Alumniportal Deutschland

Alumniportal Deutschland is a non-profit online social network of "Germany Alumni" that is designed internationally for people who have studied, researched, worked or completed further training or a language course in Germany or at a German institution abroad.

Overview
It offers all international Germany alumni, regardless of whether or not they received a scholarship from one of the many German scholarship organizations, an opportunity to get in touch with Germany alumni from around the world as well as some companies. The registration and use of Alumniportal Deutschland is free of charge and can be done as individual or as business/organization.

The project is administered by a core group of four major German organizations (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service, Goethe-Institut, Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), supported by strategic partners and financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany and supported by the Federal Foreign Office.

The Alumniportal Deutschland is available in both English and German. The communication language within the community is arbitrary.

History
Since its inception in 2008, more than 155,000 users from 184 countries have registered with the Alumniportal as of December 2017.

Structure of the website
The Alumniportal Deutschland is divided into various sections: the Online Community, Topics & Projects, Webinars & Events and a section on Jobs & Careers, Groups, Members & Network.

The Online Community is the social networking component of the website. Registered members have the opportunity to network and communicate with fellow alumni and participating organizations using the standard array of social networking tools such as groups, blogs, profiles, etc.

Partner organizations
The four primary non-profit and non-governmental organizations responsible for creating, maintaining and promoting Alumniportal Deutschland are:
 * Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH; in German: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung)
 * Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
 * German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD; in German: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst)
 * Goethe-Institut

More than ten "strategic partners" support the partner organizations. Amongst others, these are the German Federal Foreign Office, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and several political foundations such as the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Heinrich Boell Foundation.