Purpose: This practitioner paper intends to explore how Public Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) in Pakistan could strategize alumni to encounter the financial sustainability challenges and achieve their organizational potential relevant to academic, research and public services. Design/methodology/approach: Employing a hermeneutic (interpretive) phenomenological approach, this study used interviews and focus group discussion data with 26 alumni from eight different PHEIs in Pakistan to explore their attitudes toward engagement with their institutions. Findings: This study shows a clear shift in institutional strategies between the developing and developed economies regarding the importance and value given to alumni and engagement practices employed. Practical implications: This study recommends that PHEIs in Pakistan can enjoy alumni engagement benefits to strengthen their organizational standing, provided they view alumni as a valuable entity and observe a proactive approach to engage alumni in a manner that may reflect the mutually beneficial and trustworthy relationship. Further, it would help institutions attain long-term financial sustainability, which is threatened by state-funding cuts and, more recently, COVID-19 pandemic-led recession. Originality/value: Scholarship shows that institutions in the developed economies have built a strong bond with their alumni to seek their support. However, the voices of institutions from the developing economies have not been heard yet. In this regard, this study appears to highlight the current alumni engagement practices and how institutions could improve on them to strategize alumni for a sustainable future.