5 Stars for PeopleGrove

Before PeopleGrove, we were not using a centralized mentorship platform for the whole university. Colleges and units were using their own devices (often Excel documents) to match and connect students with alumni. This platform allowed for a collaboration between the Career and Leadership Development Center and the Alumni Association to help streamline these programs and provide them with a tool to connect their alumni to alumni and alumni to students in a much easier and traceable way.

Pros

PeopleGrove has an easy-to-use format on both the user and admin side. We have users of all ages so it was important that they could navigate the site as much on their own as possible. We also love the analytics functionalities which provide us with a very robust picture of all our users' experiences. We worked with both our Advancement Services team and our Registrar to help ease and quicken sign on for our alumni and student users respectively. Additionally, the PG team has been very responsive and resourceful by adding new features in response to changes in higher education and nationally. For example, their response to the COVID-19 pandemic was quick and well-executed. It prompted conversations on our end that we hadn't even thought about yet.

Cons

None to note. Concerns or areas we wanted to grow or add to have always been heard and responded to by the development team.

Enhance your alumni offerings with PeopleGrove!

The customer service at PeopleGrove is top-notch, and inquiries and responded to within 24 hours. Answers to questions are specific, and examples are cited for additional context and understanding. PeopleGrove continues to develop innovative features to improve the platform, to include aesthetic updates and engineering improvements. Our choice to switch to PeopleGrove greatly advanced our department, providing better service to our growing alumni network.

Pros

The data and reporting functionality is robust, and it's user friendly! With ease, administrators can manage user accounts to include merging duplicate accounts, adding new information, and importing records.

Cons

At times, the Bulk Email tool moves processes requests slowly when sending to 25,000+ users.

PeopleGrove: Alumni Connections, Networking and Community

PeopleGrove has phenomenal customer service. It seems whenever I need something, someone gets back to you in seconds with real solutions. They have been great partners in hearing our ideas and concerns and working quickly to make changes.

Pros

The best part of PeopleGrove is that it is comprehensive. It has enabled us to take multiple features and streamline them into one system. We now have our alumni directory, networking, job board and mentoring matching all in one place rather than managing multiple ad hoc systems.

Cons

I think with all new systems it can be hard to get alumni to sign up and in the habit of using it. It always takes far more time than any of us anticipate. We did find the registration process a bit extensive but worked with PeopleGrove to streamline.

Excellent platform for forging impactful connections

Overall, PeopleGrove has it all - excellent product, excellent service, and excellent customer education.

Pros

PeopleGrove provides an excellent platform that makes end-user and administrator experience top-tier in every way possible. The product is easy to use, easy to configure, and meets the most critical needs in forging student-alumni and alumni-alumni connections for professional networking. Additionally, the customer service from the support team is superior to any other product I have used. The support team answers inquiries swiftly and provides the right solution the first time around.

Cons

The platform has a standard look that can be outfitted with institution logo/colors, but not customizable in its "look" in more depth ways.

Rhode Island School of Design PeopleGrove Review

My overall experience with PeopleGrove had been very positive. Their staff is incredibly helpful, patient, and kind. Customer service is so important, and I've never had an issue or question with the platform that wasn't answered extremely fast, and if they were unable to solve the issue immediately, I had full faith that they would eventually get to the bottom of it.

Pros

I love the Alumni Directory and how it allows alumni to reconnect with old classmates. I love being able to see all of our information in a quick glance on my dashboard and how Insights provides more detailed information. The bulk email function is so easy to use, and I love how I can create templates and drafts and then schedule them to go out weeks in advance.

Cons

We wish that we could have more control over the look of the platform since we are an art & design school. It would be nice to make it look more unique to RISD.