Surviving the Side Hustle

The Slice of Charity Journey: From Toys for Tots to Grand Fundraisers

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 86

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A brutally honest conversation about what's wrong with modern charity work and how one Marine veteran is fixing it. Anthony, founder of Slice of Charity, Veterans Ally for Commerce, and co-owner of Frantoni's Pizzeria, reveals his radically different approach to charitable giving—one where organizations collaborate instead of compete.

"Most organizations are just like 'oh, it's about me, it's about me,'" Anthony explains, contrasting this with his vision where nonprofits work together toward maximum impact. His unique model uses a for-profit company that channels all profits directly to charitable work, creating what he calls "a direct bloodline to the charity" without constant fundraising pressure.

What began thirteen years ago with small Toys for Tots events has evolved into massive fundraisers attended by over 1,300 people at prestigious venues like Oheka Castle. Anthony's most recent event collected 5,000 toys while raising thousands in additional funds. His charity maintains an intentionally broad mission—helping everyone from children needing toys to cancer patients requiring financial support.

The conversation shifts from operational strategies to philosophical insights as Anthony shares his refreshingly straightforward approach to making things happen: "It's not about talking. It's about doing." He challenges listeners to stop overthinking and start taking action, noting that "every failure is a learning experience." For those claiming they lack time or resources to contribute, Anthony offers simple solutions: "Just even go on Instagram, like our page, share it—that costs you nothing."

Follow Slice of Charity on Instagram or visit sliceofcharity.org to learn about upcoming initiatives including a fundraiser supporting a veteran caring for a son with autism and brain cancer, and an ambitious project to provide 6,000 meals for Ronald McDonald House families.

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Speaker 1:

What's going on, everybody? And welcome back to another episode of surviving the side hustle on today's show. Today we have Good buddy, anthony and dude. What's going on, man?

Speaker 2:

I'm much Rob, how's everything.

Speaker 1:

Things are good. Things are good time of recording. We're on January 2nd, so you know just getting over the new year and All the different things that come along with that. So trying to balance out the craziness.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's definitely craziness. January 2nd is already. It feels like we're in March. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I know.

Speaker 2:

I'm ready for the weather to be March weather.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it got pretty cold recently. But before we kind of go off on a tangent here, would you mind kind of diving in and sharing a little bit about who you are as an individual?

Speaker 2:

Well, so I'm a United States Marine Corps veteran. I also am the founder of Slice of Charity and the founder of Veterans Ally for Commerce, along with a co-owner of Frantoni's Pizzeria. A big thing about Veterans Ally for Commerce is it's a for-profit company but all the profits from the company actually go to the slice of charity non-for-profit 501c3. So because we found that it's very difficult to fundraise. So I said you know, maybe I can start a company, figure out how to get vending machines, frozen pizzas, things of that nature into different organizations and basically is not need to fundraise as much as other organizations, so that we can just have a direct funding, the direct bloodline to the charity. So it's a little bit unique in certain ways, and that's how I try to be is unique.

Speaker 1:

Could you do you mind sharing a little bit about how did you get into the whole charity world and what made you kind of want to start these different projects?

Speaker 2:

Well, I've been doing it for like 13 years because when I was in the Marine Corps I started working with Toys for Tots. So Toys for Tots obviously is a huge organization. They're pretty much around the entire United States and maybe even the world they probably send toys out to. So I've been organizing events for them. So I said to myself one day why not just start your own charity so that you can't, so you don't have to just focus on toys? So that's a big thing with Slice of Charity, where we don't have to just focus on toys.

Speaker 2:

Our mission is a little bit broad and we made it that way on purpose, because we want to help as many people in as many different situations as possible.

Speaker 2:

So, for example, we can help somebody that is struggling to get toys for their kids, for their birthday, for their holidays, but at the same time I can also help a cancer patient.

