Case Study: Olivet Nazarene University boosts enrollment and saves $1M with Ellucian CRM Recruit

How Impact Award winner Olivet Nazarene University recouped a million dollars while ramping up enrollment

Olivet Nazarene University (ONU) needed to quickly consolidate its fragmented enrollment operations, including migrating 8,000 student records and moving from two CRM systems and multiple application websites to a single platform. The university was also dealing with a six-year enrollment decline and wanted a better way to support on-campus, online, and partner-location recruiting. Ellucian’s CRM Recruit SaaS was the product used to address these challenges.

Ellucian helped ONU unify its applications into a single page, migrate data, and streamline enrollment workflows with support from Ellucian Professional Services. The new system improved communication across enrollment, advising, financial aid, and student development, while the ONU Plus initiative expanded recruiting at partner sites. As a result, ONU saved nearly $1 million, increased new student enrollment by 25% in Graduate and Continuing Studies, and achieved a record 801 incoming freshmen and transfer students in August 2023.

Olivet Nazarene University

Kevin Hatcher

Executive Director of Revenue Technology and Operations for Development