Virtual Book Clubs for Universities

Connect Alumni, Faculty, and Students Anywhere in the World

Engage your community in an impactful university book club, movie club, online course or webinar program. Our expert facilitators manage every detail of your customized program. Engage hundreds or thousands of people with only a few hours of staff time per year.

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We Manage Virtual Alumni Books Clubs At 250+ Colleges And Independent Schools Around The World

University of Pennsylvannia
University of Cambridge
Caltech
The University of British Columbia
Arizona State University
Lehigh University
North Carolina State University
University Of Maryland
Boston College
Duquesne University
Hiram College
Illinois State University
University Of Virginia
Northwestern University
University of Washington

Wondering if we can create an amazing, impactful book club experience for your institution? We create and manage custom book club programs for educational institutions of all types, including:

✓ Large Public Universities ✓ International Universities ✓ Community Colleges ✓ Regional Public Universities ✓ Liberal Arts Colleges
✓ Large Private Universities ✓ and Independent Schools

Jeff Williams University of Maryland
University Of Maryland

PBC Guru has done a great job facilitating the Smith School Alumni book clubs! We’ve had hundreds of alumni sign up, with nearly 60% from out of state (including 9% international). The book clubs have been very easy from a staffing standpoint – once up and running, PBC Guru do all the work. Their thought-provoking posts help jumpstart discussions and share valuable professional development tips with alumni.

Jeff Wiliams
Directory of Alumni Engagement,
Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Alyssa D"Alconzo University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvannia

Partnering with PBC Guru has given us the opportunity to expand our educational offerings and engage hundreds of Penn alumni in a quality learning experience. The leadership at PBC Guru has included us and solicited our feedback in every aspect of planning, ensuring that we can make our book clubs feel like Penn Alumni activities without taxing our staff resources with the day-to-day program implementation and supervision.

Alyssa D'Alconzo
Directory of Alumni Education,
University of Pennsylvania
HoW We Can Help

University Book Clubs and Other Services

Online Book Clubs - PBC Guru

Online Book Clubs

Engage thousands of alumni that you've never reached before in a lifelong learning program.

Alumni Learning Consortium

Alumni Learning Consortium

Improve the quality, quantity, and depth of your online alumni programs.

Social Justice Movie Clubs

Connect students and alumni together for critical conversations around DE&I.

University Book Clubs by the Numbers

250+

College, University, and Independent School Partners

60%

Portion Of Program Participants Who Have Previously Never Been Engaged

70%

Portion Of Program Participants Who Are Still Engaged After One Year
THE BENEFITS OF A UNIVERSITY BOOK CLUB

Virtual Book Clubs Build Community and Enhance Learning

Customizable

Books can be selected to meet almost any group's learning needs (or general interests). No matter your purpose and aims, we tailor your book club to what you and your participants are aiming for.

Effective Learning

Reading a book is one of the best ways to deeply learn and improve capabilities. Whether it’s a book on soft or hard skills for work or a novel that fosters new awareness, sparks curiosity, or builds empathy, books help people stretch their minds.

Scalable

Our virtual programs work for groups from dozens to thousands. Whether you’re a company with dozens of people, a professional society with hundreds, or a university with thousands, we can tailor your program to where you are (and where you’re going).

Continuous Development

Whether your group consists of employees, alums, members, or patrons, participants will read new books on a regular basis allowing for ongoing growth, improved critical thinking, and a deeper relationship with your organization.

Accountability

Whether it’s a company book club or one through another organization that’s just for fun, book clubs work best with a sense of social obligation. Our accountability tools and the schedule of a book club keep your participants engaged and on track with reading.

Social and Fun

Participants enjoy connecting with each other and benefit from developing a shared language. No matter your group, your organization type, and your aims, your people will benefit from the enjoyment of this social experience oriented around mutual growth.

FEATURES

How it Works

A lot goes into managing a virtual book club or other program to achieve your organizational goals while engaging participants. We manage virtually every aspect of the program so your community can connect with your organization easily without draining staff time.

Customized to your Goals

We work with you to define the goals for your program based on your needs and our experience working with organizations and institutions like yours.

Targeted to Participants

Based on your goals, we’ll help you decide how many readings to do and who should be invited to each one.

Book Selection

We work with you to preselect the reading or books for participants to vote on. For voting, we recommend allowing participants to vote between two to three books each reading period.

Author Talks

Included in our service are live Question & Answer talks with best-selling authors. Author talks cover the hottest novels, business reads, memoirs, and other book genres.

Your Own Forum

Participants engage when it’s convenient for them. We create a private online forum on our purpose-made platform where your participants will network and discuss the reading from anywhere in the world.

Facilitated Discussion

We moderate the online discussion by posting interesting content, asking questions, and encouraging conversation. Never worry about whether your program will fall flat. We guide it at every step.

Regular Guidance & Content

We share interesting content related to readings and send gentle reading reminders by email and within the forum to spur conversation and keep participants on track.

Ongoing Engagement

Book clubs read several books each year on topics that matter to you and to your participants, keeping them more engaged over time compared to one-off programs and events.

Example Virtual Alumni Book Clubs

Clubs We Run for Universities Like Yours

These are just a small sample of the programs we run for more than 250 universities, including more than 60 of the top-ranked universities in the U.S.

Cornell Book Club

Cornell University Virtual Book Club

JMU Book Club

James Madison University Alumni Book Club

Northwestern University Book Club

Northwestern University Social Justice Book Club

Santa Clara University Book Club

Santa Clara University Alumni Book Club

Illinois State University Book Club

Illinois State University Alumni Book Club

University of Maryland Book Club

University of Maryland Alumni Book Club

Love From Our Learners

We love our customers and participants. And they love us! Here’s what some of them have to say about what we do.

“The Rutgers University Alumni Book Club is starting its third year with PBC Guru and we are very pleased with the return on investment. Our 1500+ registrants are able to network with each other and be exposed to new books and ideas, and we’re able to keep readers connected to their alma mater on their terms.”
Mary Clare Venuto
Acting Directory of Alumni Enagements and Annual Giving, Rutgers University
“We are able to use the book club to showcase and reference LSE’s world leading research as we connect literary themes to academic disciplines or feature LSE-led literature as a book club pick.”
Ceri Jones
Head of Alumni Engagement, The London School of Economics and Political Science
“The book club program has allowed us to engage alumnae who otherwise have not been involved with the school. They have been able to connect over the shared interest of reading and lifelong learning.”
Dana Lovelace Capers
Hathaway Brown (Independent School)
“The quality of discussion among the alumni participants has been incredible. It’s fostered relationships and continued their lifelong learning.”
Christine Lee
The University of British Columbia
“PBC Guru literally takes care of everything! You share some basic info and goals and graphics for the website and BOOM it's off and rolling.”
Beth Szczerowski
Director of Alumni & Family Engagement, Hope College
“PBC Guru has made the implementation of our book club very seamless.  They’re also very hands on with running it and make it clear what’s needed from our end.”
Lynn Douglass
The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business

150K+

Active Book Club Participants

60+

Top 100 US Universities on Our Service

1M+

Books Read
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Let's Empower Your People

Organizations We Serve

We manage book club programs for organizations of all shapes and sizes.

University of Pennsylvannia
University of Cambridge
Caltech
The University of British Columbia
Arizona State University
Lehigh University
North Carolina State University
University Of Maryland
Boston College
Duquesne University
Hiram College
Illinois State University
University Of Virginia
Northwestern University
University of Washington

Let’s Talk

Request a demo and explore how our book clubs or other managed programs can help engage your community in lifelong learning.

Request a Demo
Let's Empower Your People