Magellan’s Collegiate Reach and Why It Matters

Every January, we take a close look at the scope of our collegiate work from the year before. It is one of our favorite moments of reflection because the numbers tell a powerful story about our reach, our relationships, and the trust colleges and universities place in Magellan.

In 2025, Magellan partnered with 279 colleges and universities across the country. Of those, 37 were brand new institutions we had never worked with before. Each college or university is counted only once, even when we support multiple departments within the same institution, making this number especially meaningful. It represents true diverse institutional reach.

 

higher education marketing experience with colleges and universities


When we step back and look at the bigger picture, the impact becomes even clearer. Since 2010, Magellan has worked with 596 unique colleges and universities.

This year, we also analyzed our reach in a new way by looking at the total number of collegiate clients. Instead of counting institutions once, this metric counts every department, school, or college within a university that partnered with us in 2025. When measured this way, Magellan worked with 591 collegiate clients in a single year.

Why does this matter? Because higher education is not one-size-fits-all. Each department has its own goals, audiences, and challenges. Our ability to successfully partner with hundreds of distinct collegiate clients in one year shows both the flexibility of our approach and the depth of our expertise. It also reflects long-standing relationships built on results, not just first-time engagements.

As Founder/Captain Michael Wolaver explains,

“Working with so many different colleges and departments reminds us that every institution has its own story. Our job is to listen first and make sure our work truly supports their goals.”

From brand new partnerships to institutions we have supported for decades, our collegiate reach demonstrates a consistent truth. Magellan understands higher education, and we know how to help colleges connect with their audiences in meaningful ways.

As we move forward, these numbers are more than just statistics. They reflect trust, collaboration, and the growing community of institutions we are proud to serve.

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Variable Data Best Practices

  • At the quoting stage of your project, please let us know how many fields of variable data your piece will have as this can affect pricing.
  • Data should be provided to us as an Excel spreadsheet with only the applicable data included.
  • Verbiage for variable data fields on artwork file should match up exactly with data fields on spreadsheet.
  • Spacing on artwork must allow for longest data entries. We recommend that your designer tests this in advance to confirm that the fields in the design can fit your longest pieces of data.

Postage Permits

We are happy to mail using a client’s USPS non-profit number. Here are a few best practices for this to go smoothly. Let our team know up front on the project so we can make sure to get the information we need right away. 

While our mail house does prefer to use their permit number for the mailing, we can use the client’s permit, If using their permit number, ensure there is enough postage to cover the mailing.

The information we need to in order to use a client’s nonprofit number includes the following:

Formatting the Mailing List

Our account team will advise on specific requirements for your project’s mailing list.  We generally recommend these best practices to format the mailing list: