Volunteering, Collaboration, and Making a Difference With Tom Baker

In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, Jim Dunlop sits down with Tom Baker, CEO of Variety the Children’s Charity (of Pittsburgh), to discuss the transformative power of volunteering, building community through collaboration, and creating opportunities for children with disabilities. Together, they explore Tom’s personal generosity journey, the impact of Variety’s innovative programs, and how partnerships amplify impact.

Tom Baker is the CEO of Variety the Children’s Charity (of Pittsburgh), a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering children with disabilities through adaptive equipment and inclusion programs. With over 15 years of leadership experience in nonprofit organizations, including North Hills Community Outreach and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh, Tom has focused on creating programs that transform lives. A lifelong volunteer and advocate, he has mentored youth, served on multiple nonprofit boards, and authored a book encouraging young professionals to engage in community service.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • [02:51] Tom Baker shares his life story and the early influences that shaped his passion for helping others
  • [04:24] Where Tom’s generosity story began and how volunteering became a lifelong commitment
  • [06:50] The three core programs at Variety and how they change the lives of children with disabilities
  • [09:32] How Variety’s My Voice program empowers nonverbal children to communicate
  • [13:19] Why collaboration between nonprofits is critical for amplifying community impact
  • [17:14] Creative ways businesses and individuals support Variety
  • [18:43] Mentors and role models who inspired Tom to become a generosity leader
  • [20:14] Tom’s advice on how anyone can get involved and make a difference

In this episode:

What inspires someone to dedicate their life to empowering others? For those who lead with generosity, their impact often extends far beyond individual actions, creating ripples of hope and transformation in their communities. How can we each find ways to give back and make a difference?

According to Tom Baker, a lifelong volunteer and community leader, the key lies in starting where you are and focusing on the causes you care about. He explains that generosity doesn’t require wealth or influence but a willingness to act. By connecting with organizations, joining boards, or supporting collaborative efforts, individuals can create meaningful change in ways both big and small. He emphasizes that collaboration between nonprofits can amplify impact, encouraging organizations to “collaborate, not compete” to serve the community better. These partnerships foster innovative programs, expand resources, and create opportunities to touch more lives.

In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, Jim Dunlop sits down with Tom Baker, CEO of Variety the Children’s Charity (of Pittsburgh), to discuss the transformative power of volunteering, building community through collaboration, and creating opportunities for children with disabilities. Together, they explore Tom’s personal generosity journey, the impact of Variety’s innovative programs, and how partnerships amplify impact.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Related Episodes

Quotable Moments

  • “Find a way to volunteer and step up. You’re going to be busier tomorrow than you are today.”
  • “Just find a way. There are boards of directors in your community that want you to be involved.”
  • “We hear stories from parents who literally hear the words, ‘I love you, mom,’ for the first time.”
  • “If money didn’t matter and you could do whatever you wanted, where would you spend your time?”
  • “Keep the momentum going, keep doing good things. Don’t just stop volunteering and helping others now that you’ve graduated.”

Action Steps

  • Engage in volunteering: Volunteering not only helps those in need but also enriches your personal life and broadens your social network.
  • Join a board or committee: This kind of involvement allows you to influence decisions and initiatives, which can be an excellent way to contribute your skills and passions to a cause.
  • Collaborate with other organizations: By working together, organizations can share resources, expand their reach, and better serve their communities.
  • Create or support fundraising events: These events not only generate necessary funds but also engage the community and build a sense of camaraderie and collective effort.
  • Encourage others to get involved: Advocate for involvement in community service and inspire others through your enthusiasm.

Sponsor for this episode:

This episode is brought to you by Advent Partners — a financial planning partner dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. 

Our seasoned team of professionals is committed to guiding you toward your financial goals. We offer tailored solutions based on your specific needs, from standalone financial planning to integrated financial management.

Whether you are planning for the future, investing for growth, or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap.

To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit AdventPartnersFP.com.

Episode Transcript

Intro 00:00

Welcome to the You Can’t Take it With You show, where we feature stories around generosity designed to inspire and encourage others to do meaningful things in their communities. Now, here’s your host, Jim Dunlop.

