Understanding educational advancement is important both for institutions, which increasing rely on its revenues, as well as professionals. This paper examines the knowledge base present in 241 doctoral dissertations on advancement, 1991-2006. Most dissertations are produced in education departments, using fundraising/philanthropy as a framework. Two-thirds are practically oriented. Only 10% are ever published, and only 4% of dissertators have gone on to full-time faculty positions. This suggests that most dissertations are not building on a theoretical knowledge base and that most knowledge produced is not being made available to others. This may reflect the large percentage of doctoral students in education who intend to work in administration instead of research. (Contains 6 figures.)