Episode 59: Bob Lasher on Advancement that Raises Awareness and Inspires Action
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What are the forces transforming advancement in higher education? How can colleges and universities adapt? Who can they partner with? How can they cultivate the next generation of donors as well as the next generation of advancement professionals? We dive into these questions with Bob Lasher, Senior Vice President of Advancement at Dartmouth College
In the traditional view of higher education, advancement was often seen as a siloed function—a team of fundraisers working in the shadows to secure the institution’s future. But according to Bob Lasher, Senior Vice President for Advancement at Dartmouth College, that model is rapidly evolving. Today, advancement is less about the transaction of a gift and more about mobilizing a community around a common purpose: student success and global impact.
In a recent episode of the Connected College podcast, Lasher shared insights from his journey through finance, speechwriting, and leadership at SFMOMA and Dartmouth. His perspective challenges leaders to rethink how they engage alumni, how they measure impact, and why breaking down institutional silos is the only way to meet the needs of the contemporary student.
Redefining Advancement as Community Mobilization
When asked to describe the function of advancement, Lasher moves beyond the standard organizational chart of major gifts and alumni relations. Instead, he views it as the role of mobilizing the greatest number of community members around a mission. It is about winning hearts and minds at scale and, crucially, asking people to act on their good intentions.
Whether that action takes the form of philanthropy, volunteer service, or providing wisdom and advice, the goal remains the same: bringing as many people as possible around a shared purpose. For higher education, that purpose is rooted in the student experience.
Connecting Nostalgia to the Contemporary Student
One of the greatest challenges in advancement is managing the "nostalgic mindset" of alumni. Many donors view their alma mater through the lens of their own experience twenty or thirty years ago. However, the needs of today’s students—ranging from first-generation support to navigating a complex job market—are vastly different.
Lasher emphasizes that advancement officers must act as both representatives and champions of the modern student experience. By translating the gratitude of the past into support for the contemporary institution, leaders can bridge the gap between generations. A powerful example is the connection first-generation alumni feel toward first-gen students today; while the terminology has changed, the shared experience creates a unique opportunity for high-impact mentorship and support.
The Shift Toward Collective Impact and Global Questions
The landscape of philanthropy is shifting from "giving to" an institution to "giving through" an institution. Modern donors, particularly the rising generation of leaders, are focused on solving global problems like climate change, income inequity, and social innovation. They see the university as a vehicle for societal impact rather than just a local community pillar.
This shift is driving a new trend: collective impact. Lasher argues that the next decade will be defined by institutions lining up together. No single college can solve the semiconductor workforce shortage or systemic barriers in engineering alone. It requires a consortium of like-minded leaders putting their collective heft around a mission.
Breaking Silos to Enhance Student Success
For advancement to be truly effective, it cannot be kept out of the "inner circle" of mission-based programming. Lasher advocates for deep collaboration between advancement, student affairs, and academic leadership. When a Dean of Students travels with an advancement professional, they learn the craft of storytelling; conversely, the advancement officer gains a raw, honest look at the complexities of student life.
By knitting these functions together—integrating career development with coursework and alumni mentorship with student projects—colleges create a "connected" environment where every interaction contributes to the ultimate goal of student success.
Episode 59 Transcript
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Bob Lahser: It's less about those community institutions and more about giving through institutions to have an impact on some question, whether it's climate or, um, income inequity or, um, you know, innovation in terms of some social spaces. We're now looking for, uh, impact on society writ large through organizations rather than, um, just the relationship with the institution itself.
Elliot Felix: That was the amazing Bob Lasher, the Senior Vice President for Advancement at Dartmouth College, which recently wrapped up an amazing 3.7 billion capital campaign. And I've had the pleasure of knowing Bob and working with Bob when he was at SFMOMA and doing an L&D event for Dartmouth. And we had an amazing convo that I think you're really going to enjoy. Here goes.
