Testimonials

We promoted the site in Mercy Foundation's recent e-newsletter sent via Constant Contact, which also provided site analytics. While our email list is small, visits to the Virtual Giving website ranked third among all of our articles. At anytime, please feel free to share my testimonial. I have been very satisfied with the product.

Again, thanks so much!

Within the first few months of our website launch, an alumna celebrating her 50th reunion emailed me, "The web site interface explaining opportunities for gift-planning is extremely friendly, in fact, inviting to use." When we were talking about hand-out material I should have, she jumped in to reiterate the beauty of the web site. Thank you for making it so easy to please our older constituency.

We also presented the website to our Development team at a retreat (mostly major gift officers) and they were very impressed with how easy to understand your explanations are.  You really do have an excellent product, matched only by the top-notch service you offer…  

Several years ago I decided to develop a fresh approach to marketing planned gifts that emphasized the impact of each gift in the lives of University of Denver students and faculty. I also wanted to integrate the various components of our marketing plan, from our gift planning website to direct mail and ads in the University of Denver's alumni magazine. I believed that an integrated marketing approach based on consistent messaging using varied communications strategies would produce maximum long-term results.

Going with Virtual Giving was the first step. I felt that their gift planning websites were uniquely focused on engaging potential donors in an interactive learning process that helped them learn enough about gift planning options to decide if they wanted more information. I didn't want to tell visitors to our website everything they could possibly want to know about gift planning options. I wanted to give them a user friendly way of exploring the basics and then asking for more information.

Virtual Giving has done that and more. They're the centerpiece of our new integrated marketing plan. They've been a great proactive partner. And they're helping us raise more money for the University of Denver and its students.

As part of our strategic plan to reinvent gift planning at the University of Pennsylvania in preparation for a capital campaign, we knew we had to come up with a more robust web presence that would allow us to serve all of the University’s schools and centers and their unique constituencies. At the same time, we realized that the site would require constant updates and refreshing, and that our staff needed to be focused on meeting with our prospects to reach our campaign goals. We gave VirtualGiving a tough challenge: they had to deliver three websites, one for the University as a whole, one for Wharton and one for Penn Medicine. They had to maintain the 'Penn look,' while giving each one a unique character of its own and content to match.  The VirtualGiving team was very easy to work with – plus they customized the sites to meet our complex needs.

Thanks to the Virtual Giving staff the vibrant appearance and content of our new Planned Giving website invites alumni and friends to explore charitable “life” planning, rather than “death” planning. It looks as great as I imagined it would and the functionality is top notch.

When I announced the new site to my colleagues I received the following message from a non Planned Giving development officer: “Just checked out the website… FABULOUS!! I actually am enticed to spend more time there and will (no pun intended).”

I have no doubt this site will prove to be rewarding for Moravian College and the Moravian Theological Seminary. I am also confident that content will always be up to date so that visitors to the site will have confidence in this Planned Giving resource.

Finally, I must say that from the very first contact, the team at VirtualGiving was consistently responsive, helpful, patient, and provided really quick turn-around . They made the process truly painless, which I admit I had not anticipated. I am excited about this fundraising asset and keeping it alive and relevant to our supporters.

Hiring Virtual Giving allowed for an incredibly easy transition to a website that allows great informational and educational opportunities for our donors as well as our staff. They have managed to translate the complicated language of planned giving into words anyone can read and understand. I have found our new website to be of immeasurable value to us.

We should have moved from our home-grown website to Virtual Giving years ago. Our changes now go up in minutes, it seems, rather than the weeks it used to take when we ran our own site. We are delighted with their attentiveness and responsiveness. And now we can finally be certain that the information provided on our site is current.

Going from contract to live took no time at all -- we saw our site take shape only a few hours after we submitted our material. It's magic!

Cushing's new gift planning website is extremely user friendly and welcoming, and we have witnessed incredible traffic numbers in our 1st few months of implementation. The entire staff at Virtual Giving is efficient and helpful, and the process could not have been easier for our small advancement shop.

Everything was beyond our expectations. VirtualGiving was prompt, responsive and attentive. We have gotten great feedback from our alums who’ve been to the new site.

When we switched to VirtualGiving from another vendor, we wanted a seamless transition that wouldn’t disrupt our planned giving presence online. The sales team assured us that this could be done and that designing and implementing our VirtualGiving website would be an uncomplicated, painless process.

The sales team didn’t exaggerate.