Speaker 2:

I can help somebody that's just struggling financially. It's just so broad and we did it on purpose that way, because we've noticed that, or I've noticed that so many organizations are very selfish, and so what we're trying to do is we're trying to create a massive group of organizations. We want every organization out there that wants to help, to join us, work together and let's make a huge impact. Because most of the time, organizations are just like oh, it's about me, it's about me, I need to fundraise about me, I need to write a check for my accountant for me. They don't use certain monies properly in my opinion, but with Slice, for example, we can turn around and write a check to an organization for $50,000. And that's our goal is to write out checks and to help as many organizations, not just ours. We want to get together as many people as possible again to make the hugest impact possible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's. That's incredible that you're doing that, because I know you're just benefiting and helping so many individuals. But how do you decide who receives the funding?

Speaker 2:

So, fortunately, for right now we haven't had an overabundance of influx of people that would need the funding, but as we get bigger we would have to vet it. Of course, you know we have to make sure whoever we're funding whether it be an organization is legit, is a 501c3, is doing what they're supposed to be doing with the money that's brought in and not just spending it on salaries, because we have zero salaries. There's 100% of the money that comes in, or toys or anything, is used 100% for the calls, nothing else. I you know. There's lawyer fees, there's accountant fees, but I pay for that myself so that it does not go on the charity side of it.

Speaker 2:

So we can use it all for actually helping people, but we will have to sooner or later vet more organizations and more people. The people that we've been working with we know the organization. So, for example, we've been working a lot with Ronald McDonald's house, woodbury Jewish Center, smiles to Cars. There's a ton of different organizations that we know are legit because we know them personally. And then we have gotten referrals from people within those organizations that we know are needing help. So we were able to write out a couple of different checks to a couple of different individuals that were struggling for the holidays so that they can either pay a bill with it, buy a toy for their kids, whatever they need. You know we're not here to say you can't do X, Y and Z, but we want it to be used appropriately. We gave Ronald McDonald's house. Over a six-week period we gave them like 6,000 toys. We worked at the Woodbury Jewish Center for that. But yeah, we're just again. We're trying to bring as many organizations together, just trying to make everything possible.

Speaker 2:

There's something that somebody asked me once before. They're like why did you start Slice of Charity? I think in part two is because and I truly, truly, truly feel this is if you look at a child to use. For example, a child is a definition of innocence. No child should have to be sad, should have to be scared. No parent should ever have to be worried for their child's health, worried that their child isn't going to, you know, for example, get a toy so they're going to be upset. A child is just pure, pure innocence and they should be treated that way, they should be looked at that way. And you know, I think if people started to do that, maybe the world would change a little bit more too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, speaking of change, so, like you said, you've been with Toys for Tots for like 13 years. How has your role kind of changed over the years? Because I imagine you didn't just show up day one. You're like, okay, this is what we're doing, this is where we're going. I imagine you kind of eased your way into it. And now, because you were telling me before that you are hosting these events and stuff now that are pretty extravagant, I mean.

Speaker 2:

Well, essentially, with the Toys for Tots, it's not something that you have to get permission to do in one hand. I turned around 13 years ago and said I want to do events fundraising for Toys for Tots during Christmas time. So the first one we did was at the restaurant Frantoni's in East Meadow and it was like 40 people. It was great for us. It was our first event. So fast forward now, over 30 years, because we've grown excuse me, over 13 years, because we've grown each year. Obviously, people within the Toys for Tots community for example, major Chuck Kilbride, who's a huge, huge impact in Toys for Tots example, major Chuck Kilbride, who's a huge, huge impact in Toys for Tots he took notice to what we were doing and he said you know, you guys are doing a great job. We want to help you out as much as possible. So he's helped us out for the past 13 years with this. But we got so big that this year in December 15th, we actually hosted our biggest toy drive that we do every year and we had 1,300 people attend.