Jim Dunlop 00:17

Hi. Jim Dunlop here, a wealth advisor and host of this show, where I sit down with people who get it when it comes to generosity. I’m excited to have guests who can give us stories on generosity to not only inspire our listeners, but to give practical ideas on ways we can give. Today’s guest is Tom Baker. Past guests include Jim Langley, Phil Cubeta, and Doug Spotts. But before we get to Tom, I want to share that this episode is brought to you by Advent Partners. Ready for good. Advent is a financial planning team dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. At Advent Partners, we’re ready for good. Our bold ten year vision to help clients donate $100 million to transform lives through generosity and planning, united by generosity. Relationship excellent authenticity and fun. We empower meaningful lives and lasting community impact. To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit readyforgood.com. Before introducing today’s guest, I want to give a big thank you to Roger Haney of Spectrum Fudge, who introduced us to Tom. Go check out Roger’s episode at our website. canttakeitwithyou.com, and please see Roger’s website spectrum.com. So now let me tell you about Tom. Tom Baker proudly serves as the chief executive officer of variety, the children’s charity of Pittsburgh, with a mission to empower children with disabilities to live life to the fullest. Variety provides life changing mobility and communication equipment to ensure our most vulnerable kids are no longer left out, left behind, or excluded. Variety focuses on mobility, communication, inclusion for children and families in 59 counties in Pennsylvania. For over 15 years, Tom served in senior leadership roles for two organisations, North Hills Community Outreach and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh, with which he had a long time tenure as a volunteer. Before joining the professional staff. Between 2008 and 2023, he was the executive Director of the North Hills Community Outreach and served as the Chief Community Affairs Officer and Vice President of programs for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Pittsburgh. Tom, it is great to have you here. Welcome.

Tom Baker 02:25

Thanks, Jim. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks for the nice spotlight here on variety, the children’s charity of Pittsburgh. I’m honored to be with you and glad that some of our mutual friends, like Roger Haney and Carolyn Keller, brought us together here today.

Jim Dunlop 02:37

Absolutely. So before we get into some of the work you’re doing, I wonder if you could start by just sharing a little couple minute autobiography about yourself. And we heard your kind of professional role here, but how did you get to that?

Tom Baker 02:51

Sure thing. So I grew up in the city of Pittsburgh and have always loved being involved, being active. My dad was a was a teacher in Pittsburgh public schools. He’s the original mascot of the school district, Albert Einstein, very involved with Special Olympics. So as a little guy, I would follow my dad around from event to event, trying to bring happiness and goodness into this world. You and I are the exact same age, Jim, so you’ll appreciate these references. But he’d be out there doing the Vanilla Ice and MC hammer impressions as the emcee of the talent show at Minadeo Elementary School, where I went so just an amazing person passed away at 39, I was 12. The story that I’ve always shared is that my mom stepped up to the plate literally. It was always very active in my life, but stepped up to the plate, literally became a Little League coach, pony League coach, Colt League coach. So just very lucky to have two very supportive parents. I will say we were the first full family in the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame for baseball, and we are not Jewish. So I feel like that was a pretty good accomplishment for our volunteer and performance efforts with baseball, but just have always had supportive, a supportive family, and that’s what got me going on this journey of trying to make a difference in the world.

Jim Dunlop 04:04

Well Tom, thank you for sharing that. And I want to start out by asking you about your personal generosity story. I know that you have tremendous passion for volunteering, and we’re going to talk a little bit about that as we go along today. But tell me your generosity origin story. How did you get to where you are in that regard?

