Education

Alumni Fundraising Outreach

Conduct annual alumni phonathons at scale, personalize the ask based on giving history, and capture pledges without requiring a student caller army.

Why this matters

Improve enrollment, retention, and outcomes with voice automation for student engagement, attendance, and fundraising. This example shows you how to automate alumni fundraising outreach calls end-to-end with Guava's SDK — no telephony plumbing, no prompt engineering, just Python.

How to set persona & task
Working with Fields and Say items
Handling callbacks
Running the agent
Step 01

Installation

Install from Guava's private PyPI index. A public package is coming soon — the install command will simplify to pip install guava.

terminal
# Step 1: Install Guava
pip install gridspace-guava --extra-index-url https://guava-pypi.gridspace.com

# Public PyPI package coming soon — the install command will simplify to:
# pip install guava

# Step 2: Set your credentials
export GUAVA_API_KEY="..."
export GUAVA_AGENT_NUMBER="..."
Step 02

How it's built

Every Guava agent is a Python class. Walk through the key sections below, then grab the complete file at the end.

01

Imports

Import the Guava SDK and any helpers you need. guava.CallController is the base class for every voice agent.

example.py
# Install: pip install gridspace-guava --extra-index-url https://guava-pypi.gridspace.com
import guava
import os
02

Agent setup

set_persona() defines how the agent presents itself. set_task() gives it its mission in plain English. The checklist drives the conversation — Guava works through it top-to-bottom, collecting Field values and speaking Say items as it goes.

example.py
class AlumniFundraisingBot(guava.CallController):
    def __init__(self, alumni_name: str, grad_year: int, major: str, institution: str,
                 last_gift_amount: float, ask_amount: float):
        super().__init__()
        self.set_persona(
            organization_name=f"{institution} Alumni Association",
            agent_name="Parker",
        )
        self.set_task(
            objective=f"Conduct annual fund call with {alumni_name}, Class of {grad_year}",
            checklist=[
                f"Warmly greet {alumni_name} and mention their {major} degree from Class of {grad_year}.",
                guava.Say(f"Share a brief update on {institution} — new programs, rankings, student impact."),
                guava.Field(
                    key="engaged_in_conversation",
                    field_type="bool",
                    description="Is the alumnus engaged and willing to hear more?",
                ),
                guava.Say(f"Last year they gave ${last_gift_amount:.0f} — ask for ${ask_amount:.0f} this year."),
                guava.Field(
                    key="gift_decision",
                    field_type="choice",
                    description="Response to the ask",
                    choices=[f"yes — ${ask_amount:.0f}", "yes — different amount", "need to think about it",
                             "not this year", "would rather volunteer"],
                ),
                guava.Field(
                    key="gift_amount",
                    field_type="currency",
                    description="Pledge amount if giving a different amount",
                    required=False,
                ),
                guava.Field(
                    key="payment_method",
                    field_type="choice",
                    description="Preferred payment method",
                    choices=["credit card now", "online portal", "check by mail", "payroll deduction"],
                    required=False,
                ),
                "Thank them for their commitment and describe how the gift will be used.",
            ],
            on_complete=lambda fields: print(f"Fundraising call done: {alumni_name} — {fields.get('gift_decision')}"),
        )

guava.dial(
    controller=AlumniFundraisingBot,
    controller_args={"alumni_name": "Katherine Moore", "grad_year": 2004,
                     "major": "Biology", "institution": "Westland University",
                     "last_gift_amount": 250, "ask_amount": 500},
    to=os.environ["ALUMNI_PHONE"],
    agent_number=os.environ["GUAVA_AGENT_NUMBER"],
    api_key=os.environ["GUAVA_API_KEY"],
)

Platform performance

<1s

Response time

99.99%

Uptime SLA

13+

Industries served

Step 03

Full example

The complete file — copy it, save it as example.py, and run it.

example.py
# Install: pip install gridspace-guava --extra-index-url https://guava-pypi.gridspace.com
import guava
import os

class AlumniFundraisingBot(guava.CallController):
    def __init__(self, alumni_name: str, grad_year: int, major: str, institution: str,
                 last_gift_amount: float, ask_amount: float):
        super().__init__()
        self.set_persona(
            organization_name=f"{institution} Alumni Association",
            agent_name="Parker",
        )
        self.set_task(
            objective=f"Conduct annual fund call with {alumni_name}, Class of {grad_year}",
            checklist=[
                f"Warmly greet {alumni_name} and mention their {major} degree from Class of {grad_year}.",
                guava.Say(f"Share a brief update on {institution} — new programs, rankings, student impact."),
                guava.Field(
                    key="engaged_in_conversation",
                    field_type="bool",
                    description="Is the alumnus engaged and willing to hear more?",
                ),
                guava.Say(f"Last year they gave ${last_gift_amount:.0f} — ask for ${ask_amount:.0f} this year."),
                guava.Field(
                    key="gift_decision",
                    field_type="choice",
                    description="Response to the ask",
                    choices=[f"yes — ${ask_amount:.0f}", "yes — different amount", "need to think about it",
                             "not this year", "would rather volunteer"],
                ),
                guava.Field(
                    key="gift_amount",
                    field_type="currency",
                    description="Pledge amount if giving a different amount",
                    required=False,
                ),
                guava.Field(
                    key="payment_method",
                    field_type="choice",
                    description="Preferred payment method",
                    choices=["credit card now", "online portal", "check by mail", "payroll deduction"],
                    required=False,
                ),
                "Thank them for their commitment and describe how the gift will be used.",
            ],
            on_complete=lambda fields: print(f"Fundraising call done: {alumni_name} — {fields.get('gift_decision')}"),
        )

guava.dial(
    controller=AlumniFundraisingBot,
    controller_args={"alumni_name": "Katherine Moore", "grad_year": 2004,
                     "major": "Biology", "institution": "Westland University",
                     "last_gift_amount": 250, "ask_amount": 500},
    to=os.environ["ALUMNI_PHONE"],
    agent_number=os.environ["GUAVA_AGENT_NUMBER"],
    api_key=os.environ["GUAVA_API_KEY"],
)
Step 04

Run it

Start the agent. It will connect to Guava's infrastructure and begin accepting calls on your assigned number.

terminal
python example.py
Get Started