This piece was inspired by Encoura’s recent article, "Why Religious Institutions Are Not Like Other Privates". As a team that has partnered closely with many mission-driven schools since our founding, we wanted to offer our perspective on what makes these institutions unique—and how the student financial experience can quietly reinforce their values.

In a crowded and competitive higher education landscape, faith-based colleges and universities often carry a responsibility that transcends enrollment numbers and balance sheets. They’re centers of academic instruction, but they also see themselves as responsible for a student’s spiritual formation, the carriers of multi-generational traditionals, and stewards of a deeply-held mission. These institutions face the same macroeconomic pressures as their secular peers—rising costs, demographic headwinds, and intensifying scrutiny from the public on the value of higher education overall—but they do so while trying to preserve their values.

And in many cases, they're doing it against the odds.

Community pillars in an uncertain environment

Faith-based colleges are often small by design and balancing the tension between mission and margin. Their goals are pastoral as much as professional. Their distinctiveness brings real vulnerability.

• They serve regional or rural communities, many of which are seeing population declines or economic shifts.
  
  
• They rely heavily on aging donor bases and church affiliations, which, while loyal, may not be able to sustain the institution financially in today’s environment.
  
  
• They operate on tuition-dependent models, while competing with public institutions and secular privates offering deeper discounts or broader name recognition.

Despite some recent headlines about record enrollment at select faith-based institutions, overall enrollment in the sector declined 3% between 2013 and 2023—while secular private colleges grew by 13%. The appetite for explicitly religious education is real, but it’s small, and schools are often competing for the same limited pool of students.

In short: some institutions are growing—but many are still at risk. And those that thrive do so not only by honoring their mission, but by better understanding how today’s families actually make decisions.

What today’s families really value

One of the most revealing insights from Encoura’s research is that families who consider faith-based institutions don’t evaluate them the same way they do secular privates. In fact, their expectations align more closely with those considering in-state public colleges:

• Cost matters more than prestige. Families open to religious institutions care more about affordability than national rankings.
  
  
• Local reputation matters more than national brand. Is the institution respected in the community? Known by local employers? That carries more weight than rankings.
  
  
• Career outcomes are top of mind. Faith-based values are important—but so are high job placement rates and strong starting salaries.

Perhaps most telling: only 47% of parents who prefer a faith-based institution think their child will actually attend one. That means the competition isn’t just private school peers - both secular and religious. It’s with publics—especially when families feel more confident their investment in a public institution will yield clear, tangible results.

Yet many faith-based schools continue to lead with values alone, underestimating how central affordability and ROI are to even the most mission-aligned families.

Affordability as a mission-critical issue

At Meadow, we often say that the student experience is a financial one. For faith-based institutions, putting the financial experience front and center is a matter of self-preservation.

The families most aligned with these schools—rural, first-generation, community-rooted—are often the ones most impacted by rising costs and financial uncertainty. Cost transparency, the availability of flexible payment plans, and evidence of strong outcomes aren’t just best practices or compliance for religious institutions, they’re what is needed to demonstrate to the families most interested in their program that they are a feasible option.

Modern tools for a timeless mission

From the beginning, Meadow has had the privilege of working with many faith-based institutions who recognize that conveying their unique value is not just a matter of compelling marketing materials, it’s putting the affordability conversation at the center. These partnerships have taught us that supporting student access, retention, and success strengthens, not changes, a religious college’s unique identity. 

That might mean:

• Offering an accessible, accurate net price calculator so families can make informed decisions that cement the institution as their top choice.
  
  
• Offering robust payment plans that reduce friction, particularly for students balancing jobs, family, or off-campus responsibilities.
  
  
• Equipping staff with insight into who’s at risk of stopping out, and offering tools to intervene before it’s too late.
  
  
• Modern communication tactics and customizable messaging that enable religious institutions to ensure engagement is aligned with their values and compassionate towards students' unique situations.

None of this requires abandoning tradition. Modern financial tools protect the legacy of religious institutions by ensuring that the students most called to a faith-based education can afford to answer that call.

Meeting the moment and keeping the mission

It’s easy to mistake modernization for mission drift. But the reality is that the most resilient religious institutions are the ones that evolve strategically.

Encoura’s data makes it clear: the market for faith-based education is specific, competitive, and ROI-conscious. Families care deeply about cost, community reputation, and outcomes, but they’re evaluating the whole picture before committing to the idea of a religion-based higher education.

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Find the Encoura article here.

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