Tom Baker 04:24

Sure thing. Well, I always liked being active, so I was very involved in high school and college when I graduated in the spring of 2002. And for younger folks, I sometimes have to explain this a little bit more. But I open up a phone book and it was the summer of 2002, and I looked up ways to volunteer now that I graduated from college, and I called up Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and later that summer got matched with my little brother, Preston. He’s now 32 years old. He’s the godfather to my daughter, getting to be there for high school graduation, college graduation. He’s first generation for college and grad school and his family. Just a remarkable young man, a young friend, a lifelong friend. We were just together over the holidays. The same holds true for my little brother, my second little brother, Eric, who we got matched a long time ago, 15 years ago now. And he’s also a lifelong friend. So I’ve had littles in my life, including my my newest little Brian that I was with Wednesday over lunch. I just love volunteering as a big brother. It’s been such an incredible journey. So many special experiences with Preston, with Eric, Eddie, EJ and now Brian. So it’s just been the journey of a lifetime getting to be a big.

Jim Dunlop 05:33

So it started with a phone book and looking at where you could help.

Tom Baker 05:37

Right? That’s why we need to bring back phone books. Yeah.

Jim Dunlop 05:39

Right. So where where where did that impulse, knowing that you were graduating and entering, entering the world as a professional, where did that impulse to volunteer come from?

Tom Baker 05:49

Well, I wanted to keep the momentum going. You know, in college, I was so active. I was student body president. I was president of my fraternity, just really involved in our school and loved volunteering and serving in a whole wide variety of manners. It’s really the premise behind my first book, which came out in 2008. Get involved making the most of your 20s and 30s. And the thought was, keep the momentum going, keep doing good things. Don’t just stop volunteering and helping others now that you’ve graduated. So I really wanted to hit the ground running and volunteer right away. And that’s what I’ve been doing for these last 23 years, since college, a lot of volunteer work, love serving on boards and committees, and just helping out organizations, great organizations, and a whole sphere of ways.

Jim Dunlop 06:30

So I want to learn a little bit. I’m very fascinated, as we were preparing for today’s episode, to learn about Variety. So can you tell our listeners, I know there’s three important parts to the program at Variety, at what you guys do. And ironically, this is an organization that’s across the country, but was started right there in Pittsburgh.

Tom Baker 06:50

Yeah, you’re 100% right, Jim. It all started right here in Pittsburgh, PA. So even though there’s two variety tents in Pennsylvania, there’s dozens across the country and the world. It all started here in Pittsburgh. In just a few years from now, we’ll be celebrating the 100th anniversary of variety, which is remarkable. But in the City of Champions, I love the fact that it did start here. We do have foam fingers that say number one on them because we are number one tent as we’re called in the country. Variety is just a beautiful, incredible organization, I’ve got to say. We were across the Commonwealth last week and 5 or 6 different counties, since. We do serve the 59, and every time we get a chance to present life changing adaptive equipment to kids, if you’re awake 110, 120 hours a week, the best hour of the week is when we get to share the equipment with the kids, the bikes, and the strollers that we provide. We do those right in person at presentations, which are incredible. We have one coming up with Todd, a long time friend and colleague of yours, on January 30th, and that’s awesome bike drive. So the sense of happiness that we see through the My Bike program, just the joy. We love getting pictures the next day or shortly thereafter when somebody gets to ride a bike with their brothers and sisters for the first time, brings joy to the child himself, but also just the network of people that are also so much happier to be able to spend that quality time with their sibling. It’s it’s truly remarkable to see. 

We just gave out our 3000, presented our 3,000th bike in the early fall. We did it on a show called Pittsburgh Today Live. And literally within 24 hours we got a picture of Mister 3000 himself, Jude out there riding his bike with his two brothers. So we love, we love, love, love to see that the stroller also is incredibly helpful to the families. It brings a sense of relief as well. So the families are a lot more, have much more ability to go out to to stores, to malls, to pumpkin patches. We hear from families that go to a restaurant for the first time because of the stroller, because of the of the comfort and security that this adaptive stroller provides for them and their children. And we have a picture of a boy named Ezra, and his mom sent us the picture right after Mother’s Day and said, Best Mother’s Day ever, because it was the first time she’d ever been able to take him to a restaurant. So it’s those things that a lot of us take for granted there. You know, after you win the Super Bowl, you talk about going to Disney World. Our kids tell us they want to go to McDonald’s. They want to be a kid. They just want to have the fun and the experience that so many people take for granted in this world.

