Kennedy and Company

What Kennedy and Company does

Kennedy & Company Education Strategies is a higher education consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC, founded in 2013 and now operating as a strategic operating subsidiary of Human Capital Education following its 2025 acquisition. The firm serves more than 300 colleges and universities across North America and the United Kingdom, providing strategic consulting, financial modeling, enrollment management, and CRM technology implementation services. Its client base spans public research institutions, state flagship universities and systems, private colleges, community colleges, HBCUs, graduate and professional schools, and law schools.

The company's service portfolio is organized around four solution areas: enrollment growth, enrollment technology, net price calculation, and strategic planning and financial sustainability. Its proprietary software product, 1stAid, is a net price calculator with embedded counseling and lead-generation capabilities for admissions teams. The firm also delivers CRM implementation and customization across Salesforce, Slate (Technolutions), Element451, and HubSpot, holding partnership-level relationships with Salesforce and Technolutions as Core partners. A notable technical capability is a hub-and-spoke multi-org Salesforce architecture connecting 19 Salesforce orgs across the Virginia Community College System, centralizing data for 500,000+ credit and non-credit students and onboarding 200,000+ students through automated workflows; the company's Slate expertise was strengthened by the October 2024 acquisition of FGI Consultants.

Revenue is generated through project-based consulting engagements, multi-year CRM implementation and support contracts, and recurring 1stAid licensing and support fees. Pricing is quote-based and project-scoped rather than publicly disclosed. The firm employs between 11 and 50 staff and operates from a single Washington, DC headquarters location. Founder Ben Kennedy continues as CEO post-acquisition, with Kennedy & Company now part of the combined Human Capital Education platform.

Name

Kennedy and Company

Legal name

Kennedy & Company Education Strategies

Website

https://kennedyandcompany.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Kennedy & Company Education Strategies is a higher education consulting firm serving 300+ colleges and universities across North America and the UK with enrollment strategy, financial sustainability, and CRM implementation services across Salesforce, Slate, Element451, and HubSpot, anchored by its proprietary 1stAid net price calculator.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Consulting Services

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

ERP, CRM & Enterprise Applications Consulting (BPAHAEAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Customer, Marketing & Sales Consulting (BPAHACAG), CRM Strategy & Consulting (BPAFAFAA), CRM Managed Services & Support (BPAEAGAD)

Keywords

• Higher education consulting
• Enrollment strategy services
• CRM implementation services
• Net price calculator
• Financial sustainability consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Strategic Consulting Services: Project-based consulting engagements for enrollment strategy, strategic planning, financial modeling, organizational transformation, and feasibility studies. Engagements include research, modeling, thought partnership, and CRM implementation services.
2. CRM Implementation and Support: Technology implementation services for CRM platforms including Salesforce, Slate, and other tools. Includes customization, enhancement, training, and ongoing support services.
3. 1stAid Net Price Calculator: Licensing/support of proprietary net price calculator tool with automated reports and dashboards. Renewed on ongoing basis by partner institutions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Kennedy & Company is a higher education consulting firm that partners with colleges and universities on strategic planning, enrollment management, and student-success initiatives. The firm implements major enrollment and CRM platforms (Salesforce, Slate, Element451, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, mPLUS) and complements its advisory work with 1stAid, a proprietary net-price calculator launched in 2020. Engagements range from CRM implementation projects to multi-year business process outsourcing arrangements focused on financial sustainability and retention.

Product overview

Kennedy & Company Education Strategies is a higher education consulting firm offering a comprehensive portfolio of strategic consulting services and a proprietary net price calculator tool (1stAid). The core offerings center on strategic enrollment management, financial modeling, and CRM technology implementation. The 1stAid net price calculator serves as their primary software product, while the remaining offerings are consulting services spanning enrollment strategy, retention, financial sustainability, organizational transformation, and technology implementation. The company provides CRM implementation and customization services across multiple platforms including Salesforce, Slate, Element451, and HubSpot. Services are delivered through specialized teams targeting different institutional types including public research institutions, state flagship universities, private colleges, graduate and professional schools, HBCUs, and community colleges across North America and the United Kingdom.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Higher Education Strategic Consulting Strategic advisory engagements for U.S. colleges, universities, and community colleges covering enrollment strategy, financial sustainability planning, student success, and organizational design.
• CRM Implementation Services End-to-end implementation of Salesforce, Slate, Element451, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, and mPLUS/RASA enrollment and CRM platforms for institutions seeking to modernize their enrollment technology stack.
• Higher Education Business Process Outsourcing Managed services under which Kennedy & Company assumes operational responsibility for an institution's enrollment, financial aid, or student-success workflows, functioning as an extension of the institution's internal team.
• 1stAid Net Price Calculator SaaS net price calculator that enables colleges and universities to compute and publish institution-specific net prices, integrate with CRM/marketing systems, and support financial-aid counseling workflows.