Speaker 2:

So at Ohika Castle in Long Island, new York, which is one of the most prestige wedding venues in the world it's literally a castle we hosted 1,300 people. It was a three-hour party. It was free. We asked people just bring toys. We had raffles, we had games, we had a DJ, we had a VJ, we had an Italian singer, we had a violinist, we had entertainment for the kids, free food, open bar, desserts and thank God for Oheka, because they really helped us. Also, they gave us the venue, they gave us desserts and they gave us the venue, they gave us desserts and they gave us the open bar. So without them being so generous, that would have never happened.

Speaker 2:

But we raised 5,000 toys, a couple of the raffles, I think we raised about 2,500. But that fundraiser is not geared towards necessarily we'll say fundraising for money. It's a toy drive. It's really geared towards toys. So, putting that together, I had other organizations that actually attended and they were just like, wow, not many people can do that. Honestly, it is a lot of work. It's a six-month process to start. I start in the middle of the summer every year to do this.

Speaker 1:

And what do you? What does that look like? That whole process, you just start reaching out to different venues and different donors and things like that.

Speaker 2:

Or or yeah, I mean it's getting everything organized. It's getting any type of giveaways, Like well, actually a big partner of us us is NYRA, new York Racing Association, so they gave us a ton of different tickets to raffle off a ton of different giveaways. It's finding the venue. More giveaways was given by Arizona, a ton of different drinks and they have little gummies. But from start to finish, there's a lot of things that people don't think about. I mean, you've got to to a hundred different vendors for entertainment because that stuff isn't, you know, donated. That type of stuff is for entertainment. It does have a cost to it, um, but you got to find the best person for the best price and you know it takes time. And then, speaking to venues to actually host the event. Like I said, ohika for the past two years have been unbelievable to us. They have given us the room, the staff, the bar and the desserts, so they make this so much more special by doing that also you've got to be super organized with everything.

Speaker 1:

Where did you learn to be organized for this? Because I've ran a bunch of my own mini events where I've had 20 to 30 people and those are pretty tough to organize and get things through. And then I have a good friend of mine who connected us, who's hosting different conferences of 200 to 300 people per event, and I know there's a lot of work that goes into it, but I don't know what I don't know. So how did you learn to be organized and connect with certain people and things like that?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think it's honestly two things. People are afraid to just turn around and send an email, make a phone call, because they'll think that people are just going to say, no, I don't care, I'll send you the email. I sent President Trump an email earlier today hoping that he'll respond. I don't care who you are, I don't care what you do, if you're a good person, that's all I care about. So I'll reach out to anybody and everybody. And number two to answer that question is I don't depend on people to keep it organized, where I myself, for the most part, organize the entire thing, so I know what's going on every step of the way, so I don't have to worry about.

Speaker 2:

Did Sarah do this? Did John do this? Did they speak to the right person? Did they actually even speak to that person? I know it's done because I did it, so I will periodically reach out throughout those six months. Hey, we're still on for this date. Hey, you're still able to do this correct, and so on and so forth. I mean, frantoni's was huge also for these events. Obviously. They donated all the food again this year and without them it would be very difficult also.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's wild, just like having to put all that effort in and that time because you still have. It's not like you're just sitting around just doing this full time. Like you said, you're not making any money off of this, so where do you find the time to connect with everybody and do this?

Speaker 2:

You just have to find it. I mean, people will tell you that. Know me, I am up till 2.30 in the morning researching writing emails obviously not phone calls. I'll do that while I'm driving to work. Phone calls, I'll do that while I'm driving home, if possible. You know I have a family, so obviously you have to manage your time, which I think is one of the hardest things to do, because there is always something that needs to be done. But you just you got to figure out how to manage your time. You got to just get things done. Don't put things off Realistically. Oh, I could do it tomorrow. No, you could do it today. Get it done it. It takes 10 minutes to write an email. It takes you one minute to make a phone call, because 50 of the time people don't pick up. Leave a message, yeah, so you don't have to. Everybody thinks that you have to plan ahead for everything. You don't. You just got to figure out what you need to get done, start somewhere and pick up the phone, or start typing.