Jim Dunlop 09:27

Absolutely. And tell me a little bit about the voice aspect of Variety.

Tom Baker 09:32

Yeah. So the voice program is now the most prolific thanks to our partnership with the Commonwealth, which is a great alignment between Governor Shapiro and Governor Corbett, who is our our board president. We’re very grateful to that, the opportunity to serve kids in that way, and to make sure that they’re able to express how they feel. We hear stories from parents who literally hear the words, I love you, mom, or I love you dad for the first time through their my voice and with variety, which is which is really remarkable. So enables them to communicate the positive things in world, in the world, and also if they’re with their medical provider, enables them to share what you know how they’re feeling. If something’s off, they can tell their doctor in a much easier manner. So the iPad that we work with the the speech language pathologists across the Commonwealth in the 59 counties to get them to the kid kids. And I will just say we gave one Molly Crawford and I, my teammate here, we went to Pine Grove Elementary last week and presented in person to a little girl named Zoe. She was so excited. She was wearing the, you know, the My Voice system right away. And we met a little boy there, and his teachers were telling us how much he’s his communication skills have improved in the one year since he got his my voice. It makes a huge difference, honestly, Jim, for kids to be able to communicate how they’re feeling and what they’re up to.

Jim Dunlop 10:49

And these are kids who would not be able to speak otherwise, correct?

Tom Baker 10:53

Right. They’re working through that. So some are completely non-verbal, some have just a little bit of delays. And it really does help the children. They utilize the my voice systems.

Jim Dunlop 11:02

Well this is  just fascinating work that you’re doing. And again this as we talked about before we started here show to inspire generosity. And certainly the work that your organization does is very inspiring. But do you have some and you’ve shared some stories already, any stories that might inspire our listeners to think about ways that they could help make a difference in their communities? What might that look like if you had a story like that?

Tom Baker 11:31

It’s a really broad spectrum of people that support our wonderful organization. We’ve got a great board of directors and a variety movement board of folks in their 20s, 30s and 40s that are all helping out in a manner of ways. I gotta say, as we’re recording this, it’s one of our VM members, Morgan Rizzardi’s 40th birthday, and she actually utilized it as a fundraiser for variety, which is pretty, pretty awesome. So we have people helping out in so many different ways. Al Todd, who we mentioned earlier, does a lot of good 15 bucks a year, which runs, you know, 25 to $30,000, which have an impact that al is able to make. We have a group called the Leonard Advisory Group. Their goal for last year was to maybe sponsor one bike, and they ended up coming through with six bikes. We have a local gym called metabolic where our BMB co-chair, Shayna Zayac goes. They raised enough for two bikes so people can make a difference in a whole scheme of ways. Zam Harley Davidson I never thought I would be and I love being there. I never thought I’d be at a Harley Davidson store so many times last year, but they it was actually our biggest presentation last year. They had 600 700 people there as we were able to present bikes, thanks to Dax and everyone at Zam. So it’s it’s you see so many incredible things. So many people come through in such an amazing way. And it’s a pleasure. I think people find so much enjoyment and excitement out of being the person who helps sponsor a bike, or a stroller or a voice. They get to often get to meet the child and the family as well too, which is really nice.

Jim Dunlop 13:02

Oh, neat. So I think this is this is a good place to transition. What are some of the tell me about some of the other organizations you’ve been involved in, and the impact that generous volunteers and donors had in those organizations?

