Photo Contributed by Regina Biddings-Muro

“I am delighted and truly grateful to offer you the opportunity to deepen your connection with Cal Lutheran,” Violet said in a video message on Cal Lutheran’s landing page.

California Lutheran University has unveiled a new virtual engagement officer: Violet—an artificial intelligence-based tool tasked with raising and managing a sector of University Advancement’s donors.

“Her name is Violet, and she’s making a strong impression. There’s only one unusual thing about Violet—she’s not human,” Regina Biddings-Muro, then vice president for University Advancement, said.

Following the unveiling of AskGumby in spring 2024, Violet becomes the second major AI assistant to be rolled out by Cal Lutheran. The program was announced by Biddings-Muro at an Oct. 28 Town Hall meeting.

“I am delighted and truly grateful to offer you the opportunity to deepen your connection with Cal Lutheran,” Violet said in a video message on Cal Lutheran’s landing page. “By engaging with me, you’re not only supporting our pioneering leadership in AI for social good, you’re also supporting an innovation that will empower all nonprofits whose missions are changing the world.”

Biddings-Muro said Cal Lutheran is among the first 50 universities to adopt VEO technology. Donors can be contacted by Violet via email or text message. Respondents also have the option to ask the VEO “specific” questions pertaining to the university’s affairs, Biddings-Muro said.

“She’s trained solely off of Cal Lutheran data,” Biddings-Muro said. “We had certain keywords that are programmed into her database, that, if somebody says, ‘I’d like to make a gift’ or ‘I’d like to talk to somebody,’ it comes to a human being on the team.”

Violet was initially launched in September to 1,100 donors within University Advancement’s donor database. All donors were given the option to opt-out of receiving text messages from the VEO, but only about 20 did so.

Biddings-Muro attributed the high retention rate to Violet’s personability, saying that by creating a sort of “two-way communication,” it feels less like an AI and more like a genuine university representative.

“It’s not a group email that’s all the same to 1,100 people. It’s very specific. So she’s not talking to everybody in the portfolio about the same things,” Biddings-Muro said. “We had certain keywords that are programmed into her database, that, if somebody says, ‘I’d like to make a gift’ or ‘I’d like to talk to somebody,’ it comes to a human being.”

Biddings-Muro said Violet’s artificial intelligence was trained solely on Cal Lutheran data, including information on the university’s website. On Oct. 9, however, Violet used the incorrect name for Cal Lutheran’s mascot in a text message to donors.

“Cal Lutheran has a busy October ahead! Once a Lancer, always a Lancer – will we see you back on campus for the Inauguration of President Nunes,” Violet said in a text message. “We’d love you to help celebrate our legacy and show your CLU pride!”

Violet is operated by Givezy, “a rapidly-growing Intelligent Gift Documentation Management Platform built by fundraisers for nonprofit organizations” known for housing the “world’s most experienced fundraiser using autonomous Artificial Intelligence.”

Emily Groccia, vice president of Customer Success for Givzey, said in an email interview that each VEO is trained using a set of data distinct to the organization and a shared set of data from their fundraising knowledge base.

“That’s why, just like a human gift officer, if a VEO makes a mistake, it follows established protocol: it assesses what happened, learns from it, and takes appropriate corrective action – whether that’s sending a correction, an apology, or flagging the issue for the team to review,” Groccia said.

Biddings-Muro said Givzey reached out to Cal Lutheran expressing interest in a partnership in spring 2025. The two sides agreed to a contract in July, before going live in August.

“An institution should choose to employ a VEO when they need to add genuine fundraising capacity to their team – not just improve efficiency, but actually expand the number of donors receiving personalized attention, increase revenue, and ensure more donors have the opportunity to stay connected to the institution they support,” Groccia said.

Biddings-Muro said she is unsure if Cal Lutheran will renew Violet after her year-long contract expires, but said she is hopeful of Violet’s capabilities.

“The goal with her is really to just keep people connected, that’s why she’s called the virtual engagement officer. Gifts happen when people are connected,” Biddings-Muro said. “While she’s powered by AI, her mission is real.”

Editors Note: Regina Biddings-Muro left California Lutheran University on Friday, Nov. 21, according to an email from the Office of the President. Rachel Ronning will serve in the interim.