Case Study: Old Dominion University processes applications up to 14 days faster with Salesforce for Nonprofits

Old Dominion University Processes Applications Up to 14 Days Faster with Salesforce

Old Dominion University, a public doctoral research university with more than 24,000 students, faced fragmented recruiting and admissions data spread across three separate CRM systems (undergraduate, graduate, and retention). That siloed approach made it hard to capture prospective student touchpoints, slowed application turnaround, and limited support for first-generation and other incoming students who need sustained guidance.

ODU consolidated onto Salesforce.org Education Cloud (using Sales, Marketing, and Community Clouds plus AppExchange tools) to centralize records, enable yield coaching, build a financial-aid calculator, and manage events. The move unified three CRMs, sped decisioning by an average of 5 days (up to 14 days faster for some applicants), increased outreach to first-year and first-generation students by 37%, handled ~60,000 applications and 26,000 event reservations, and cut event-registration costs by up to $25,000 a year.

Old Dominion University

Matt Newton

Director of CRM and Integrated Systems Enrollment Management