In fact, they over-delivered on their promise. The team at VirtualGiving had our website up and running by our deadline, efficiently and without any hassle on our end. We are delighted with the final product and would recommend VirtualGiving to any non-profit who wants to take their planned giving marketing to the next level.

Stuart H. Gold, J.D.
Director, Gift Planning
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL

Warm wishes for a Happy Holiday to all of you. I wanted to let you know that your entire staff has been extremely helpful and cooperative in guiding us through the process of getting our planned giving page linked and live. Joe Tumolo was a great coordinator and got me up to speed quickly on what we can do now and going forward with VirtualGiving.Com. Please know that David Friedel has the patience of a saint and could not be more helpful — if he ever moves to Chicago, I know where he can apply for a job! All the best.

We are very pleased with the website content provided by Virtual Giving. The clear, concise content is perfect for our audience. We previously had content from another provider which had every bell and whistle, but found that quantity of content only served to confuse and frustrate ourviewers. We wanted something simple, informative, and easy to navigate and Virtual Giving delivered.

I think the world of the group at Virtual Giving. They really have a good team there.

We chose VirtualGiving because we found it had a unique quality of design and content which would distinguish the American Heart Association from other non-profit organizations. Specifically, the Legacy Planner is extremely user friendly and the site tools enable the donor to obtain as much information as needed to begin their legacy thought process. We are excited about our new "look and feel" with Virtual Giving and we are confident that we are ready for the next generation of planned giving donors!

Being one of your clients is fun. You are worth every penny we pay for your services. (Now don't increase your fees!) I feel good when I process payment to you because I know that you earn every cent we pay you and possibly even more.

I want to say how pleased I am with the VirtualGiving experience. From the very beginning, with the initial professionalism and helpfulness in the sales process, to our current management of the new site - this has all been smooth sailing.

VirtualGiving’s speed, responsiveness and competence (and availability at all hours) have been quite remarkable. I ask for a change to be made to the content of the site and it is taken care of almost immediately.

We look forward to a long and productive partnership.

We chose VirtualGiving because we wanted a planned giving website that reflected current tax laws and gift descriptions, but that was unique to the Symphony. We are very pleased with our website, and with VirtualGiving's responsiveness in updating our site when necessary. The gift descriptions are easy for our prospects to understand, and we are proud to show the website to our current and potential donors. We're able to focus on meeting with prospects and closing gifts, without worrying about designing and maintaining our planned giving website.

We decided to switch to VirtualGiving.Com after being convinced that their approach to donors was “right-on.” Instead of droning on and on about the mechanics of planned giving, which even some very sophisticated donors do not understand, they approach communications from the standpoint of the psychological and emotional impact of making a gift. The team at VirtualGiving.Com has been extremely helpful every step of the way. We are also partnering with The Planned Giving Company to drive donors and potential donors to our website. I think what really impresses me about both companies is their humility. If something is not quite right, they are ready to admit an opportunity for improvement and get right on it. This is very rare in consulting firms. We are confident that our new strategic partnership will result in a much more effective planned giving program.

At The ALS Association, we have an established national planned giving program. And to strengthen our presence on the Web, we opted for an established national planned giving provider. VirtualGiving met our needs in developing a truly customized planned giving website that reflects our mission, goals, and values. They are a truly professional team.

Virtual Giving made the creation of our Web site incredibly easy, and I am pleased with their service when we request changes.

My favorite feature of the site is Plan-a-gift®, which helps steer visitors to the best gift options based on their goals. It would have taken us hours of programming to create a similar element ourselves.

At Jefferson we have loyal alumni and grateful patients that are interested in giving back to us. When searching for a vendor for our planned giving website, we knew we needed a company that could relay information and "speak" to a variety of potential donors - coming from both from the University and the Hospital. We wanted someone who could explain the complexities of planned giving in a simple way, and not overwhelm our visitors.

After searching extensively, we chose Virtual Giving because their approach best suited our needs – they made the customized process easy, were extremely attentive to our requests, and they made the entire experience faster and more efficient. Having the website up to date with valuable information has made my job easier - I can focus all of my energy on soliciting prospective donors.

I use my planned giving website daily - but more importantly, so do my donors! In addition to marketing planned giving vehicles, my prospects access the website for more information – knowing that they can retrieve whatever information they need at whatever time of day (or night) they need it! I am continually pleased with the reaction from our website visitors – they are more receptive to my calls, and in general, I believe the asking/giving process is even easier for me!

