4 top takeaways from the 2025 CampusESP Summit

Last month we welcomed hundreds of higher ed professionals back to Philadelphia for the 2025 CampusESP Summit — a day packed with strategy, storytelling, and a shared commitment to student success through family engagement. From live demos to data dives, one thing was clear: institutions are moving family engagement from “nice to have” to strategic must-have. And we’re thrilled to be a part of it.

The Summit was one of the best, namely because of the customers that helped us make it so. From the 80 schools in attendance to the 18 that got on stage to share their strategies and successes, thank you!

There was so much inspiration packed into one day, but there were definitely themes to be found between the conversations, presentations, and storylines. Here are the top four takeaways and how institutions — and CampusESP — are turning ideas into action.

1. Family engagement is now a cross-campus initiative

Gone are the days when family communication was an after thought. At this year’s Summit, it was clear: engaging families is becoming everyone’s job, and the impact is real.

Attendees joined us from admissions, student affairs, advancement, and the registrar’s office. From vice presidents looking to strategically engage families to improve institutional goals like student yield and retention to coordinators harnessing our tool to create more efficient, tailored communications that resonate, there’s an across-the-board understanding of the value of families.

At CampusESP we’ve always believed student success is a team effort, and it was a joy to see these various professionals come together to learn how to support yet another member of that team: parents. 

2. Personalization is the key to serving key populations

Whether it was Montclair State discussing how they tailor and translate content for their large population of Spanish-speaking families or The New School sharing how they get prospective families comfortable with their NYC campus through student-penned stories, one theme came up again and again: families don’t want one-size-fits-all content. They want (and need) what’s relevant to them, when it’s relevant.

We know this is one of the primary reasons colleges move their communications to CampusESP — between the data collected during portal registration and shared via your CRM or SIS, you can easily create communities, segment emails, ads, and text messages, and focus different content at different times to different families.

3. AI is a must to scale smartly

AI is becoming as normal a part of our day as overflowing inboxes and that second cup of coffee, and for good reason. The efficiency wins are unmatched — particularly important for higher education teams hit with reduced resources but always-growing goals.

We took some time at the Summit to dive into AI, with our CTO and co-founder James Bright hosting a session on what’s coming next in AI automation in the product. The adoption of our current AI content tools has been swift and impressive, and we’re working on more exciting possible enhancements, from automated content suggestions in response to parent queries to predictive enrollment modeling.

University of Montana’s marketing team explained how they’re using AI to speed up content review and reduce burnout — without losing their human touch. And Salem State University shared how their financial aid education for families took off when they leaned on AI to scale.

In a world where teams are strapped for time, AI isn’t replacing our expertise, it’s amplifying it.

4. Parent giving is an often untapped growth channel

For many attendees, the growing focus on families in fundraising was the surprise star of the show. Miami University shared how they increased parent giving by 25% through their Move In Miami campaign. Meanwhile, the University of Oregon revealed how they’re using CampusESP to build a culture of philanthropy with their families, then harnessing the system’s Parent Promoter Score™ to identify and prioritize likely donors — an approach that helped them more than triple their parent donations in 2025 for their annual day of giving.

It’s amazing, but the data we see backs it up. Our 2025 Family Survey showed that 38% of families say they want to be more involved, and 22% are more likely to donate to their student’s college than their own alma mater.

Families don’t just want to stay informed, they want to contribute. All they need is a meaningful connection.

Across every session, one message rang clear: family engagement isn’t a side project. It’s not a nice to have. It’s a strategy that powers enrollment, retention, and student success, managed by dedicated professionals.

At CampusESP, we’re proud to be part of the way that strategy becomes scalable, measurable, and impactful.

👋 Until next year: Thank you to all who joined us in Philly. We’re already counting down to the 2026 Summit.