Virtual Giving Planned Giving Websites

Our Senior Staff

Our goal is to get your planned giving program onto the Internet while freeing you up to do what you do best - raise money. Our professional team includes planned giving experts. Web designers. marketing specialists. and content developers. All highly experienced. fully capable. and committed to delivering you the highest-quality products and services.

Viken Mikaelian, Founder and CEO

In 1999, Viken co-founded VirtualGiving.Com, the first company focused specifically on "Bringing Planned Giving to the Internet." Since then, VirtualGiving has helped over 400 non-profits get their planned giving programs on the Web, published numerous white papers, and conducted various national surveys to help you and your peers.

Viken is also the founder of Planned Giving.Com, LLC which is a powerful resource with ready-to-go, downloadable planned giving content for all gift planners. He is also publisher of Planned Giving Tomorrow, a quarterly publication packed with planned giving marketing ideas for all fundraisers -- not just planned giving executives.

Viken is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. His major area of concentration for the past 19 years has been development communications, producing over 1600 publications for capital campaigns and planned giving programs. His former marketing firm's portfolio includes numerous awards, including five from CASE.

Viken's expertise in combining planned giving principles with marketing and technology tools to explain planned giving to the lay prospect continues to be his driving force in the gift-planning community. In the past 9 years alone, Viken has presented at over 220 planned giving councils, AFP and AHP chapters, foundations and banks, including 4 presentations at PPP (formerly National Committee on Planned Giving).

Scott Janney, President

Teaching others what planned gifts mean to them has been the key to Scott's success.

He understands the importance of relationships — not always his relationships. People give because they have a connection to a cause and because someone they respect and like asks them. That's why training has been such an integral part of his planned giving success. He understands that the technical aspect of a specific planning instrument is only important after the potential donor is already interested in talking about the goal that gift plan helps accomplish. He knows that the key in training and marketing is asking and answering the questions that are most important to the audience. And that's the secret to closing planned gifts too.

Scott has worked as a successful fundraiser in Social Services, Higher Education and Healthcare, and has provided consulting and mentoring for organizations and professionals in other sectors at large and small organizations. In the 1990s his dissertation, The College President and Fundraising Effectiveness, broke new ground by revealing the differences the "real chief development officer" makes in the support received by colleges and universities. He has been a Certified Fund Raising Executive since 1997, and earned the designation of Registered Financial Consultant in 2008.

Dr. Janney is a co-founder and presenter of Planned Giving Boot Camp and the Planned Giving Course, and has been a driving force behind Philadelphia's Planned Giving Day for the past eight years. He is a highly effective communicator who has given presentations at the National Conference on Planned Giving (PPP), and is a sought-after speaker at Planned Giving Councils and AFP chapters. As the Director of Planned Giving for a five-hospital system, he now gives engaging and effective presentations to development staff, boards and auxiliaries, tailoring his presentation to the questions at the top of each audience's mind and their level of expertise. He makes joint visits with his colleagues where the donor discusses the best way to support the organization's mission and the development professional learns how planned gifts can help them reach their personal fundraising goals.

Brian M. Sagrestano, Consultant

If Brian M. Sagrestano, JD, CFRE, wants to sing in a barbershop quartet, we say let him. Because judging by his standing as the go-to guy for industry-leading advice in donor-centered gift planning, we might all do well to give his unique hobby a try.

In addition to being President and CEO of Gift Planning Development, LLC, a full service gift planning consulting firm, Brian also shares his time with VirtualGiving as a valued consultant and advisor.

He earned degrees from Cornell University (A.B. cum laude) and Notre Dame Law School (J.D. cum laude) and started his career specializing in tax and estate planning and related areas. But Brian’s donor-centered philosophy ultimately drew him into philanthropic planning full-time.

Prior to starting GPD, Brian served as Executive Director of Gift Planning for the University of Pennsylvania and Director of Gift Planning for Middlebury College in Vermont and Meridian Health Affiliated Foundations in New Jersey. The various gift planning programs under his direction raised over $400 million.

A dynamic and engaging speaker, Brian has addressed more than 150 groups over the last decade, including presentations at conferences nationwide for organizations including the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, the Council on the Advancement and Support of Education, and the Association of Fund Raising Professionals, among others.

Brian crafted the marketing content for the Planned Giving Course and is a regular trainer for many charities in the area of gift planning. He also created the Gift Planning Essentials program, to help small and mid-sized charities start new donor-centered gift planning programs.

Brian is a current board member of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning (PPP) and past board member of the Gift Planning Council of New Jersey and the Planned Giving Council of Greater Philadelphia. He is published and cited in numerous periodicals, including Planned Giving Tomorrow.

When not working, Brian enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters at his home in the scenic Mohawk Valley--the gateway to the Adirondacks.

Sam Caldwell, Consultant

A graduate of Amherst College (B.A.) and Earlham School of Religion (M.Div.), Sam is President of The Planned Giving Company LLC, a full-service consulting company that offers a one-stop marketing and consulting solution to planned giving programs across the country. He is also a co-founder of VirtualGiving, Inc., and co-leads the nationally recognized WinningPG seminar series.

Sam has served as Director of Planned Giving at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and at The Lawrenceville School, a top-ranked boarding school near Princeton NJ.

Ned Harvey, VP Marketing

Edward A. "Ned" Harvey is a graduate of Ithaca College with a degree in Finance and Economics. Ned worked with Morgan Guaranty and U.S. Trust, then moved to sales and marketing for the engineering division of Xerox and the virtual advertising firm Princeton Video Image. He has since formed a consulting firm based in Lakeville, CT that caters to not-for-profit organizations.

In 1990 Ned started the Trenton, NJ chapter of Christmas in April, a nonprofit organization devoted to assisting elderly, handicapped, and low income families retain their present housing.

Ned comes to VirtualGiving.com with a broad knowledge of financial, sales, and marketing experience

Joe Tumolo, Sales

Joe brings over 20 years of direct marketing experience to Virtual Giving. A graduate of Saint Joseph's University, Joe has spent over 20 years in the print and direct mail business. For the last 3 years he has been helping nonprofit organizations grow their annual fund and planned giving programs.

Megan Clemens, Director of Client Services

Megan is a graduate of Grove City College and joined VirtualGiving in 2006. Her interpersonal and organizational skills helped her move from an administrative position to a management position within 12 months. Megan currently helps manage PlannedGiving.Com and its sister company, VirtualGiving. She also assists with editing and producing Planned Giving Tomorrow, a very well respected quarterly that focuses on planned giving marketing ideas for all fundraisers, and not just gift planners alone.

Megan's high energy and capacity to "think outside the box" have been an immense asset to the company. She works closely with Scott Janney and Viken Mikaelian to keep the company focused on its goals, mission and vision.