Welcome to the Connected College Podcast. I'm your host, Elliot Felix. I've helped more than a hundred colleges and universities change what they offer, how they operate, and how they're organized to enable student success. And if you're a leader in higher ed, and you think that the silos and separations get in the way of student success, then this podcast and my upcoming book, The Connected College, are for you. We're here to learn and work together to bust silos, question tradition, and forge partnerships so that students feel connected to their college, their community, their coursework and their careers. Advancement plays such a huge role in student success, um, providing the support, financial and otherwise, sharing the stories, spotlighting the issues. Uh, I'm so glad to be talking with Bob Lasher. Uh, today welcome, Bob.
Bob Lahser: Hi Elliot. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
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Elliot Felix: Tell us a little bit about how you got, uh, into higher ed and, and advancement. I one of the things I always wonder about is, is there any eight year old in America right now that wants to be an advancement professional?
Bob Lahser: I doubt it. Most of us find our way into it through a variety of different paths, which is one of the things that makes it an exciting profession because your colleagues tend to have a diverse array of skills and backgrounds. I grew up on college campuses. My dad was a dean of admissions at various institutions around the country. I always knew that, uh, it was a place for me that was comfortable and inspiring. Um, after college, I went on wall street, um, worked in, uh, finance uh, and then did a stint in graduate school and, and was a speech writer for a while. So it was with that combination of skills that I then found myself working with the president on a billion dollar campaign and trying to articulate the case for support. And then I thought it sounded pretty good. And I found my way over onto the fundraising side. Um, and since then, I would just say that the joy of working in mission based organizations is the power that inspires me every day. Uh, I know there are many people in the non profit world that share that enthusiasm and spark. And, uh, what I've tried to do is, look at, um, putting together a career around best in category institutions that had a real ambition to take a step up. And, um, it's always been this combination of great organization, but under optimized that I've found that advancement can play a real, um, effective role in helping to take the mission of the institution to a new level of impact.
Elliot Felix: That's great. Um, I, how do you describe the function of advancement? If you think about the org chart, sometimes set up around the types of gifts, you know, major gifts and plan gifts and alumni and so forth, you know, corporate foundation how do you describe the advancement function?
Bob Lahser: You know, I really think about it as the role of mobilizing the greatest number of members in a community around a common purpose or framed around the mission and if you do it, right, you're actually galvanizing them, but I think incumbent and baked into all of that are assumptions about who is your audience and where do they stand in their relationship to the mission? And how can you, at scale, win hearts and minds to actually act on behalf of the institution? That's the key part is the act. Like, we take good intention and when we actually ask people to act on it. And that can take many forms in terms of volunteer service, uh, philanthropy, of course, um, advice and wisdom. Um, so it takes lots of different forms, but I think the whole idea is how do we bring as many people around our purpose as possible?
Elliot Felix: That's a great way of thinking about it. Mobilizing and galvanizing people um, to act on intention and with intention and contribute in different ways, financial time, ideas, advice. Um, how do you apply that to student success more specifically you know, as part of the mission?
Bob Lahser: I mean, I think, um, it's at the core, right? We are in many ways, um, the representatives of the student experience and the champions of it at the same time. While we're not actually, as advancement officers, we're not involved in the day to day on a college campus of um, how a student pursues their education, or even, in the day to day interactions and decisions that they will make that will determine whether they are successful or not. But I do think that we're very much, um, mindful of, um, what are the factors that contribute to student success at my institution or any other one? And how can we, as I said, sort of bring people around that purpose? It's interesting when you have a global constituency who in many ways, in the case of a college, have a nostalgic mindset about their own experience. The real key for us is how to translate that sense of emotion and, um, gratitude in some cases, in some cases now, you know, I think we encounter indifference too. And in each of those cases, we really try to connect them to the contemporary institution and the contemporary student. And that's a really fascinating proposition. It could be really wildly similar to them. I think about people that came to Dartmouth as first gen, first in their families to attend college 20 or 30 years ago, um, who at that time there wasn't a term for it. They, you know, were, probably in some cases rarities um, and yet they had a very distinct experience that left them with a specific mindset about people with their backgrounds and they have a very powerful connection to first gen students today and very much want to contribute to, um, how to enhance the experience they have to improve it upon what they had. So that's like a great example uh, of a nostalgic connection, but actually one with a really contemporary potential.
