Most recently, she headed the $23 million capital campaign for Baystate to expand.
Susan Toner, shown her with her dog "Pippa."
“Philanthropy lies at the heart of human greatness” is a statement that Susan Toner not only makes, but also believes is her calling.
“It goes back to my fundamental belief that as human beings one of the highest callings in life is to share what we have—whether it’s time, talent or resources with others who are sick, poor or whatever it might be,” said the South Hadley resident.
“I feel so fortunate to know I have had a career that was a calling for me, something I was comfortable with, believed in and enjoyed immensely.”
Toner, 60, recently retired after more than 30 years of building cultures of philanthropy on a variety of projects in academia and healthcare all over the country, but not before she helped spearhead a successful $23 million capital campaign to support Baystate Medical Center’s hospital expansion.
Her life journey included growing up in Idaho, marrying a professional football player and raising two children and engaging in fund-raising and philanthropic work.
While the trip was most often fulfilling, it was also painful. Her husband, Tom Toner, a linebacker for the Green Bay Packers in the early 1970s succumbed to colon cancer at the age of 40. And her son, Ryan, a successful model who traveled all over the world, passed away at age 26.
As difficult as those events were, Toner said her family and their values were reasons that she focused her energies on helping those in need. Her husband grew up in a very poor family and he never forgot that, she said.
“He was very mindful and thoughtful of the people who had less or had difficult struggles so he brought that to our house,” she said.
“It became a core value in our house that we will share with others and be mindful of where there is an opportunity to make a difference.”
Toner’s two children also inspired her. Her daughter, Polly Toner, 38, is an occupational therapist and also an ordained Presbyterian pastor in Chicago whose ministry work involves curbing gang and gun violence and aiding the homeless, she said.
Her son also had an affinity for helping the homeless, Toner said. Although he did this in many ways, she recalled a simple example of he and other model friends getting up at 2 a.m. to bake cookies for those on the streets.
“You can’t ask others to do things that you wouldn’t do yourself,” said Toner, who graduated from Idaho State University with a degree in speech pathology.
Much of Toner’s early fund-raising efforts were on a volunteer basis, including raising money for schools in the late 1970s when budget cuts were emerging while they lived north of Boston in Swampscott.
Her entry into the healthcare fund-raising arena was paved after her husband’s diagnosis and she had to spend countless hours in waiting rooms and “realized the difference between the haves and the have nots,” she said.
One of the most eye-opening stints was when her husband underwent experimental treatment at the National Institutes of Health.
“It was in that environment that I saw the majority of the have nots and my heart was really touched. It was kind of natural that after he passed away I would probably do work in the healthcare area,” she said.
Toner gained experience in development when she returned to Idaho State in the 1980s to earn a degree in organizational communications.
She worked in the school’s development office at the same time the university was launching a $150 million capital campaign. In addition, she was asked to be a board member of a community hospital where she worked with physicians and senior leadership.
“Talk about a rich opportunity to just grow, develop and learn and be with really bright people doing great things,” she said.
Next Toner took a job in 2002 as executive director for the Providence Community Health Foundation in Oregon, part of Providence Health and Services, the fourth largest not-for-profit healthcare system in the country.
Among other duties, she would attend quarterly meetings “with some of the best fund-raisers in the country,” she said.
After nearly seven years, Toner left to become vice president of development for Baystate Health and executive director of Baystate Health Foundation, jobs she got after a national search, said John H. Davis, former foundation chairman.
“She really had a lot of energy and kept us moving forward. She was very good about giving us structure as to where we stood against where we needed to be to reach our goals,” Davis said.
Since leaving the Baystate campaign last September, Toner spends a small part of her time as a senior consultant for The Prospero Group in Newport, R.I., which provides fund-raising counsel for nonprofits. But she is ready for a real break.
“I moved from coast to coast to coast, buried a husband, buried a son, went back to college, launched a career and took on a lot of jobs. It’s time to step away and regroup,” she said.
“I’m in the last season of my life and I’m really enjoying the solitude.”