Meet Elizabeth Van Dillewijn of The Woland Foundation

I am a Landscape designer, I create spaces for people to use and enjoy. I have a passion for creativity and I am convinced that this profession has a physical and emotional impact on every single person living in this world.

I have a fire inside me that won’t go away. This fire tells me that there is no more time to wait, I must help as many young women as possible by mentoring and practicing the fundamental skills of a successful woman.  I created this foundation so that we ensure a better world for tomorrow with all the rightful leaders.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No easy at all. It has been a short time and the one thing I’ve learned is that giving back is never easy. People don’t have the time, the passion or the vision to help others.

Everyone we speak to about our goals and ideas is immediately captivated and wants to help but are not so sure how, this is why we structured a very simple formula for people to give back.  Mentoring + practice= Empowerment.

We ask all the successful women out there to share their stories with us, we also ask them to share their knowledge so that young women can focus on their talents rather than overcoming obstacles that can overshadow their passion. We make it very simple for everyone to help. “teach something you wish someone would have taught you back when you were a young woman”. and if you don’t wish to share your story please help us by donating so that we can develop seminar and practice programs for these young women.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
Our nonprofit is one of a kind. We provide free services to young women.

We mentor them in all areas as professionals such as personal financing, professional etiquette, women in the typical work office, self-defense, pro bono projects in the design field, how to open a business, how to network and their only commitment to us is that they too pay it forward and help the generation of women after theirs.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
This organization would not be possible without Andy Witkin, or boss and mentor who offered and has paid all of our legal fees, introduced us to other nonprofit pioneers and mentors who advise us and give us their support.

Kelsey and Roberto who are our current members working in all of our projects and helping with all the program development to help as many women as we can and last but not least, our families who understand and trust the work we do every day to help others.