CCNY to boost stakeholder engagement with innovative, Autonomous Fundraising partnership

NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The City College of New York and The Foundation for City College are among the fourth cohort of institutions partnering with autonomous fundraising technology platform Givzey | Version2.ai.

By partnering with Givzey | Version2.ai, CCNY will deploy a virtual engagement officer, or VEO, allowing the College to engage with its stakeholders in a more expansive manner that reflects the trust, alignment and long-term belief in the College's mission. By providing real-time engagement, the College can share all of the work happening across campus with its stakeholders.

Too often, especially for those who live outside the New York metropolitan area, alumni contact with the College may be limited to receiving the President's Annual Report, the monthly City Beat newsletter, or through the College's social media channels. Autonomous Fundraising creates opportunities for an in-depth conversation that can determine if a hand-off to a gift officer for a one-to-one engagement is needed and is more appropriate.

Across non-profits in the U.S., only one to five percent of donors are assigned to gift officers, who manage them personally and actively, and it is estimated that 20 percent of all donors to an organization are responsible for 80 percent of total fundraising revenue. By expanding the team with trusted digital labor, the VEO is allowed to prioritize donors who may have given in prior years but, for many reasons, may not be actively engaged with the College and wish to be. 

CCNY's VEO, Benita (a play on "Benny," the College's mascot), has been assigned 1,000 of these existing alumni and supporters, including those who have attended President Boudreau's "City In…" events in Albany, Atlanta, Austin, Boca Raton, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington in the past two and a half years.

In the coming year, the president plans to meet alumni in other cities across the country that he has yet to visit, while also working with the campus team to encourage alumni from around the country to be more closely connected with their alma mater.

"Givzey | Version2.ai is honored to work with innovative institutions like The City College of New York and the Foundation for City College, and leaders like Dee Dee, who understand that by addressing fundraising's long-standing labor shortage with Autonomous Fundraising and trusted digital labor, we open opportunities to deeply connect more donors to the organizations and missions that move them to give," said Givzey | Version2.ai Vice President of Customer Success Emily Groccia.

"The City College of New York and the Foundation for City College believe in the powerful role philanthropy plays in shaping the future of a democratic society," said Dee Dee Mozeleski, CCNY senior vice president and executive director of The Foundation for City College. "Through our partnership with Givzey | Version2.ai, we look to engage with our donors and alumni in ways that bridge technology and the important interpersonal relationships we create in support of our students, faculty, staff and our entire City College community."

About Version2
Version2 is the first AI research and design lab specifically focused on advancing fundraising in the nonprofit sector. Through its suite of autonomous fundraising solutions, including the Virtual Engagement Officer (VEO) and Virtual Stewardship Officer (VSO), Version2 helps nonprofits break through the digital divide with AI that guides donors through personalized engagement, gift discovery, solicitation, and stewardship processes. Learn more at Version2.ai.

About Givzey
Givzey is a leading Intelligent Gift Documentation Management Platform for nonprofits, enhancing fundraising efficiency, donor experience, and financial audits. Its AI-powered lab, Version2, offers the first fully autonomous fundraiser, revolutionizing donor engagement and fundraising with personalized AI. Discover more at Givzey.com and Version2.ai.

About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY's annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the "for dollar" return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled "Doing Remarkable Things Together" seeks to bring the College's Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.

Media Contact: Sydney Steinhardt, [email protected], 212-650-7875

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SOURCE The City College of New York