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Elliot Felix: You're trying to um, benefit from that sense of connection, that gratitude, that memory of what they went through, but at the same time, help people understand that. You know, the student experience today might be very different or the needs of students today might be very different. Your example was one of continuity, but how do you, um, how do you maintain that connection, but also like educate people about how things are different or how the needs might've changed.
Bob Lahser: Uh, it's a critical role, uh, lot of people actually assume it's the same. And so that's where the work of communication and, um, education and all the programmatic work that we do in Advancement is, is really key and that happens at large scale in terms of messaging and events and experiences that we create. It also happens in terms of the relationship building that individual officers do and the questions they ask of people to try to get at that. We're constantly really trying to promote the contemporary while we understand the historical.
Elliot Felix: That's really fascinating because I feel like that, conundrum, let's call it. Exists for so many functions in higher ed. It's sort of the same thing as you're trying to reach parents, right. To help them understand that like the college they went to was probably a lot simpler, it was a lot easier to navigate. There were fewer choices. There were fewer pressures, you know, they were entering a different economic climate, a different job outlook, you know, a different climate, climate, um, environmental climate. Um, so how do you, kind of keep that continuity and the history and the tradition and the connection? But at the same time, like sort of upstate people's, uh, understandings.
Bob Lahser: You know, the, the fortunate part is that people who value education and who have benefited from higher education, whether they have children or young people in their lives, or they have some interaction with young people, they do have a sense of the contemporary approach to education. They may not just know how it's manifested at your institution. That's how we really want to get at it. The last thing I would just say is, like, there are people who have, I think about women in the early days of co education or the experience of some underrepresented minorities when they were in kind of small numbers pioneering at these institutions, they may not have had positive experiences. They may not approach this with a sense of nostalgia. And so I think some of the most exciting work that's been done in the advancement fields recently has been around, especially prompted in some cases by all the important work that was done in the early 70s and the celebration of the 50th anniversaries and reflection that that caused, has really been around listening to those experiences and engaging those people to make a better institution. And that's where advancement work can be super powerful as well.
Elliot Felix: You know, my next question was going to be about, how the field is changing, and I think that seems like a great first answer to that, which is like you're, you're communicating what's changed in the student experience, like where progress has been made, um, with, you know, specific groups or specific aspects. Um, what else is changing about advancement?
Bob Lahser: I would say that one of the other key themes I see is, um, a new relationship with institutions, which maybe in the past was more trust based and, uh, acknowledgement of the expertise of places. And now in terms of the individual, whether it's volunteer service or philanthropy, it's a much more significant choice to line up around an institution. Um, people are much more informed and critical in terms of how they allocate their time and their mind share and their resources. And so the expectation is that it will have impact as it should be. And I think that, um, those of us that are in this work have seen a real orientation to be able to make the arguments for impact, um, both in the near term and the long term in a way that was really different than a decade ago. The other thing I think that's a significant trend is with the a new generation um, entering into the non profit arena as leaders, as supporters. They're really focused on global questions. Um, and I think what I may have grown up with, with a community that was really interested in local community institutions and their success. And whatever form they took, it's less about those community institutions and more about giving through institutions to have an impact on some question, whether it's climate or, um, income inequity or, um, you know, innovation in terms of some social spaces. We're now looking for, uh, impact on society writ large through organizations rather than, um, just the relationship with the institution itself.
Elliot Felix: Giving through instead of giving to that's awesome.