Tom Baker 13:19

I will mention Special Olympics. My dad was a special education teacher years later, decades later. I was asked to speak at an event and then became a board member for Special Olympics of Pennsylvania. And that was a really a really good experience. I remember being at the first meetings to plan the polar plunge here in Pittsburgh, which is now an event that raises over $1 million a year. This this last one was the first time. So getting to help out Special Olympics and Special Olympians throughout our region and throughout the state, That was pretty remarkable. I love being on the Council of Trustees for my alma mater and your wife’s alma mater, Millersville University. That’s a very fun volunteer experience. You’re appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, but it’s completely volunteer. And that’s been just just tremendous. I will mention I volunteer every Monday early evening at Anchorpoint Counseling Ministry. So for the last four years, I’ve been tutoring my little buddy, my buddy Ethan, and we have so much fun together. I think just the happiness that you feel on a day where you’re volunteering for me, at least I’ll say, Jim, I wake up with a different umph. If I know that I’m volunteering in some form or fashion that day. That includes being the head coach of my daughter’s three most recent softball teams the gold medalists, the purple ponies, and the blueberries. Like, literally love it. It’s so much fun to get to be a volunteer coach. So whatever that is that gets you going and that you enjoy doing, I would just encourage people to step up and volunteer in some manner.

Jim Dunlop 14:48

So I want to just go back a second. The polar plunge for Special Olympics is that jumping in the river on New Year’s Day or what is that? Tell me a little bit more about what that event is.

Tom Baker 15:00

This year it’ll be in February. I think it’s February 22nd again. But yeah, the first few years we did jump into the river. Now you jump into a pool. But I did it last year with my friend Dave Berkovich, did the Polar Plunge and I was Superman. He was Batman. We went in together. It was very fun. So just had have had a lot of good memories over the years. Variety wise too. We really appreciate our emerging partnership with Special Olympics. We had a really fun event last year, a bocce night in which the Special Olympians got to be the trainers and the coaches for all of us from variety. We love partnerships here. We love collaborating. There’s a group I started called Nonprofits North within the Pittsburgh North Regional Chamber, and our mantra there is collaborate, not compete as nonprofits. And in this sector, let’s bring out the best in each other. If I see something, if I see a grant that’s not a fit for us, let me forward it to you proactively. Like just be the eyes and ears for each other. And also, you know, do joint programming and events where it makes sense certainly to.

Jim Dunlop 16:00

Well, what I like about your message today, Tom, is two things. One, if you’re not involved, look around. There are lots of opportunities in your communities to get involved. And just the example of variety groups of people coming together, businesses, individuals to raise money to buy. Is it fair to say adaptive bikes. And so that is a great way to look around and see what our what’s going on in your community and where’s help needed. You might not be able to look in the phone book right now, but certainly Google could help you.

Tom Baker 16:33

That’s fair. Yes.

Jim Dunlop 16:34

But the other message that I like is if you’re already involved in doing good work and involved in organizations, where are ways that your organization or what are opportunities for your organization to To collaborate with others so that you’re not competing, but doing work together. And I love the example that you’re sharing of of Variety and Special Olympics coming together. And I’m sure there’s some overlap of the people that you serve between those two organizations. So. Absolutely true. How many people are jumping in the pool at the polar plunge that raises it.

Tom Baker 17:07

Sounds like you want to make the trip here to Pittsburgh.

Jim Dunlop 17:09

I don’t know, but to raise $1 million is is spectacular. That’s incredible.

Tom Baker 17:14

It really is. It is pretty amazing. And I will say we have our gala down on the North Shore as well too. So I still believe that our gala, our celebration for the kids, for variety is the best event of the year down on the North Shore. But yeah, the Polar Plunge is a lot of fun and gets a lot of people excited and involved. People that might not have known about it beforehand. So we’re also, I will say, as an organization looking for creative ways to find our version of the Polar Plunge, too, or the ALS CEO. So we’re kind of looking for that right now. But we do have some fun events coming up Just in the spirit of collaboration. We have an event coming up for Valentine’s Day with a group of student leaders from PittServes. Jenny Snyder is leading the way on that. We’re going to do a silent disco with our friends from Westmoreland County and our one of our Variety Movement board members, Bridget Falk, in March, which should be a lot of fun. And then we’re doing an event with our partners from Always Be Smiling Out in the South Hills, a little Saint Patrick’s Day celebration. And I should mention, I think we have the coolest Halloween party and celebration around Samir history. As the the chairman of Sylvester, he’s on our board of directors, and we have a couple hundred people come out to our annual variety Halloween party. So a lot of good things going on, but also like to, you know, make sure we’re going to other people’s events too, and supporting them along the way.

