AlmaShines

AlmaShines provides alumni management including a free automated alumni directory described as a fully automated alumni database management tool, an all-in-one platform to connect, engage, manage and raise support from alumni, and a secure election voting solution, with pricing published in rupees and dollars.

Offering the directory free with paid engagement above it is the right structure for this market, because the directory is the part institutions cannot function without and the part they are least willing to fund.

The underlying problem is that alumni data decays faster than almost any other contact database. Graduates change employer, city, email address and surname, and unlike customers they have no transactional reason to update the institution. An alumni list five years old is substantially wrong, and every subsequent activity depends on it: fundraising, events, mentoring and reputation all require reaching people.

Automated directory maintenance is the foundation, and giving it away establishes the dataset on which everything paid depends.

Election voting is an unusual inclusion and a genuinely specific one. Alumni associations elect office holders, and those elections are frequently contested, occasionally acrimonious, and must be demonstrably fair to a dispersed electorate that cannot attend in person. Secure remote voting with a verifiable record is exactly the kind of narrow requirement that general engagement platforms do not address, and that institutions otherwise handle with an email poll nobody fully trusts.

Raising support as a named function rather than fundraising reflects that alumni give more than money. Mentoring, work placements, guest teaching and recruitment access are frequently more valuable to students than donations, and are much easier for a graduate to provide.

Pricing is published in rupees and dollars, with figures including Rs 2,999 and $120 covering community and professional networking provision.