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Bob Lahser: And I would even take that one step further, Elliot, and I would just say that what I think we will see in the next decade is an expectation by informed individuals to see our institutions line up together for collective impact, to see what were singular entities doing good work on behalf of their institutions, working with either community based groups that have a different complimentary set of expertise in the area of desired impact, or with other, um, institutions in our case, research universities that may have complimentary or amplified, uh, ability to impact. We've organized a consortium of women led engineering schools that are really looking at the need to triple the size of the engineering workforce to address the semiconductor opportunity in America. Key is really getting more people in engineering, which means looking at historically underrepresented groups and trying to reduce the barriers for their participation. No one institution can solve that. That takes a collection of like minded leaders that are really interested in putting their collective heft around an important mission question.
Elliot Felix: Yeah. The idea that it's not just um, what have you done, but who are you doing it with? Who are you working with is so interesting. And I think it makes perfect sense you know, in the example you give, if you actually don't work together. Um, I could see it being counterproductive, if you don't, um, recognize the full pipeline of people, then you're competing for this small subset of them.
Bob Lahser: I'll give you just one more example on this front, um, there was a time uh, when I worked at SFMOMA, we went through a period of closure because of a major construction. And yet we had a community of supporters and members that we wanted to remain in contact with during this two year period where entering the museum and having your traditional museum experience wasn't possible. We were able to reach out to eight other museums in the area that each had their own collections and to bring our collection, which is at that point in storage, into the mix for a conversation between these two entities. And so over the course of two years, these partnerships would move around the city between our institution SFMOMA and whatever the other entity was. And then you would see their collections and curatorial dialogue. And it was a really special experience. And we could, thanks to the generosity of our partners, we were able to take these, our members along in this journey. Um, and it was a way to see our collection anew, but also to discover treasures across the city. It was really quite, quite a citywide endeavor.
Elliot Felix: Without giving myself too much credit, I can say personally, that's like one of my proudest moments as a, as a consultant, because I remember, you know, we had that workshop on closure. And my input was like, hold on a second. The museum is not closed. The building is closed. And during this time, you know, you can have continuity of programming and partnerships and reach your audience in new ways and grow your audience in, in new ways. And, um, it was like incredibly gratifying that, you know, people were thinking the same thing and acting on it.
Bob Lahser: Let me just riff on that for one second more. We're talking to people that are leaders in higher education. And, uh, one of the things that I think is really important is that it takes someone in a conversation like that from a non traditional background who wasn't a museum person and wasn't at that point into kind of the models of how museums operated to ask a provocative question that led the group to that solution. And so I find in my work in advancement, whether I'm working in a cultural arts organization or um, in a university setting that having people from really different backgrounds causes them to ask different questions and to present different possibilities. And sometimes it's when the peanut butter and the chocolate collide together, that you get something really magical. So I would just say, it's like, I'm a big, big fan of creating situations as we innovate our programs where you're inviting those perspectives to come together.
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Elliot Felix: I love everything, but the peanut butter part, cause I'm allergic to it. Um, but I hear you. And I think that's like, that's the perfect segue in our last five minutes here, uh, to our last question, which is how do we respond to these changes? And I think you've already given a couple of great examples about, you know, bring in new perspectives, you know, from outside the industry and, you know, partner for collective impact. What else is in the Bob Lasher responding to change toolbox?
Bob Lahser: Well, um, the first thing is to acknowledge that great institutions must change. They must evolve and that people are inherently excited about change, but also, uh, resistant to it, especially when you're talking about something that's beloved. And when you're talking about mission based organizations, you're talking about the beloved. So, inherently, if you are working in advancement, you are on the edge of possibility. It's a precarious place to lead people because they might be excited by the view, but they'll also look down and it's pretty steep. So what we really need to do is understand what it means to construct those conversations and experiences, to lead people to that place to understand what their motivations and concerns are and really provide a framework by which they can explore that, get confidence to then take the next step forward with you. I think that's what advancement professionals do. Incumbent in that I think is real relationship work. And if your people are not out listening all the time, and then talking about what are we hearing in the collective trend of the conversations we're having? Are there notes and themes that we take back that signal shifts? Um, I'll let you know that, for instance, at the height of COVID, we were in the middle of a campaign and all of our peers were stopping fundraising for the time. They just said, the world is in disarray. Let's let people take care of their people. And yet in conversations with our community, there was a sense of, there were some people that were in great need, and there were some people that had time or capacity to provide assistance. In times of, of thinking and volunteer service, and while we had to do it in new forms through virtual settings, we were actually able to mobilize one group around a historic fundraising effort that supported another group. And, um, I would just say that it was because of listening to people and understanding where we were that we were able to put something together pretty nimbly and respond. So, yeah. I'm a little concerned our institutions tend to be, we apply the same formula year after year, and it's that real close listening that we can do as advancement professionals through our relationship work, and then talking about it internally about themes where we really get insights. And somehow using data, but also the human interact to do that, I think is pretty critical.