Speaker 1:

just take the action, go Go with it.

Speaker 2:

That's it. Just take the action.

Speaker 1:

Well, so you said something interesting there. You said you don't have to plan everything out. So I imagine that there does have to be some sort of some kind of planning going into each day, because how else are you going to prioritize like, okay, I got to call this person, that person, while still juggling a family life, while still working doing this?

Speaker 2:

Like, while still working, doing this, like, how do you know what needs to be done on what days? For me? There is something the night before. I'll look things up the night before, for example, and I'll say, okay, this, this and this need to be done, right, and I'll find the contacts. I'll find the emails. If it's an email, I'll just write it that night. But if it's a contact, I'll just save the contact and I'll call them, for example, whether I'm on my way to work or first thing in the morning or whatever it may be. And they may not answer, might wait for a call back. Or if they don't call you back within a day or two, I always have either a tab open on my computer or on my phone with either the link of the contact or just a notepad saying, okay, this person did call back, or I'll just really know. Okay, I talked to this person, they're interested, they're not interested, they can't help. They can't help. And you know, as the day goes on, as the week goes on, you just kind of make a check mark Like, okay, that's done, that's done.

Speaker 2:

Like, for example, we're working on getting vending machines and frozen pizzas into different locations, so the frozen pizza part of it is a huge undertaking. I mean, I'm not looking to get into just the local supermarket. We're trying to get into Walmart, target, the commissaries, through the VA, and this is not an over-the-night thing. This takes a couple of months to really get down before you can even approach these companies. But because of the way I do things, I've already approached them. Now, not everything is in line for them to receive these items, but I want to know who wants to receive them as we are working towards our goal of getting these frozen pizzas up and running. Same thing with the vending machines for the commissaries. It's just about doing. It's not about talking. Everybody likes to talk. It's about get it done. It's that simple.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I talk with a lot of individuals and that seems to be a popular topic or hack. I guess I should say that really helps separate people who are seeing some form of success and then others who are kind of stuck and being stagnant. It's that just taking that action, a lot of people, they just plan, plan, plan, plan and they're like, oh, I can't get this right yet because I don't know exactly what I need to deliver.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and then they spend too much time structuring everything and then they're never like hey, just make that phone call and get out there, no Listen, people ushering everything, and then they're never like hey, just make that phone call and get out there.

Speaker 2:

Listen, people are going to fail. I've failed. I've failed on multiple different times, but you can't be scared to fail. I mean I know everybody says that, but you can't be who cares? One thing will lead to the next. One door closes, one door opens. You know you'll. All my failures have been learning experiences. So I am not disappointed with anything I've failed in, because it's taught me something each step of the way.

Speaker 1:

So what would you say is the biggest setback or lesson that you've learned just with Slice of Charity so far?

Speaker 2:

Honestly, the biggest setback or lesson, or disappointment, if you want to say it is trying to work with organizations and not realizing how selfish so many of these organizations are. Like I said, a big part of this is bringing everybody together, but all these organizations are so afraid to collaborate and work together with different ones because they're so afraid their donors are going to then switch. So again, that's the beauty of slice of charity, where a lot of the money not all the money, but a lot of the money, we buy toys with it, we do certain things with it, but some of these funds are then written to different organizations. So a Ronald McDonald's house, perfect example. Right, we're looking to raise 6,000 meals for them over the summer. I've spoke to them many times, I've been there many times. They have basically, from what I was told, no meals over the summer For three months. They have no meals to feed these families. So I'm like, okay, this is great, like we could do something. It's not great, but it's great because I can help, I can do something with this.

