FOR ADVANCEMENT LEADERS — AND THE TEAMS DOING THE WORK
You've watched the moments pass for years. This is the week you stop.
The promotion. The first job. The move across the country. The company they just started. Every one is an open door — a reason to show up while it still feels personal instead of transactional. Almost none of them reach you. That's the moment an alum quietly decides you don't really know them.
STOP REACHING ALUMNI ON YOUR CALENDAR. START REACHING THEM ON THEIRS.
THE HONEST PART
The proactive outreach is always the first thing to go.
You already know the alumni you should be reaching. The one who just got the VP title. The one who moved to your second-biggest metro. The one who started the company. You even know the note you'd send — the one that lands because the timing is right and it's obviously about them.
And you know it won't go out. Not this week. There's a gift officer carrying 300 prospects and a calendar that's already full. There's a two-person team and a database that hasn't been clean since the last reunion. The reactive work always wins, because it has a deadline. The proactive note doesn't. So it waits. And the window closes.
That's not a discipline problem. It's an arithmetic problem. And nobody out-disciplines arithmetic.
THE COST OF SILENCE
When the note never goes out, no alum notices a missing email. What they notice is the pattern: year after year, the institution only shows up with its hand out. That's how a base quietly decides you don't know them — and the research on what that decision costs is hard to look away from.
And the silence has a number.
Source: 2026 National Alumni Survey — 82,252 respondents across 31 colleges and universities
None of that is a messaging problem. It's an execution gap — thousands of small, well-timed moments nobody had the hours to act on. Close the gap and the numbers move.
Spark Plug is the headcount you can't get approved.
Not software. Not a dashboard. Not one more login for a team that's already maxed out. A managed service that does the part your team has no hours for — and hands back work that's ready to send.
We find the moments — so nobody has to go looking.
Our data partner monitors 18 public sources (not just LinkedIn), surfacing verified, current career signals across 70–80% of your alumni base. The research an analyst you don't have would do — done for you, continuously.
We pick the ones worth acting on — so nobody drowns in a data dump.
Not every update earns a note. We surface the moments that are timely, meaningful, and realistic to act on — and we never reach when reaching would do harm.
We write the outreach — so all that's left is to hit send.
Your team gets a finished Activation Pack: named alumni, the strategic context, and a draft for each — in your voice, ready to send or adapt. You decide what goes out. We do everything up to that point.
Your CRM is your system of record. Spark Plug is your system of now.
PROOF
Here's what it looks like when the work actually gets done.
MidAmerica Nazarene gave us 13 weeks and one graduating cohort. Here's the funnel their team didn't have the hours to build:
175
MOMENTS SURFACED36%
CONNECTED81%
RESPONDED54%
VOLUNTEER FORM40%
ACTIVATEDOne cohort · 13 weeks · founding proof-of-concept engagement. Percentages run off the prior stage.
One of those 175 was a name no one had flagged — cold on the list in week one. Within six weeks he'd guest-taught a class, joined an advisory council, and made a five-figure gift. No campaign. No big ask. Someone just reached out at the right moment with information provided by Spark Plug.
“This surfaced alumni moments we care about — but don't consistently see. It immediately felt usable.”
— Pete Brumbaugh, Executive Director of University Communications and Alumni Engagement
Start small. See it work. Let the engine take over.
Every engagement starts free, on your own alumni — so you can prove this works before you commit to anything.
Proof Scan Free
A finished look at your real alumni moving — named, with drafted outreach. Proof before anything else.
Start free →Grad Session $750
A two-hour working session on your newest grads. You leave having actually sent the outreach.
Book a session →Always-On
The continuous engine that catches every alumni moment the week it happens — and hands your team ready-to-send outreach, all year.
How Always-On works →No platform to buy. No procurement gate. Start by seeing what you're missing.
WHY SPARK PLUG EXISTS
“I spent 20 years as the person in the seat you’re in now. I built the service I always wished I had.”
For two decades I led alumni engagement and annual giving — Ohio University, Ohio State, Western Governors, the University of Oregon. I watched alumni hit milestone after milestone my team never saw, and sent outreach that landed months too late. Not because we were bad at the job — because there were never enough of us, and the database only ever told me what people did years ago.
Erin Essak Kopp | Founder & CEO, Spark Plug
See the moments you're missing — free.
We'll scan your real alumni base and hand you a finished Proof Scan: named alumni at real career moments, the strategic context, and sample outreach you could send this week. Your alumni. Not a demo.
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