Tobi’s Heart of Gold Foundation did not begin with a business plan, a board meeting, or even the intention of starting a nonprofit.

It began with grief.

Theresa McDonald and Tobi shared a relationship that went back many, many years—a relationship filled with memories, family, laughter, life’s ups and downs, and a love that became deeply woven into the lives of the people around them.

In July 2024, everything changed.

There is no easy way to lose someone you love, and all grief is painful. But there is something uniquely difficult about a sudden and traumatic death. There is no time to prepare. No opportunity to begin saying goodbye. Life can look completely normal one minute, and a single phone call can divide everything into before and after.

For the people who knew and loved Tobi, the phrase “time will ease the pain” has often felt painfully inadequate. Time continues to pass, but some losses simply become something you learn to carry differently.

For Theresa, grieving was made even more complicated by everything surrounding Tobi’s death. There were so many people hurting, so many people she loved who needed support, and so much tragedy packed into such a short period of time. Theresa did what she had always done—she tried to be strong for everyone else.

But being strong for everyone can leave very little room to fall apart yourself.

Watching my mother carry that grief, I knew she needed somewhere for all of that love to go.

So I suggested something simple: What if we held a few fundraisers and created a scholarship in Tobi’s name for graduating seniors?

Theresa loved the idea.

And that small idea became the beginning of something neither of us could have imagined.

From One Bake Sale to Something Bigger

In December 2024, just five months after losing Tobi, we held our first bake sale to raise money for the scholarship fund.

The response was overwhelming.

What we quickly realized was that Tobi had touched far more lives than we could ever count. People showed up because they loved her. They shared stories. They donated. They helped. And, perhaps most importantly, they made it clear that they did not want Tobi’s name—or the impact she had made during her life—to disappear.

Neither did we.

What began as a scholarship fund eventually grew into the vision for Tobi’s Heart of Gold Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created to carry Tobi’s legacy forward by doing the kinds of things she spent her own life doing: helping people.

Tobi was the kind of person who would give someone the shirt off her back without thinking twice. She cared deeply, loved fiercely, and spent her life in roles centered around helping others.

She was a mother. A wife. A grandmother. A daughter. A sister. A daughter-in-law. A niece. A cousin. An aunt. A friend.

And she was deeply loved.

She was also someone whose work and life were rooted in caring for people. That spirit is now at the heart of everything this foundation hopes to accomplish.

What We Learned Through Loss

Tobi’s death also opened our eyes to something we can no longer ignore: mental health matters.

There are people struggling every day who cannot afford help, do not know where to find it, are afraid to ask for it, or simply do not realize how desperately they need support.

We also learned firsthand that when tragedy happens, surviving it requires more than simply waking up every morning and continuing with life.

People need time to grieve.

Families need support.

Sometimes they need financial help. Sometimes they need resources. Sometimes they need someone to notice that they are struggling. And sometimes they simply need to know that they are not expected to carry everything alone.

Those lessons helped shape the mission of Tobi’s Heart of Gold Foundation.

Today, our mission reaches beyond the scholarship fund where we began. We want to provide scholarships to graduating seniors pursuing careers in nursing or social work, helping the next generation enter professions dedicated to caring for others.

We also want to help families in our community facing difficult circumstances by easing even a small portion of their financial burden when we are able.

And as this foundation grows, we hope to continue finding meaningful ways to support mental-health awareness, access to resources, families experiencing tragedy, and the community Tobi loved.

Why Theresa Founded Tobi’s Heart of Gold

This foundation exists because Theresa found herself carrying an enormous amount of grief—and instead of allowing that grief to be the end of Tobi’s story, she chose to make it part of something that could continue doing good.

The foundation cannot change what happened in July 2024.

It cannot bring them back.

And it will never replace the women so many people loved. Cause the world didn't just lose Tobi but her mother as well.

But it can make sure her life continues to matter.

Every scholarship awarded in her name matters.

Every struggling family we are able to help matters.

Every person who learns that asking for help is okay matters.

Every fundraiser, volunteer, sponsor, donation, tree, event, story, laugh, and memory keeps another small piece of Tobi with us.

What started as one idea between a grieving mother and daughter has become a community of people determined to keep an extraordinary legacy alive.

There are now so many people surrounding this foundation who loved Tobi, knew Tobi, have heard her story, or simply believe in what her life represents.

And that is exactly what Theresa hopes Tobi’s Heart of Gold will always be:

Love turned into action.
Grief turned into purpose.
And a beautiful life turned into a legacy that continues giving long after it ended.

Because if there was one thing we knew about Tobi, it was this: She had a heart of gold.

And now, through this foundation, we get to share a little piece of that heart with someone else.

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-Jill (McDonald) Stephens