Holy Family is one of the financially healthiest small, private colleges in the Philadelphia region, a standout as many others struggle

As a freshman at Holy Family University in Northeast Philadelphia, Ryan Keller would take a morning bus to classes from his home in Kensington and make the return trip at night.

That’s until a group of nuns whose order founded the university in 1954 witnessed him standing on the corner of the campus late one night.

“They said, ‘We can’t have you taking the bus home at 11 at night and coming back at 8 a.m. for class,’” he recalled. “‘So we are going to pay for you to live on campus for free.’”

That level of caring was impactful to Keller, who got his bachelor’s degree there in 2017.

“It’s one of the reasons I came back to work here, actually,” he said. “They won’t let you fall through the cracks.”

The family in Holy Family is what attracts many students to the school, but there’s another ingredient that has contributed to its success.

In an extremely competitive higher education market, where this year alone two colleges have closed in the Philadelphia area and several others are amid mergers, Holy Family has emerged as one of the fiscally healthy small, private colleges in the region.

Holy Family fared the best financially of 13 small, private colleges assessed by Julee Gard, vice president for administration and finance at the University of St. Francis in Illinois, using the financial viability index she developed while obtaining her doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. She performed the analysis at the request of The Inquirer.

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The 3,251-student Holy Family was the only school in the local group to be designated in “excellent” financial health each of the last seven years under Gard’s model. It and the much-smaller Moore College of Art and Design were the only two schools to have an operating profit each year. Holy Family had $54 million in revenue in the 2022-23 school year. Its results for fiscal 2024 are not yet public.

“They’re living within their means,” Gard said. “Their expenses have not mushroomed like some other places.”

And, she noted, the school’s student revenue coverage — which measures how close schools are to covering all expenses with net student revenue — was positive except for 2023, and then it was negative by only $2.9 million.

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“Most schools are double-digit dollar amounts negative in that student revenue coverage,” she said.

While most colleges draw a set percentage from their endowment earnings each year for operations, Holy Family is distinctive in that it does not. That has allowed its endowment to grow to nearly $30 million as of June, while the school has continued to maintain a balanced budget.

“That’s really helped them grow their balance sheet,” said Stephanie Wang, a Standard & Poor’s higher education analyst based in Philadelphia.

“For whatever reason, they’ve just done well with enrollment, and I think they’ve also done really well with their budgeting, and they really haven’t gone out of their way to try to be something that they’re not, and spend money on all these programs that don’t actually end up netting the students they need,” Wang said.

Holy Family president Anne M. Prisco, an economist, said she is pleased that Holy Family fared so well on Gard’s index but cautioned that “every rating has its pluses and minuses.” She prefers Standard & Poor’s, which in 2023 gave the college an A-minus credit rating with a stable outlook, which also underscores the school’s financial strength.

Holy Family, Prisco added, also has a perfect 3.0 rating on the federal Department of Education’s financial responsibility measure. Scores between 1.5 and 3.0 indicate colleges are financially responsible.

“Right now, what [Gard’s index] is demonstrating is that we are in a strong financial position, and we are,” Prisco said.

Prisco said Holy Family fared better than many other colleges during the pandemic. Only about 200 students lived on campus before the pandemic, so that meant the university didn’t take a huge hit in room and board revenue when schools had to close, she said.

But, Prisco said, Holy Family has had challenges, too. Its graduate student enrollment has dropped to just under 600; at one time, it was about 1,000, she said.

Undergraduate enrollment, however, has been increasing, keeping overall numbers relatively steady, she said. Residence halls are at capacity with about 400 students, and the school is housing 50 more in a nearby hotel.

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The 47-acre main campus off Frankford Avenue, not far from the Bucks County border, with two additional sites in Newtown, has a very local draw. More than 90% live within a 25-mile radius of Northeast Philadelphia, according to the university. About three-quarters are from Philadelphia and Bucks County.

“We’re of this community and we stay in this community,” Prisco said. “Our alums are in the hospitals, the schools, and the businesses.”

Tim Hamill, director of athletics, grew up in Mayfair, played soccer at Holy Family, and graduated from the university in 2004. He began working for Holy Family soon after that.

“My sister went to school here,” he said. “It’s like a family tradition.”

Kharon Randolph, 24, a graduate student in mental health counseling, grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, got his bachelor’s at Holy Family, and stayed.

“It’s really a family environment,” he said. “I love that everybody knows everybody. I love that if you need help or need support, you’re able to get it.”

Holy Family was founded by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, and members of the order served as university president until Prisco was named its first lay leader in 2021. Though its roots are Catholic, only a little more than one-third of Holy Family students identify as Catholic, Prisco said. Nearly 54% of first-year students are white, with about 15% each Black and Latino.

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About 16% of new students come from outside Pennsylvania.

Senior Sophia Paz, student government president, is from Louisiana. The sports management and marketing major had been looking for colleges in cities where she wanted to live, including Philadelphia, and one that was Catholic, having attended Catholic school her whole life.

“Temple and Drexel were too big for me,” she said. “Holy Family was just an excellent find because my class sizes have been like 15. I have 11 students in one class.”

To stay competitive, Holy Family has added some academic programs, including cybersecurity, and revamped its business major. It is considering adding a master’s program in biotech, Prisco said.

The college is planning to build a center for innovation and entrepreneurship at its Newtown West site, and is putting an addition and new glass facade on Holy Family Hall, its oldest and most iconic campus building.

“It’s going to give us a big, open reception room,” Prisco said.

Its signature nursing degree program, which enrolls about 40% of Holy Family students, has remained strong, she said.

About 93% of students overall are employed or in graduate school a year after graduation, the school said.

The college, where tuition and fees run $35,330, also started six new athletic programs in the last five years, including flag football for women, men’s lacrosse, baseball, and women’s bowling. Its number of student athletes has grown from 175 to 375 this year.

Keller was a communications major at Holy Family, where he also served in student government. He recalls fondly the kindness of the sisters who took an interest in his well-being that night.

As associate director of corporate, foundation, and government relations, his job in part is to secure grants for student scholarships.

“I wanted to pay that back,” he said.