I looked at several vendors and was impressed by your focus on planned giving websites – you don’t try to be all things to all people - and you grasped immediately what was important to our constituents.

It was very important that the site be "plug and play" so that we could concentrate our energies on our planned giving program and donors rather than taking on another project. Yet we did not want a bland generic product. It was imperative that the dedicated planned giving site be developed and maintained with the least possible effort by us, but also have a look and feel comparable to the other areas of the Exeter's web presence.

Finally, the ease of use was critical in making a choice – we wanted a website look that was easy to get around in – on all three points, Virtual Giving came out on top!

We are always looking for ways to improve our planned giving program. We wanted to create a practical on-line resource for our alumni and it didn't take long to recognize that VirtualGiving was our best choice for a partner. We looked at work they did for our peers (Exeter, Taft, St. Paul's) and other institutions and were convinced they could help us as well. Plus, when I spoke with my peers who were using VirtualGiving, I was impressed by their unanimously positive comments. They said it was a "no-brainer," and they were right!

We liked VirtualGiving's menu of options and the simplicity of their presentation but it was their emphasis on customization that ultimately won us over - we wanted a look and content that would totally distinguish our site from everyone else. They delivered on their promise, and more.

I never hesitate to recommend VirtualGiving to anyone I know looking to get more from their planned giving website.

Virtual Givings website format appealed to us because it is attractive and donor-friendly, besides being comprehensive in its presentation of planned giving information. We were able to customize it to blend seamlessly into our main Foundation website.

We agreed with Virtual Giving that a customized website helps makes the job of providing information to prospects and donors much easier, while allowing planned giving staff to focus on closing gifts. Virtual Givings concepts also help personalize the planned giving staff and make it simple to contact them.

At UConn, our experience with Virtual Giving has been very satisfying their staff has been a pleasure to work with. And, as part of our relationship, they provide us with invaluable ideas on a continuing basis.

In this day and age, nearly every organization should be cultivating planned gifts, and that is hard to do without a comprehensive web presence such as Virtual Giving offers. We are pleased with their high level of quality and service.

Our planned giving website is a very important tool for us, and just like our phone system, we use it every day. It was important for us to work with a vendor that met our needs, and yet at the same time advised us of what works and what doesn't. With VirtualGiving's help, we developed a site that's clean, friendly, easy to understand, and free of useless clutter that just distracts prospects. Not to mention, their service is just fantastic.

I hired Viken and his firm VirtualGiving.com, to design my legacy planning Web-site. Im exceedingly proud of the product we built together for the Phi Beta Kappa Society and can speak with authority on their excellent product and customer service. At every step of the way, Viken and his team have provided sterling customer care and red-carpet treatment. They were excited to implement several ideas I brought to the table since they had never been done before in the planned giving world. Once executed, our site stands at the forefront of Legacy Planning Web design. No request was too large or too small. Everything was done within a day or so -- if not hours or minutes -- of receiving my request. I have attended several seminars where their products were featured by independent Web-site design experts and touted as the gold standard in this field. I have interviewed my counterparts at major universities who did hire them (more than once) for each of the schools unique school-specific web-sites and was told they would hire them again with out hesitation. I am thoroughly impressed with their exceptional work and have shared this with countless colleagues over and over again. Not only is he an exceptional spokesman for the industry, but I also respect his expertise and knowledge of what works and what does not. The proof is in the pudding and having either booked or signed pledges for a total of more than $2 million dollars in one years time and site traffic has exponentially increased.

I had used VirtualGiving at a previous organization and knew I wanted to use them at my current organization, the Saint Francis Foundation. VirtualGiving's approach is fresh, thorough, and they are always monitoring the market to see what has an impact on donors. VirtualGiving has allowed us to not only provide an accurate, comprehensive planned giving section to our website, but has also allowed us to provide a free and beneficial service to our donors through the personal calculators, estate planning section and will wizard.

The staff is incredibly responsive and easy to work with. They really work hard to provide incredible customer service and my satisfaction is important to them. I would, and do, highly recommend Virtual Giving to anyone who is looking for the best planned giving website product out there!

In the early ‘90s, most of us couldn’t imagine using the Internet as a tool to market planned gifts. I had the opportunity to develop the first planned giving web site for Temple University back in 1995 and saw immediately how this medium would grow and expand our marketing impact. Soon thereafter, I met Viken, co-founder of VirtualGiving and immediately recognized his creative capacities and forward thinking style to marketing planned gifts. Subsequently, he has built a business that is top of the line. VirtualGiving is driven to be on the front line in this business and always two-steps ahead on how we need to change and improve our marketing efforts. More importantly, however, is their personal and direct approach to coming along side what I am doing, making me feel like I've got a partner that understands what we need to be effective.

