At MindMax, our core values are the foundation of everything we do, guiding our approach to helping educational institutions achieve their goals. We’ve put together this Core Values Series to share how our values shape our work and drive our commitment to excellence. 

Through this series, we aim to provide a deeper understanding of the principles that influence our strategies and contribute to the success of our clients.

You can check out the full series at the links below:

Get Results
Learn Always
Align to Mission
Build Meaningful Relationships
Actionable Insights

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Higher education institutions don’t always make the most rational decisions from a business perspective. 

And that’s okay.

It’s something I’ve come to terms with over my 15 years working with non-profit colleges and universities. During that time, I’ve learned to appreciate that schools are, first and foremost, mission-driven. What’s best for the school, as an institution serving a meaningful mission, doesn’t always align with what’s best for the bottom line. 

Of course, that puts many schools in the difficult position of figuring out how to serve their missions while maintaining financial stability—an especially tough prospect amid declining enrollments. 

MindMax approaches each higher education marketing engagement with this challenge top of mind. We commit to helping schools grow enrollments (i.e., maintain financial stability), but in doing so, we never lose sight of the mission they’re striving to achieve.

“Aligning to mission” is so important to us that it’s one of our core values. “We calibrate our engagements and work styles to align with the important missions of the schools we serve.”

MindMax’s Framework for Aligning to Mission: What, Why, How? 

Our framework for aligning to a partner school’s mission is to identify it, understand it, and determine the ways we can best support it. At the most basic level, this process requires understanding the what, the why, and the how. 

What is important to your school and unit? 

We begin by asking what’s important to both the school and the unit. If there’s a lack of alignment between those two answers—and often, there is—we’ll explore it further. 

For example: we work with many continuing education units, and we often see that those units are more visionary or willing to take risks than the parent institution. In these cases, we know we’ll need to take into account multiple stakeholders’ perspectives about what is important. 

Why does it matter?

Once we have a clear grasp of what’s important, our next step is determining why it’s important. With each response, we dig deeper, aiming to reach the most fundamental answer. 

This conversation often reveals the fundamental challenges schools face, which can range from a poor relationship with the community to fiscal uncertainty to a struggle to keep up with trends and technology.

How effectively are you serving what’s important? 

Finally, we want to know how effectively the school is delivering on what’s important. Most schools that contact MindMax for higher education marketing support are experiencing gaps in their abilities to fulfill their missions, which can make it difficult to grow enrollment. It’s our job to help them fill those gaps.

Why Schools Appreciate Our Approach 

“You actually get us.” 

“You really care about us.” 

“You’ve enabled us to do things we knew were important but were able to do before.” 

“You’ve helped us serve more students in a way that truly aligns with our mission.” 

This is some of the feedback we’ve heard from partner schools over the years about our mission-aligned approach. 

Helping a school serve its mission isn’t as simple as reading a mission statement and understanding exactly what to do next. So we put in the work to ask questions, listen, and work shoulder to shoulder as true partners pursuing a common goal.

Creating on-brand experiences 

The work is well worth the effort. While “mission” and “brand” are two distinct things, it’s no surprise that the former influences the latter. Clients are often surprised, for example, when our campaign messaging hits the mark right out of the gate. 

Sometimes, an experience we execute is even more on-brand than one a client would have been capable of executing. For instance, our enrollment services team has the technology, processes, and bandwidth that many internal higher education marketing teams lack. They can stay in close, personal touch with prospective students to show that the school genuinely cares about them. 

Overcoming disagreements 

The trust we establish during the process of aligning to a school’s mission is critical when there are disagreements about how to move forward. And there will be disagreements! 

We never hesitate to respectively inform clients when a tactic they’ve suggested isn’t optimal—especially when it doesn’t serve their mission. 

For instance, in their enthusiasm to promote their programs, many schools that offer master’s programs inadvertently bombard prospective students with messaging. But we know the audience they’re targeting: thoughtful, intelligent people who want to be treated with respect as they make significant decisions that can change the course of their lives.

The schools’ messaging should meet these prospective students’ needs—not only to grow enrollments more effectively but also to ensure the school is represented accurately and in alignment with its mission.

Enabling Life-Transforming Educational Experiences 

“You’re different. You’re not just trying to make money. You want to make a difference.” 

That’s another sentiment we’ve heard from partner schools—and it’s true. MindMax’s own mission is to “help students have more life-transforming educational experiences.” It’s similar to many schools’ missions. Aligning to a college or university’s mission comes naturally to us in many ways.

When we get it right—and we don’t stop until we do—we have the privilege of helping schools make a powerful difference in people’s lives. That gets me up in the morning. It keeps the MindMax team engaged and inspired to deliver the best results for our partner schools.

If you’d like to find out how MindMax can help your school reach its enrollment goals, reach out, and let’s start talking about what matters to you.