Virtual Giving Planned Giving Websites

John Foster, Founder

John Foster has marketed and secured planned giving gifts for over 15 years for the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University, and Swarthmore College. After practicing estate and tax law in Philadelphia, John spent 10 years closing planned gifts for the University of Pennsylvania, serving as Director of Planned Giving there for six years. He also headed the planned giving program at Villanova University. John is a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Committee on Planned Giving and a past president of the Planned Giving Council of Greater Philadelphia. He has authored articles for CASE Currents magazine and contributed to The Journal of Gift Planning.

John has taught planned giving for the University of Pennsylvania’s College of General Studies. He co-chaired the CASE Advanced Planned Giving Conference, and addressed the National Conference on Planned Giving and numerous CASE and AFP (formerly NSFRE) conferences.

John advises individual clients on estate and charitable planning, and is a consultant to charitable institutions on establishing and improving planned giving programs.

John is a co-founder of VirtualGiving.com and directs content and development of all web sites. He assures that copy is both effective and technically accurate, and monitors its compliance with current tax law.

Strength: planned giving and tax law expertise

Viken Mikaelian, Founder

In 1999, Viken co-founded VirtualGiving, the first company focused specifically on "Bringing Planned Giving to the Internet." Since then, VirtualGiving has helped over 300 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 president of VirtualGiving (Valley Forge, PA), focusing on product development and marketing. He is also a co-founder of The Planned Giving Company and is currently spearheading the "fundraisers’ version" of GiftTree Interactive® and LegacyPlanner® - the first interactive software tools that will be free for all practicing professionals.

Viken is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. His major area of concentration for the past 16 years has been development communications, producing over 1600 publications for capital campaigns and planned giving programs. His former graphic design 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.

Strength: product development and planned giving marketing

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.

Strength: planned giving and tax law expertise

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.

Strength: Listening and asking questions

Bob Babb

Bob has been developing custom web based applications for over 10 years. His extensive knowledge in PHP, JavaScript, ASP, Flash ActionScript, MySQL, and HTML allow him to customize detail specific web-sites for our clients.

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

Strength: sales and client education