Jim Dunlop 18:29

You’ve mentioned several different people, first, starting with your dad and then your mom, who have had a profound impact on you. Anybody else that’s had an impact on your on your journey, particularly from a generosity standpoint that that you’d like to share about?

Tom Baker 18:43

I’ll mention Hal how. English. So Hal and I were both in government at one point. He’s my predecessor. I’m in my fourth year as a Rotary Club president. And how has served five total years? I don’t know if I’m going to quite reach the same number as him, but rotary is a great way to make a difference. We do a program called milk, eggs, butter, cheese where we drop off those items to North Hills Community Outreach to make sure clients are receiving those at food pantries. We do Meals on Wheels. We provide a number of scholarships to students out this way at Hampton and also at Beatty Career Center. So how’s been a really good role model, both in our government lives? Just a real person, and I’d still say he’s one of the easily one of the most passionate Rotarians I know. He I think, has been in the last three milk, eggs, butter, cheese and oversees that program. He’s just he’s just a great person. So I’ll go with Hal English as somebody as kind of like an older brother, uncle, friend in my life.

Jim Dunlop 19:37

Well, Tom, this is this has been a this has been awesome. And I want to thank you so much for all the all the things you’re sharing with us today. And before, before I let you go, I just want to let our listeners know that if you want to see more about what Tom is doing at variety. Go to variety pittsburgh.org. And you can and see the great work they’re doing with bike strollers and voice and. But Tom, our final question I want to ask today is if you could share some advice or wisdom on a billboard somewhere and reach lots of people. What would your message be?

Tom Baker 20:14

I will say that the core message is always get involved. Find a way to be active. You’re going to be busier tomorrow than you are today, so find a way to volunteer and step up. But I would also say don’t be bored. Be on a board. So be on a board of directors. Be on a committee. Be on something related to the organizations that you care about. Think about the exercise of if money didn’t matter and you could do whatever you wanted in this world, where would you spend your time? What are the organizations that get you fired up, that get you excited and find a way to become active with them, and it can be in a small thing. My wife and I, when we were in our 20s, we would make sure that we handed out the program booklets or hung up jackets so that we could go to events as volunteers. So just find a way. I think oftentimes people in their 20s or 30 and 30s don’t recognize the fact that boards want you. They you know, sometimes we think we have to be a certain age or a certain expertise to be on a board of directors. It’s absolutely not true. There are boards of directors in your community that want you to be involved. And I will just mention rotary as well too. We as Rotarians want people to get involved and active in the local rotary clubs too, across the Commonwealth and the world. So and you mentioned variety. If anyone listening to this has any oomph or any excitement about variety, and hopefully you do all you wonderful listeners, please, please, please feel free to let me know. We will get you active in some way with variety. I can promise you that.

Jim Dunlop 21:37

Well, how can you not want to get involved? Your passion enthusiasm is is really exciting. Tom, thanks so much for being here together. As we wrap up, I’ll just share with our listeners. Tom and I, as we, before we begin recording, realize we have a lot of overlapping circles. A good friend of Tom’s from college, Molly Cohen, was a high school classmate of mine. Of course. Yeah. Tom, you and my wife, Julie were at Millersville at the same time in the late 90s. And and we’ve gotten to know some of the same people here in the Pittsburgh area as well.

Tom Baker 22:09

Shout out to Lynn Burke as well to Lynn Burke from Susquehanna, one of my good friends in graduate school at IUP, Student Affairs and Higher Ed. So a lot of good overlap in our lives, Jim. And next time you come to Pittsburgh, we’ll definitely, definitely have to spend some time together.

Jim Dunlop 22:24

All right, Tom, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it.

Tom Baker 22:27

All right. Thanks, Jim.

Outro 22:30

Thanks for joining us to hear stories of generosity that remind us that you can’t take it with you. Visit our site at canttakeitwithyou.com for more details on today’s episode and to subscribe to future shows.

Disclosure 22:48

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