Case Study: Santa Fe College achieves enrollment growth and improved applicant perception with Salesforce for Nonprofits

Changing applicant perceptions—and increasing enrollments—with personalized recruiting

Santa Fe College, a nationally recognized community college, was facing years of declining enrollment and a perception as a “second‑choice” school. A small, mostly part‑time admissions team working in silos struggled to reach “stealth investigators” (prospective students who withhold contact), so the college needed a new, scalable recruiting approach to boost applications and enrollment.

By rolling out Salesforce—starting with Sales Cloud and later adding Pardot, Social Studio, Community Cloud and Service Cloud—admissions built personalized outreach (nurture campaigns, email automation, rapid-response communication, personalized communities and social monitoring). In three years engagement rose 250%, digital inquiries 60%, campus tour requests 75%, applications 15% and enrollment 4%; subsequent initiatives increased transfer applications 170%, international enrollment 16% and helped 300+ stopped‑out students finish degrees, while breaking down silos and proving the strategy scalable.

Santa Fe College

Quinten Eyman

Admissions Coordinator