Capturing Our Place In History
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|November 5, 2025Spark451, a Jenzabar Company, is proud to announce that our partner, Hartwick College, has won a Gold Circle of Excellence Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The Circle of Excellence Awards showcase outstanding work in advancement services, alumni relations, communications, fundraising, and marketing, and was awarded to Hartwick in recognition of their strategic market repositioning efforts, work completed in collaboration with Spark451.
“We’re incredibly proud that our shared work with Spark451, and the Hartwick team has been honored with a 2025 Circle of Excellence Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education,” said Gail Glover, Vice President for Strategic Communications. “This recognition is a testament to the strength of our partnership and the deep collaboration that fueled every step of the process, from strategy and storytelling to creative execution. Together, we elevated Hartwick’s distinctive Life Balance message in a way that not only reflects the spirit and momentum of the College, but also makes a lasting impact on how students, families, and the broader community see Hartwick’s transformative value.”
Taking a Stand
After years of being perceived as a high-cost liberal arts institution and in the midst of rising anxiety over FAFSA rollout delays — as well as increasing concerns from students, families, and the general public regarding the costs of higher education — Hartwick College made a bold decision: Implement a transparent tuition reset.
The Work
To assist in their efforts, Spark451 was brought on board to help craft a comprehensive campaign that would dismantle their high-cost perception, position the tuition reset as evidence of a larger commitment to financial accessibility, and establish them as a forward-thinking college that prioritizes student well-being. The result? “The Life Balance College.”
By aligning our work with the College’s newly launched capital campaign, “Together We Soar,” and engaging key stakeholders such as the College President, Board of Trustees, current students, advancement, faculty, coaches, the Oneonta community, and more, we helped raise awareness, excitement, and campaign contributions. Not only that, but by deploying resources across a mix of traditional and digital channels, including postcards for senior search, website updates, social media engagement, and importantly, data-injected, personalized financial aid communications to existing students, we were able to help existing students understand the new tuition model and illustrate how the changes impacted their individual financial aid packages. This level of transparency and individual attention helped to reduce anxiety and build trust.
The synergy between operational change and communications, driven by extensive stakeholder research, ensured that the message wasn’t just promotional but genuinely reflective of Hartwick’s values.
Outcomes
At the time of submission, measurable outcomes included significant year-over-year increase in freshman applications and acceptance rates, as well as noteworthy growth in key academic areas. Furthermore, a survey of admitted students revealed that 71% believe Hartwick is within their financial reach, a strong indicator of the success of the tuition transparency work.
Judges lauded the initiative, noting the well-executed materials and a unique connection to philanthropy. They further commented that “the communication strategy and products are a model for other institutions.”
We are honored to share in Hartwick’s accomplishments and take great pride in the results of this tremendous effort.
Campus Roll-out Posters
Travel Brochure
Recruitment Travel Table Pull-ups
Personalized Financial Aid Mailing
Strategic Website Redesign
Senior Search Postcard Series
For Students and Influencers Such as Parents and Guidance Counselors
Senior Search Email Communications
Reach out to discuss how Spark451’s award-winning team can help your institution gain a competitive edge.
The Future of Financial Aid Offers
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|September 16, 2025At the start of the fall 2025 recruitment cycle, the enrollment management world was still recovering from the FAFSA fallout of 2024.
Although the form seems to have operated smoothly this past cycle, with submissions returning to pre-pandemic levels, and is promised to return to its October 1 launch date, financial aid offices are still entering the fall 2026 cycle with trepidation. Why?
- Conversations about college affordability are more prominent than ever.
- Families (and, let’s be honest, schools as well) are wondering what changes might be coming to loan access and Pell requirements.
- Students and parents are actively discussing their financial aid offers on public forums like Reddit, asking what is normal and is it worth it, and looking for guidance on how to interpret confusing offer letters.
While all of that is out of our control, there is something we can control — how we communicate financial aid offers. Packages are currently sent in a few ways: a printed mailer, links to online portals, or a combination of the two. As families require more detailed information and clarity, more schools need to take their aid communication a step beyond by digitizing their print offer piece.
Sending financial aid offers to the inbox in addition to the mailbox is:
1. Faster
Imagine pressing send on an email campaign the day all packages have been tested, reviewed, merged, and approved. No more waiting to get the first call to the financial aid office to know they’ve started arriving in mailboxes. Sending digitally gets aid offers to students weeks faster than mailing.
2. Informative
Sending digitally gives you analytics that mail never could. At any given moment, you can know exactly who has downloaded their aid package and who has yet to take this important step.
3. Actionable
Tailor your admissions and financial aid representatives’ time by using segmentation. Based on where you are in the cycle, your goals related to the financial aid offer probably shift. Early on, you might consider personal outreach to those who have yet to download their aid package, in hopes of making sure they know what is available. As the deadline nears, it may be better to focus on those who have already downloaded their package, or those who have accessed it multiple times, as they are likely still considering enrolling at your school.
4. Accessible
As those same staff are reaching out, they have complete access to the same material the student received. Conversations are significantly easier when your staff can reference certain information, pages, etc., when discussing details of an offer. No more referencing tables in SIS systems and hoping to translate them correctly.
Some schools have even chosen to send only digital offers, which can save thousands of dollars in print and postage costs. However, in a world where high school families are inundated with digital outreach, they are showing an increased affinity for mailed information. In fact, Spark451 hosts an annual college-bound survey for high school seniors and parents who just recently concluded their search process, and the results are clear: they want tangible materials now. While there may have been a moment where mail seemed antiquated, printed financial aid offers are likely here to stay.
You’re already creating an aid package for every student — why not get it to them faster while simultaneously enabling your admissions team to have better, more informative, and actionable conversations with students? Why not send it digitally first?
If you’re interested in learning about Spark451’s personalized aid offers that leverage variable data, please reach out to us! Financial aid has always been a lynchpin of yield season, and while it may feel like yield just ended, it’s never too early to start planning for the next one — especially if you hope to have something new and ready to make a splash in the market. Spark451 is here to support you in making sure your team is set up for success!
Job-E-marketing Associate
TECHNOLOGY
E-marketing Associate
You are:
- A bachelor’s degree holder in Marketing, Business or related field
- Interested in problem solving and are able to anticipate possible errors before they occur
- Adept at multi-tasking and have a high attention to detail
- Familiar with Excel
What you’ll do in this role:
- Provide quality assurance on the email marketing team
- Review and deploy emails and ensure the correct recipient population
- Prepare and implement email quality assurance policies and procedures
- Identify and resolve workflow and email deployment issues
- Monitor client email performance and suggest optimizations to the team
