January 13, 2013 | Read Time: 3 minutes
As an undergraduate at Haverford College, Alexia Kelley wrote her thesis on Lucretia Mott, a Quaker abolitionist who devoted her life to fighting injustice.
“Her idea of using religious principles to improve society resonated with me,” says Ms. Kelley, a Catholic who has worked for President Obama and Catholic bishops, and co-founded a group that promotes policies that help poor people. “It seemed like a great way to spend a life.”
Ms. Kelley, 46, will continue working to help the needy as president of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities, a nationwide consortium of 40 Catholic grant makers, most of them family funds. In October, she joined the organization, which works to educate its members about the needs of Catholic charities, hospitals, schools, and orders of nuns.
One of Ms. Kelley’s goals is to make sure that emerging needs are considered. The group’s members meet three times yearly to discuss areas in which philanthropy may be necessary and how they can band together and get outside organizations and governments to help.
“The challenges we face are too great for one constituent to battle alone,” Ms. Kelley says, adding that the group also aims to expand the global reach of its members’ grant making.
She assumed her new job after working with the federal government to enlist religious groups in social projects. When Ms. Kelley was named deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2009, her stances against abortion and birth control drew controversy from women’s-rights groups and others. She aims to steer the consortium away from such disputes.
“Fadica’s mission is not about my personal beliefs,” Ms. Kelley says. “The only agenda we have is serving our members and making sure that the common good is being served.”
Responding to Needs
In the past, she says, members of Fadica have responded to immediate challenges by helping to reinvigorate churches in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall and rebuilding New Orleans convents and Catholic schools damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
“We constantly want to be asking, ‘What does Catholic philanthropy mean today?’ as well as find ways to get younger people involved,” Ms. Kelley says.
“Young philanthropists are very interested in the common good,” she says. “It’s our task to identify and nurture younger generations of philanthropists.”
Her experience working in Washington and her ability to relate to a wide variety of people made her a strong candidate to lead the consortium, according to those involved in her hiring.
“She had such a broad background that she was hard to overlook,” says William Raskob, chairman of Fadica’s board.
“We also thought her personal style would work well with our members and partners. I could easily envision her working just as well with 20-year-old members as those in their 80s.”
Education: B.A., religion, Haverford College; master’s, theological studies, Harvard University
Career highlights: Deputy director in both the White House and the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ offices on faith-based programs; co-founder, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good; advocacy worker, Catholic Campaign for Human Development and the Environmental Resources Trust
Books published: Living the Catholic Social Tradition: Cases and Commentary (co-editor) and A Nation for All: How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good Can Save America From the Politics of Division (co-author)
Salary: She did not divulge it. Her predecessor, Francis J. Butler, made $235,500 a year, according to the organization’s informational tax forms.