Elliot Felix: You know, the listening and the synthesizing and the building relationships make sense. But the other thing that was in there is the kind of like segmenting of the audience, audiences, once you understand them, because I totally get, you know, I had the experience of talking to lots of people that, you know, were kind of like living their best life during COVID and felt guilty about it. Had more time with their teenage kids than they could have possibly imagined and had more flexibility at work or whatever it might be. Um, and understanding that, you know, there are people with capacity, time, money, ideas, and, um, how do we not think about everybody monolithic, segment our audience and reach different communities in different ways.
Bob Lahser: Um, you're leading me to one final conclusion, which is one of the things I admire so much about your work is how you center the student in it. And maybe it's my personal experience and it's different for others, but I think sometimes advancement professionals are sort of kept out of the inner circle of mission based program, whether it's the orchestra or the curatorial staff of a museum, there is a sense that these advancement professionals may not fully appreciate the complexity or sophistication of the mission. And then, the university were very sensitive to the experience of students and not coloring that or complicating that with interactions with alumni or donors in a way that would be, you know, uh, difficult to control or otherwise. And yet, the student experience is what motivates people to serve. And so more that we can continue to show and, uh, invite people into the experience of students and ways that reduce those barriers and let them celebrate the joys and challenges of what it is to be a contemporary student, the better we'll be at our advancement work. And that's what I would just invite everybody to continue to wrestle with is. What are those opportunities for interaction interface that we can feel comfortable with that can make us all better understand the student experience and better understand our roles in supporting it?
Elliot Felix: That's such great advice it's definitely a common theme in the conversations that I'm having as people think about student success because there are these silos that are quite counterproductive. And I think in the same way, like advancement should be at the table, you have things like, um, you know, student affairs kind of told to like stay in their lane and avoid academics. But meanwhile, they may be hosting an absolutely kick ass leadership development program that people could really use you know, in leading the class projects, uh, that they're working on. Or for instance, like you have courses and career development thought of as separate, you know, when a student can work on a project for a company and maybe even like meet their future self and see a role model, like all of a sudden all their classes and all the hard work they put into them makes sense. The more these things can get knit together, I think the better it is for everybody.
Bob Lahser: But I think to your point, like it really does require us to stop for a moment and say, what are these silos or assumptions that we're making? When I hear your story, I, I think of the greatest things are when I can travel with the dean of students or one of his colleagues for a day and understand what that experience is like. It makes me so much more sensitive and appreciative to the complexities of it. And then when we do our work, and I think similarly, when those deans or others have traveled around the world with advancement professionals, they see the craft, they understand the expertise, and they understand how important it is to do the storytelling and the argument making that make us effective. So I'm all for these collaborations, as you can tell, and I think that, uh, if we can all make more time for it, we'll be better at what we do.
Elliot Felix: Awesome. Inspiring, uh, words and insights um, really appreciate your time, Bob. Thank you.
Bob Lahser: No, it's a gift. And thanks for doing your good work, Elliot. We really appreciate it.
Elliot Felix: Thanks for listening to the connected college podcast. Subscribe to my Connected College Newsletter at ElliotFelix.com for insights and excerpts from my upcoming book, tools you can download, and special offers. You can also find more information about talks I've given, articles I've written, and upcoming events there, and please support the podcast by rating and reviewing it wherever you're listening. Let's create connected colleges where students will succeed.