Julia Healey, President and CEO, United Charitable. Julia shares stories of donors whose values and choices are shaping lasting charitable impact.
Elizabeth Odom remembers the test most of all.
She was in her twenties, newly engaged, when her mother-in-law, then Chief Curator at Hillwood, brought her for a first tour of the mansion and gardens. It was a beautiful afternoon. What Elizabeth did not expect was that her mother-in-law would quiz her afterward on names, dates, and objects.
She did not do well. But something else stayed with her.
“I have a very visual memory,” she said. “I was able to respond emotionally.”
That emotional response is still the reason she shows up, more than three decades later.
What It Feels Like to Belong to Something Like This
Elizabeth’s mother-in-law has since passed. Elizabeth never stopped coming back. Today she serves as President of the Board of Trustees at Hillwood, supports the institution through her Donor Advised Fund at United Charitable, attends nearly every event, and helps plan many of them herself.
She describes the relationship in terms most donors rarely say out loud.
“It does sort of feel like a cheat,” she said, “because I feel like I get more in return than I often give.”
Her husband feels the same way. So does everyone she has ever brought along.
That is the part of giving that is easy to overlook. It is not only about what a gift accomplishes. It is about what it gives back to the person giving it: a sense of belonging, a place that feels like it knows you, and the quiet privilege of being trusted to help carry something forward.
A Legacy Built to Be Shared, Not Locked Away
Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens is the former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, who ran General Foods Corporation at a time when a woman leading a major American company was almost unheard of. She collected art at the highest level, from French decorative arts to Russian Imperial pieces to Chinese jades, and she made sure that when she was gone, her home and collection would not disappear behind private gates.
That choice is the reason Elizabeth has a place to come back to.
The estate sits on 25 acres in Washington, D.C., half manicured gardens and half woodland. Kate Markert, Executive Director since 2010, has watched donors and visitors fall for the place season after season. Hillwood also brings contemporary artists into conversation with the historical collection, work by Roberto Lugo, Cindy Sherman, and Kristine Mays among them, so the estate keeps finding new ways to feel relevant to the people who walk through it.
None of that runs without people like Elizabeth choosing, year after year, to stay involved.
The Community That Makes Giving Feel Like Connection
Kate Markert has a name for Hillwood‘s most devoted supporters: Hillwood fanatics. They are the ones who show up for every opening, bring friends who have never been, and stop strangers in the garden to start a conversation.
“All of our members are fascinating,” Markert said. “Well traveled, well educated, curious.”
Part of Hillwood’s membership mission is making sure those people actually meet each other. At the fall garden party, Markert always tells guests to turn to the person standing next to them and start asking questions.
Elizabeth has watched that work. Walk the campus on any given day and you will see every age, every background, every kind of curiosity represented. That is not an accident. It is what happens when a place works hard to make people feel like they belong there, and when donors like Elizabeth keep showing up to make sure that feeling continues.
What This Means for Anyone Choosing Where to Give
It is easy to assume that a meaningful gift has to go toward solving an urgent crisis. Elizabeth’s story is a reminder that giving can also be about sustaining something that brings people together, generation after generation, and that the donor often walks away having received as much as they gave.
“There are so many different ways that people can relate,” Markert said.
Elizabeth would likely say the same thing about her own thirty years at Hillwood. She came for a tour. She stayed for a community that has shaped how she sees connection, legacy, and what it means to feel genuinely blessed to be part of something larger than herself.
@HillwoodMuseum on Instagram and Facebook.
Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, photographed by Erik Kvalsvik.
If a story like Elizabeth’s reflects how you want your own giving to feel, United Charitable can help you find a place to connect, give, and belong. Subscribe to our newsletter to follow stories like this one and stay connected to the giving happening across our network.
United Charitable is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. This information is educational and is not tax or legal advice; consult your own tax or legal advisor.