Speaker 2:

Now, ronald McDonald's house is like, well, we can't advertise it a certain way, we can't do this, we can't Well, listen, I'm trying to help you. We need to work with us Can't be a one-way street here. 6,000 meals from the vendors that I'm speaking with is probably going to be around $60,000. But that averages out to $10 a meal. So these are dinner meals, they're not snacks. So on my end and my ability and my network, I've been able to basically say, okay, we can get these meals basically at cost and it's not a little bit of meals, it's 6,000 meals. You're talking chicken, you're talking vegetables, you're talking salads, you're talking pastas. So we need organizations to realize that if you want to work with us, you have to work with us. You can't be. Oh, thanks, thanks for your help. Yeah, take care.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And that's the problem with a lot of these nonprofits they're too concerned about their own well-being that they're not really. They're starting to lose or have lost. What really they're supposed to be doing is helping people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think that's really a powerful message there is, to like be able to kind of reflect back on your message and what you're really trying to do as an individual, as a business or whatever it is like keeping in mind like, what is it you're trying to do? You're trying to most people are trying to help others in some way or another, and I know you said that your mission statement message is pretty broad or vague. But what is your message and what was it? Again, you're just bringing everybody together for I mean, that's a huge.

Speaker 2:

That's a huge part of it. But literally, and I'll read it to you, our mission is dedicated to raising funds, toys and essential resources to support a variety of organizations, ensuring those in need receive the help they deserve, especially children, veterans and underserved communities. So again, it's broad but it's powerful. If you follow us online, on Instagram, if you look at our website, sliceofcharityorg, you'll see this organization was only created. I got the 501c3 approval two and a half months ago. In two and a half months we have done so much. We have raised so many toys. We have reached as many families as possible. We had a gentleman who was at work making pizza. A co-worker comes up behind him, just starts stabbing him in the back.

Speaker 1:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, crazy. The guy was rushed to the hospital, emergency surgeries, multiple, I mean, was not expected to live. Thank God, right now he's doing as best as he could. But you know that family needed help and that was one of the first families directly that we helped. So again, it's just about getting out there. Humans, our race, whatever you want to call it. There is a lot of good but there's a lot of bad. So if the good comes together we can definitely outweigh the bad, but you have to do it selfishly. You can't be a selfish person.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's so true. And then earlier in our conversation you had mentioned that you're pretty open and available to helping people in any way that you can, as long as they're genuinely good people. How do you determine that? Do you just get a good feel or good vibe from somebody, or how do you know someone's the right fit?

Speaker 2:

I mean, how do you know? Yes, you try to feel them out, but at the same time you want to not go into it thinking that every person is a bad person. You want to go into it thinking that every person is a good person and then ask the questions you need to ask and try to decipher the two. You know, like, all right, this seems a little off. You know, there's a saying that my father says to me he's an accountant, it's if it doesn't pass the sniff test and it just something's off. So give him the sniff test.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like that. So you said you really dipped your hand first into this whole charity and giving and giving world and industry and such um about 13 years ago with toys for tots and what really what really stuck then and there, like why, what made you really dive in and get so into it really?

Speaker 2:

it's just always something I wanted to do, even when I was a kid I mean, you can ask friends, you can ask family I was always felt this urge to help people, and I don't know how to really put it in words. It's just I just like helping. I like you know, I just like being a good person, and I think it's pretty simple if you're just a good person. These and I think it's pretty simple If you're just a good person these things come natural to you. If you always have some sort of alternative motive, it's going to come out sooner or later. It's not.

Speaker 1:

So I got a question for you because I'm pretty passionate about donating and making sure that I'm trying my best to help out in any ways that I can and, to be honest, I don't really see it too often anymore. But what do you say to people who are like, oh, I would donate or I would help more if I had more time or if I had more money. Just things are tight right now or I'm too busy? What do you say to individuals like that and how can they overcome that? Listen, it's so simple.

Speaker 2:

Just even you go on Instagram, you like our page, you share it. That costs you nothing and everybody's on their phone all day on social media. So the time is there. You never know who's going to see it and how that person might turn around and say, hey, well, look at what they're doing. Maybe I want to help them. And or people think like when you make a donation you have to make a huge donation. No, you don't, it could be a dollar, it could be $5. You know, every little bit helps the end of the day. I mean even and some people like.

