News Center

Christina Todd remembers noticing the bright yellow Team Massey t-shirts as crowds of runners and walkers hustled by during her first Monument Avenue 10K.

“They were seemingly everywhere,” said Todd, who had just moved to Richmond, where she is now a director at the local wealth management firm Cary Street Partners.

The next year, she was running with them.

“When I was starting the 10K process, Emily, my best friend from college, unfortunately was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and passed away,” Todd said. “I knew that I needed to do something with that grief, and just running and getting my body moving was so helpful and healing.”

When she registered for the race, she remembers being asked if she’d like to make a gift to support VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her answer was an emphatic “yes.”

“I wanted to do this for Emily and so other people won’t have to go through what she went through,” she said. Todd’s mother is a cancer survivor, and she has lost other family members to the disease.

In addition to her own gift, she decided go the extra mile and raise funds from her friends and colleagues to support Team Massey.

“It really took on a life of its own,” Todd said. “And I ended up being one of their top fundraisers that year.”

She attended a reception for honoring top volunteer donors and has been a Massey volunteer since, supporting various programs and groups — from Women & Wellness and the Massey Alliance Board to the center’s Community Advisory Board and 50th Anniversary Gala.

“What has kept me so engaged is that Massey is part of a safety-net hospital and is so community driven,” Todd said. “It really is incredible that patients are treated here with the best available care regardless of their ability to pay. To me, that’s another reason why philanthropy is so important.”

In 2024, Todd made a planned gift in honor of Massey’s 50th anniversary by naming the cancer center as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy that will provide future support for Massey’s healing and research mission. 

“It was really easy and seamless for me,” Todd said. “This type of gift was a no-brainer for younger people like me who may not have the capacity to make a big gift at this point in our lives but who have a strong sense of the causes they care most about.”

Todd encourages her peers to take thoughtful and intentional actions throughout their lives to support good causes both financially and through their time and talent. She hopes that everyone has a fulfilling outlet like the one she has found at Massey that allows her to strengthen community institutions and find her role in making the world around her a better place.

“Giving back doesn’t have to mean grand gestures or dollar amounts,” Todd said. “I still plan to continue making gifts during my lifetime, but it’s nice to know that I can have a lasting impact today on Massey’s mission as I continue to engage as a volunteer.”

This was repurposed from an article originally published by MCV Foundation.

If you would like to learn more about how to support the MCV Campus through a planned gift, please contact Jason Chestnutt, CFP®, executive director of planned giving for the MCV Campus, at 804-828-1671 or chestnuttjr@vcu.edu.