Subsequently, Viken, John Foster and their crew have developed a service and planned giving marketing products that are the best as far as I'm concerned. It will be a pleasure to continue to work with these folks on into the future.

Our planned giving web presence is a great tool. Yes, I still mail out some brochures, but now when prospects call I refer them to my website to get the information they’re looking for immediately. Our VirtualGiving site has become our go-to guide for setting up a planned gift.

The gift descriptions are friendly and accessible, and I know that I have my prospects’ undivided attention when they’re reading about the benefits of a planned gift.

The VirtualGiving team was very responsive to my needs, and I recommend them and their products to my colleagues.

Thank you all so much for Renbrook’s wonderful planned giving site. Not only does it look terrific but it has levels of information that would have been very difficult for us to achieve on our own. We are very pleased.

A significant part of my practice involves working with non-profit organizations specifically in the area of planned giving.

I’ve worked with VirtualGiving on behalf of multiple clients, and have found that they understand the two realities facing non-profits: the need to spread their message and the need to stay within a marketing budget. Every site they create is fresh, compelling, and realistic -- and is also delivered on time, on budget, and with full client input.

VirtualGiving is a strong ally in the battle for prospects’ attention and consideration.

I had already worked with VirtualGiving in my last position at the Archdiocese of Boston. When I was given carte blanche to design the planned giving program at Spelman, I already knew your team would be an important ingredient to our success.

The fact that you make the site easy to navigate for my prospective donors is a big plus. People are impatient, especially when they browse the web. Since you make the information easy to find, and make planned giving simple and friendly, it makes it easier to talk to my prospects because they are already predisposed to give.

I have been delighted with your responsiveness to Spelmans needs. I highly recommend your service to anyone who is seeking to develop a top-flight planned giving website.

Virtual giving has made our [Volunteers of America] website marketing transition virtually painless and seamless... so much so that our local offices want to enjoy the same look as our national website pages for planned giving.

We are grateful to have such a cutting edge tool in our toolkit!

The next step for our Planned Giving program was to step up our education of donors using technology.

Many of our alums and retired friends of the University were requesting information from me by e-mail. Allowing them to review proposals and receive planned giving information online was truly our next step. Following attendance at the NCPG conference and learning more about marketing planned gifts I contacted Virtual Giving. In less than 3 months, they presented me various options and sample pages that fit not only my budget, but were not cumbersome to review and presented the material that I wanted our donors to have.

I have been very pleased.

Thank you for making it so easy to provide excellent planned giving information, in a comprehensive format, and at a refreshingly low price!

[The Binghamton University Foundation] site looks great!

VirtualGiving has been delightful to work with. And they do truly know what works and what doesn’t in planned giving marketing. Very friendly service!

Kanuga is a place of Christian reshment and renewal in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Our guests support their churches at home and also many other charities, so we have to hold their attention and affection in order to encourage their support.

Our VirtualGiving website is a useful tool in that endeavor. The site explains how planned gifts build our endowment and how they help make a significant commitment to Kanuga feasible for more donors. It clearly explains the benefits of each planned giving vehicle that we offer, provides detailed supporting information, then makes it easy for the prospect to contact us for a follow-up.

The design is warm and inviting, and encourages visitors to linger and explore. Our donors tell us that they like what they see there — and so do we.

VirtualGiving designed our planned giving website to look like an integral part of our overall development pages. The site is well organized and is easy for a visitor to navigate. Text and graphics make the prospect feel welcome and guide her to a gift decision. I especially like the links placed all throughout the site enabling the prospect to contact us instantly for follow-up gift information and the fact that the request form gives us detailed information on the prospect and is not just an email link.

VirtualGiving took the time to understand Widener’s style and marketing image, and their final copy and design reflect that awareness. They were responsive to our needs and reliable on deadlines. I fully recommend them.

We had high expectations when we decided to add a planned giving website, to Neumann College’s recently redesigned main website, that would enhance our marketing/fundraising portfolio. VirtualGiving delivered a professional product that exceeded our goals. In fact, recently two of our donors have entered into serious discussions with us regarding charitable instruments, so we know that the site is working for us. We also will be promoting it in conjunction with our first comprehensive capital campaign.