Baby2Baby Scales Impact Through Partner Networks and Celebrity Endorsements

Key Quotes

"As Angelenos, they were especially focused on stepping in to address the needs coming out of the fires in Los Angeles. From literally day one of the LA wildfires, Baby to Baby was on the ground, providing essential items to families in dire need."

This quote highlights Baby to Baby's immediate and direct response to a local crisis. Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein, as residents of Los Angeles, felt a personal imperative to assist their community during the wildfires. The organization's swift action demonstrates their commitment to serving families in immediate distress.

"So it's because 14 years ago, when the two of us took over the leadership of Baby to Baby and built what Baby to Baby is today, we've always been a model where we don't serve families and children directly on a regular basis. We've always known that in order to scale, we had to serve partners, serve their, serve clients. So what that means is we've been building for 14 years a network of organizations in Los Angeles and all over the country."

Norah Weinstein explains the foundational strategy of Baby to Baby's operational model. By partnering with existing organizations rather than serving families directly, they built a scalable infrastructure. This approach allowed them to reach a wider network of clients efficiently over many years.

"We have 62 members of our team. We're like, okay, we're all going to break up, we're all going to conquer and handle it. And so we did pop-ups around the city. We were sending to these shelters that are already housing people who have lost everything, and we're making sure those shelters have everything they need. Because what we know is in these emergencies and in disasters, adults are really sort of the ones that people focus on, and we're there to focus on the babies and children."

Kelly Sawyer Patricof describes the operational execution during the wildfire crisis. She details how the team mobilized to provide essential items to families in shelters, emphasizing their unique focus on the needs of infants and children during disasters. This quote underscores their specialized role in disaster relief.

"So it was this question that we asked that we kept hearing the same answer for, and we're like, we can do something about this. And then we started meeting with nonprofits in LA to sort of see what the need was, like, what was missing. We didn't want to start something to start something. Everywhere we went, we were so shocked. It was like, you know what we don't have? You know what we're doing these services, we aren't able to provide diapers. And everyone kept saying, diapers, diapers. And we're like, what? Diapers? That's so interesting. Now we know that like one in two families in America are struggling to afford diapers for their children."

Norah Weinstein recounts the genesis of Baby to Baby's core mission. She explains how their research revealed a significant unmet need for diapers among families, a problem that became the central focus of their organization. This discovery highlighted a critical gap in essential resources for new parents.

"So we'd get a call saying, 'I own a baby bottle plant,' or 'My friend does,' and they connected us to them. And we have 126,000 extra baby bottles. We heard you could do something with them. And again, we're like, 'Yes, yes.' We also then had decisions made based on these things coming in. Like, the plant was in Philadelphia, and we said, 'Well, don't ship them to Los Angeles. I'm sure there's someone on the East Coast who could use them, and we could use some.'"

Kelly Sawyer Patricof illustrates how celebrity attention led to unexpected opportunities and expansion. This quote shows how incoming donations, like a large quantity of baby bottles, prompted strategic decisions about serving new geographic areas. It demonstrates how external interest facilitated their growth beyond Los Angeles.

"We pride ourselves ourselves on being in a very narrow lane. And I know there's leaders of nonprofits and for-profits that want to have as, um, wider a lane as possible, but we really have a narrow lane. The reason we have a narrow lane is because our work is not done, and we know there's this incredible need. We've taken on two very specific instances of advocacy because they were so closely tied to our mission and our lane. So the first was the diaper tax."

Norah Weinstein explains Baby to Baby's strategic focus on a "narrow lane" for their advocacy efforts. She details how they concentrate on issues directly related to their mission, such as the diaper tax, to maximize their impact. This approach allows them to tackle specific problems with dedicated resources.