At institutions with centuries of history, traditions can be both a source of strength and a barrier to change. On this episode of Alumless, Ryan and Chris sit down with Carolyn Gray Kimberlin, Vice President for Alumni Relations at Dartmouth College, to explore the tension between preserving institutional identity and evolving alumni engagement for a changing community.

Carolyn reflects on what makes Dartmouth’s alumni culture distinctive, how traditions shape the day-to-day work of engagement, and why leading at a 250-year-old institution requires a different approach to innovation and change management. The conversation explores how institutions can modernize engagement without alienating loyal alumni, and what it takes to bring skeptical stakeholders along during periods of transition.

In the bonus segment, the discussion turns to Dartmouth’s uniquely deep culture of volunteerism, including its network of class, affinity, and regional organizations. Carolyn shares how her team thinks about scaling engagement beyond formal leadership structures and balancing digital engagement with a community rooted in in-person experiences.

Alumless is presented by Protopia, AlumnIQ, and Givzey, and Richmond Associates.

On this week’s Alumless, Kim and Chris sit down with Scott Rosevear, Senior Vice President for University Strategy and Advancement at Bucknell University, to explore what happens when advancement is positioned as part of the institution’s strategic core, not downstream from it. The conversation centers on a simple but consequential shift: aligning engagement, philanthropy, and institutional priorities before a campaign ever goes public.

Scott offers a candid look at what it means to operate across cabinet, trustees, and volunteer leadership while preparing for a campaign launch, and why engagement goals need to be treated with the same rigor as financial targets. Along the way, the discussion surfaces a bigger idea — that advancement isn’t just responsible for outcomes, it helps define them.

Alumless is presented by Protopia, AlumnIQ, and Givzey, with support from Richmond Associates.

In Australia, university philanthropy is still finding its footing, which makes it one of the most interesting places to watch what comes next.

On this episode of Alumless World, Ryan sits down with Margo Powell, Chief Advancement Officer at La Trobe University, to talk about what it really takes to build a campaign in an environment where donor culture isn’t fully formed yet. Margo pulls back the curtain on La Trobe’s campaign, including the deliberate work behind aligning leadership, reshaping internal thinking, and building a culture of philanthropy from the ground up. Along the way, she makes a clear case that alumni are not just donors — they are connectors, advocates, and participants in a much broader exchange of value.

The back half of the episode leans into the harder questions: how to engage alumni who don’t feel connected, how to balance digital and in-person experiences, and what a modern engagement journey actually looks like when it’s built around the individual, not the institution. By the end, you start to see where this is going — toward a model where giving is a byproduct of relevance, not the starting point.

Alumless World is presented by Protopia, AlumnIQ, and Givzey, and Richmond Associates.