inbox. Admins get email analytics about the success of their message including open rates, bounce rates, and valid emails.

Users can also group email people in their network, but are limited to emailing people in their vicinity, in their class, or in their organization subgroup. Wavelength limits a user's ability to email so that admins can be confident that no one is spamming your constituents.

Wavelength’s group email makes it easy for admins to communicate with their users.

Read more about Group Email.

What's Next

Be sure to update your data and privacy settings if you haven’t already. Also check out the other help guides to get the most out of Wavelength.