Women We Love: Kim Connolly

For 67 years the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area has helped those with the greatest needs or at the greatest risk in our region. The United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area services people of all income levels through its programs and services, such as dependent care assistance, help for the elderly or disabled, family counseling, disaster/emergency assistance, helping the homeless and other services.

While it takes the efforts of many to successfully do all the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area does, getting the word out about this organization is Kim Connolly (on Twitter as @CvilleKim), the marketing and communications director.

Kim graduated with a degree in communications from Virginia Tech and lives in Crozet with her husband, Brian, and their sons, Sean and Trevor. She didn’t start out in a nonprofit career, but her love of volunteer work eventually led her down that path.

“I really enjoyed volunteering to run special events, like house tours and horse shows,” Kim says. “When the start-up company I was working for fizzled and I was looking for a new job I thought, ‘What if I could get paid to do the things I enjoy doing as a volunteer?’ So, I started looking at career in the nonprofit world and I’ve never looked back. I know now that I am cause-driven, rather than profit driven.”

Her most rewarding professional experiences stem from learning about the people the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area helps. “A couple of months ago we met a woman whose granddaughter benefited from one of our child care scholarships and now she is going to be starting college in the fall,” Kim says. “I love being able to shine a light on our programs and my amazing co-workers, plus the work of United Way’s local partners. The more people know about these programs, the more we can help.”

So many people are facing tough times in this economic climate and it’s a struggle the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area, as well as many nonprofits, are facing. “We feel like we need to work even harder to bring together the resources—people, knowledge and money—to continue to help those who need it most,” she says. “We are constantly brainstorming about new and creative ways to let people know what we do.”

Bringing together resources and people is a perfect fit for Kim who says her greatest strength is she “likes to connect people, and by that I mean introducing people with skills to folks who can benefit from those skills; whether it is someone looking for a job with someone in their field of choice, or introducing friends to volunteer opportunities or telling them about a great new business in town.”

She taps into that skill in her personal life, as well. “Right now I’m trying to pull together some folks with fundraising skills to help create a capital campaign to renovate or replace the track at Western Albemarle High School,” she says. “It is in such bad shape that they can’t hold meets there anymore. The school system can’t afford to do anything about it, so we parents need to see if we can get something going.”

Finding balance is often a goal rather than a destination for this working mother of two, but she does offer this advice: “The best I can say is to keep work and home life separate as best you can.” Also, she tries to get to the gym three mornings a week and keeps a positive outlook on life. “And I try to use a sense of humor to get through negative times.”

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have at least one pet peeve: “People addicted to their cell phones and smart phones. Pay attention to your driving and pay attention during meetings,” she says.

Kim’s “typical” work day is sometimes atypical. She has her regular responsibilities, of course, of promoting the services and work the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area does through its publications, or putting together special events, such as the Day of Caring. But one day is often different from another.

“We have a saying at the United Way that you never know what is going to happen when you answer the phone,” Kim says. “Often someone calls with an opportunity that was not on our calendar, but is too good to pass up.”

The best advice she ever received came from her mother. “Corny as it sounds, ‘There is no use crying over spilled milk,’ was one of my mother’s favorites and I think that is a healthy outlook. Don’t sweat the things you can’t change, or beat yourself up about it, just move forward and look ahead to the things you can control.”

Kim would offer the following advice to other women considering a career in nonprofits: “When you work in the nonprofit sector, you need to be passionate about whatever cause it is, and you need to be flexible because you may need to be a secretary, public speaker, janitor and diplomat—all in one day. But that is also the beauty of working for a nonprofit—you get the chance to gain experience and have responsibility for many more areas than you would working in the for-profit sector.

8 Things You Might Not Know About Kim Connolly:

1. Who is your favorite author and why? Dr Seuss. I loved him as a child, and loved reading him out loud to my own children. I love the rhythm of his prose and his originality. For adult reading, I’m eclectic: John Irving, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, and historical nonfiction authors like Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

2. Favorite thing about Charlottesville? Besides all the usual things, I like the fact that it still feels like a small town in many ways.

3. What is your favorite hobby/pastime? I love to read. Back in the day, before children, horses were my avocation. Now, our house is in a constant state of renovation, and I enjoy planning the changes and fantasizing about a finished product.

4. What is one of your hidden talents/skills? Most people would be surprised to know that I am a member of the Monticello Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, the official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.

5. What is your guilty pleasure? Doing nothing on a weekend but reading; dishes and laundry be damned.

6. What is your favorite movie and why? I can’t think of any one movie as a favorite. I like movies that are original and quirky, like “Field of Dreams,” “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “My Cousin Vinny,” “A Knight’s Tale,” and so on.

7. Where did you grow up? I grew up in a small town in New Jersey, Oradell, population 9,000. My family moved to Newtown, CT, another small town, when I was 16.

8. What is the greatest invention of your lifetime and why? I would have to say the internet, because it is like having a constantly updated encyclopedia, phone book and research library at your fingertips. The ability to communicate instantly and to learn news anywhere in the world instantly is still changing our world on a daily basis.