Speaker 2:

So we started working on like merchandise for slice of charity, because some people don't want. They want something out of giving a donation. So if you go again to the sliceofcharityorg website, you'll see that we have some merchandise Now granted. If you buy a $60 sweatshirt, $10 of it goes to Slice Charity. The rest goes to the actual cost of the sweatshirt and shipping and everything else for that company. But at the end of the day it's $10 that we didn't have. And some people feel more comfortable with receiving something as they're giving, which is fine. Doing good comes in many forms, many shapes, many smells, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. And so, anthony, where's the best place to stay up to date? Is it on Instagram, or is it from the website?

Speaker 2:

Probably Instagram because we constantly post. So you know the website is pretty generic of what's going on. You know Instagram is a consistent thing.

Speaker 1:

Cool. And what's the Instagram handle? Again Slice of Charity. Oh perfect, just Slice of Charity. Awesome, that's really good.

Speaker 2:

The webpage is sliceofcharityorgcom.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha and you were mentioning before. You're working on these frozen pizzas, you're working on getting the vending machines out. You got any other kind of events or projects or anything coming up this year that we should keep an eye out for of?

Speaker 2:

events or projects or anything coming up this year that we should keep an eye out for. Well, we're going to be doing a golf outing, which we're excited about. That's going to be towards the end of the summer. We're also we have a fundraiser that we're going to be starting in the next couple of weeks for a gentleman who is 38 years old. He's a veteran. His wife tragically passed away 12 months ago in a car accident. They have a four-year-old son. He was diagnosed with autism two months after his mother passed. Two months after that he was diagnosed with brain cancer. So his father has no family support, has very minimal support, is trying to take care of his son. He's trying to work. He's really in a hard place. So we're going to be trying to fundraise for him and get him everything and anything possibly that he needs. And then we're also, like I said, we're trying to raise the meals for the Ronald McDonald's house. So that's going to be a big undertaking. That's a lot of money. $60,000 to fundraise is not an easy thing.

Speaker 2:

So that's why I say every dollar dollar, every five dollars, every ten dollars, it counts, yeah, so well, there you go.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of things going on with you. I know when we first spoke, I could just feel the momentum you were mentioning how things are kind of speeding up and and rolling, and I can just feel that there's a lot of energy coming off of you and everything that you're doing. So I so, as we kind of wrap up, but thank you so much for taking the time to hop on today.

Speaker 2:

I know it's a having us on, oh, of course.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know it's a crazy time of year and you're a busy guy. You got a lot of projects and stuff, so it means a lot that you came on, shared a little bit about your story, about what you've got going on and the great things that you're doing. So, anthony, before I let you go, though, I got to wrap it up with kind of the typical kind of question so if you were to boil everything down that you know between, like, your networking skills, your action taking, your organization, everything else and you're talking to somebody who's young, they're starting off their own side hustle or their own charity what would be your number one piece of advice for that individual to go from surviving to thriving?

Speaker 2:

It takes time. Number one nothing's overnight and don't be afraid to fail. That's definitely number two. And number three is just go out and do it. If you're going to do it, do it. If you're going to send that email, send that email. If you're going to create that product, create that product, just do it, do it. If you're going to send that email, send that email. If you're going to create that product, create that product, just do it. You're going to fail and that's okay, but once, something, sooner or later, is going to stick.

Speaker 1:

Boom. I love it, dude. Again, thank you so much. This was a great, powerful episode and I'm really excited to kind of follow you along and see everything you've got going on.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. No, I appreciate it so much.

Speaker 1:

All right guys, there you go. You have it for us today. Make sure you follow him on social media and check out his website, sliceofcharityorg. All right guys, have a good one. Peace, peace, peace.