Quantifiable outcome

• 500,000+ credit and non-credit students' data centralized under unified CRM framework
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability7 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Human Capital EducationflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerHuman Capital Education acquired Kennedy & Company Education Strategies in a strategic combination that brings together two complementary organizations. Human Capital Education provides enrollment strategy, financial analysis, research, and technology enablement, while Kennedy & Company brings deep institutional strategy and financial consulting expertise plus expanded CRM implementation capabilities. Together they serve more than 300 colleges and universities, supporting institutions from strategy development through execution.
• SalesforcecoreTechnology or IntegrationSalesforce is the primary CRM platform for Kennedy & Company's implementation practice. The company has a large Salesforce CRM practice and delivers enterprise Salesforce implementations for higher education institutions, including designing hub-and-spoke architectures across multiple Salesforce orgs.
• Technolutions SlatecoreTechnology or IntegrationKennedy & Company is a specialist in Technolutions Slate implementation and custom enhancements. The company acquired FGI Consultants, a renowned Slate specialist, establishing a powerhouse in higher education CRM solutions. The firm supports Slate implementations across graduate programs and complex admission models.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Carnegie Dartlet: Higher education marketing, enrollment, and student success consultancy serving colleges and universities with strategy, research, branding, and CRM-related services. Direct competitor in enrollment strategy and CRM-enabled student engagement work.
• Ruffalo Noel Levitz: Long-standing higher education consulting firm specializing in enrollment management, student success, and student search/marketing campaigns. Directly comparable to Kennedy & Company on enrollment strategy and predictive modeling engagements for colleges and universities.
• Capture Higher Ed: Higher education marketing and enrollment technology consultancy focused on enrollment marketing, CRM implementation (notably Slate), and predictive modeling. Overlaps with K&Co on Slate-based implementations and enrollment yield/forecasting analytics.
• Human Capital Education: Kennedy & Company's parent organization and the closest direct peer; Human Capital Education provides enrollment strategy, financial analysis, research, and technology enablement to higher education institutions and now encompasses Kennedy & Company's CRM implementation practice across the same 300+ institution footprint.

Broad incumbents

• Huron Consulting Group: Global consulting firm with a dedicated higher education practice spanning strategy, financial sustainability, technology, and student success. Overlaps with Kennedy & Company on enrollment strategy, financial modeling, and CRM transformation engagements for colleges and universities.
• Salesforce Industries (Education Cloud): Provider of Salesforce Education Cloud, the primary CRM platform K&Co implements for higher education. Salesforce's own professional services and partner ecosystem overlaps with K&Co's enterprise CRM implementation practice, particularly for large multi-org deployments like the VCCS rollout.
• EAB (Education Advisory Board): Large, established higher education advisory firm offering enrollment, student success, and technology services to colleges and universities. Comparable as a broader strategic consulting and research provider with overlapping enrollment management offerings, but operating at much larger scale and as part of a wider portfolio.

Emerging players

• Technolutions (Slate): Provider of the Slate CRM platform widely used by universities for admissions and enrollment. K&Co is a specialist implementation partner and previously acquired FGI Consultants to deepen Slate expertise, making Technolutions a partner and partial competitor in the implementation services layer.
• Element451: AI-powered CRM platform purpose-built for higher education. K&Co is a current implementation partner for Element451, making Element451 both a technology partner and a partial peer competing for the same institutional CRM modernization budgets.

Regional players

• Bisk: Higher education-focused technology and consulting firm serving universities with online program management, marketing, and student engagement solutions. Comparable as a higher ed technology and CRM-adjacent services provider, though more concentrated in online program enablement.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kennedy-&-company-education-strategies
• Xx.com/kennedyhighered

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Kennedy and Company