Published: 18 February 2026

Steward of stewardship

Jim Kelley, director of development for the diocese, has spent four decades helping parishioners recognize their blessings and share them with others. He has worked for four bishops, including Bishop Peter Jugis, and speaks at events like Young Catholic Professionals meetings (File and Troy C. Hull | Catholic News Herald)

CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte is buzzing as its “busy bee,” Director of Development Jim Kelley, celebrates four decades of faith, fun and compassion as the force behind helping raise more than $750 million for the mission and ministry of the Church in western North Carolina.

“I have loved my job every single day for the past 40 years,” Kelley says. “From my first day, I viewed the position as a calling. That is why I am still doing it. It has just been amazing for me to see how God has worked in my life through these decades.”

Kelley, the omnipresent force of positivity who is always prepared with a meme and an ambitious campaign slogan, has spent up to 70 hours a week for the past four decades encouraging parishioners to give their time, talent and treasure. Through prayer, discernment and tireless work, his efforts have helped parishes, schools and ministries across the diocese.

During his tenure, the development office has managed over 190 capital campaigns, countless parish stewardship initiatives, Diocesan Support Appeals, four other annual funds and 400 endowments, and it worked with 1,800 individuals who are remembering the Church in their estate plans.

Kelley, who grew up in Akron, Ohio, and went to Yale University, where he studied psychology, has played an instrumental role in building new churches and schools, funding seminarian education and priest retirement, launching countless ministries and establishing a financial foundation for future growth.

“I don’t think you can find a person whose personality, talents and skills are better suited for being a development professional,” says Bill Weldon, special assistant to the vicar general, who worked alongside Kelley for more than three decades in his role as the diocese’s CFO.

Kelley, who plans to work as long as he is healthy and helpful, is known for his boundless energy – often glued to his phone and known for sending a text, followed immediately by an email, then appearing at the desk of the recipient before they have had a chance to read either. That persistence in the name of a higher cause is what makes his ministry so successful.

“We encourage people to get connected to Christ and engage in their community,” Kelley says. “We want people to understand how blessed they are, be grateful because they are blessed, and then give back generously of their time, talent and treasure in gratitude. I am grateful to the tens of thousands of individuals and couples who have given financial gifts and their time and talent in service to the Church as well as thousands of staff who serve our Lord every day.”

Since his first day in 1986, Kelley has collaborated with four bishops, three chief financial officers and four vicars general. The diocese has swelled from 65,000 to approximately 565,000 people, and 30 new church facilities have been built. Kelley has grown his office from just two – himself and current secretary Carol Flynt – to 14 people.

Through all of these changes, Kelley has remained a constant heartbeat of the diocese.

“Through decades of service in the Diocese of Charlotte, I have worked with Jim as a pastor as well as a diocesan administrator,” says Monsignor Patrick Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte. “His passion, energy and optimism is apparent in all that he does.”

Longtime colleague and friend Lynne Roux says: “He is a balancing force. Whatever seems to happen, Jim wears the hat he needs to in order to stabilize every situation.”

Heavy lifting with light hearts

The Catholic Conference Center in Hickory, Christ the King High School, St. Joseph College Seminary and 30 other facilities once were ideas that Kelley worked with clergy and parishioners to bring to fruition.

“We’ve spent a lot of time on the road together across the diocese, where I’ve been blessed to witness Jim inspire local leaders and give them the tools they need to achieve campaign success,” says Emmett Sapp, director of construction and real estate, who has worked with Kelley for seven years.

One of those leaders is retired St. Pius X pastoral associate Pat Spivey, who still carves out time to help her church grow. After decades of phone calls, on-site visits and training with Kelley, she speaks on the parish’s annual stewardship efforts, runs capital campaigns and has helped form 40 new ministries at St. Pius X.

“Jim has expertly coordinated three capital campaigns here at St. Pius and helped us lay a lasting financial foundation through the establishment of our planned giving program,” Spivey says.

“His most profound impact on St. Pius – and me personally – has been his constant, consistent guidance in helping us grow as a stewardship parish where we realize that everything we have is a gift – an ideal he exemplifies in every interaction I have with him.”
Kelley is less a salesman than a spiritual director and matchmaker, helping people connect their passions with existing needs.
Paul Breitbach, a parishioner at St. Leo the Great in Winston-Salem and a donor to the diocese, has worked with Kelley since the creation of the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation in 1994 and said his heart is always in the right place and focused on what’s ahead.
“Jim saw that there was a need for a lot to happen in the diocese to prepare it for the future, and he was going to try to do everything possible to make that happen,” he says.

A job for the rich in heart

Kelley’s family and friends agree that although he works with millions, money has never been a driving factor.
“He never chased money,” attests Joan, his wife of 42 years. “He is a man of deep faith who always trusts that God will provide.”
As her husband comments, “Next to my commitment to follow Jesus, marrying her was the second-most important decision I have made in my life.”

In his role, Kelley takes the same care with a $25 muffin ministry start-up as he does with a $7 million endowment.

“He is dedicated to meeting people where they are. If you are giving a penny or a million dollars, Jim treats every gift the exact same way,” Flynt says.

When asked about the best moments of his career, Kelley doesn’t list campaigns and large church building projects, but instead notes parishioners’ names.

Mary Spinks, for example, a parishioner of Immaculate Conception in Hendersonville, who called Kelley on Christmas Eve with a dying request to establish an education endowment.

“I was touched. Here she was, dying the next day but thinking about kids,” Kelley recalled. He made a trip to the mountains that night to carry out her intentions.

As Sapp says, “Despite the grueling pace at which he’s worked for so long, he’s never stopped making it a priority to connect personally with the people he encounters.”

Whoever needs Kelley knows he is just a text or phone call away. With a contact list in the thousands, Kelley says he receives, on average, 50 calls and more than 100 emails each day.

“People know if they call Jim, he will be there,” his wife says, “and he will go above and beyond for them because he loves them.”

Kelley has visited all 93 churches in the diocese multiple times, on average spending two to three nights a week at meetings or events.

In his “downtime” he helped found a leadership gifts school in Charlotte for the community. That five-day course has benefitted 104 nonprofits in Charlotte. He has traveled to 140 dioceses to make stewardship presentations, and he has taught diocesan leaders in 15 countries about stewardship. Since the 1990s, Kelley has been asked to serve three, six-year terms on the board of the International Catholic Stewardship Council, including terms as vice president and president.

“He has been to every state and multiple countries,” Joan Kelley says. “But it cracks me up, because he doesn’t care so much about seeing the world. He loves his life here in Charlotte.”

Simple habits

When Kelley is not working, he is habitual, his wife says. You can find him at a Cursillo group on Saturdays since 1998, at Mass at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte on Sundays, dining on a chopped salad at his favorite Charlotte restaurant, Mama Ricotta’s, every week, and serving as pastoral council chair at St. Matthew. He carves out time for Joan, their two children and grandson, and he seldom misses playing his favorite card game, Euchre, twice a month with friends.

“Jim is very predictable. To know Jim is to love him,” laughs Barbara Gaddy, Kelley’s retired assistant of 19 years. “He is truly a faith-filled person. And, I don’t know that many people know it, but I certainly did, and those who work with him know.”

The diocese learned to know him, and they do love him, with staff giving him his “busy bee” nickname because no one can outpace the Energizer Bunny.

Even energetic Bishop Michael Martin appreciates Kelley’s pace – and his heart.

“I have been blessed to work with a number of people in the development world, many of whom I call good friends. Jim stands alone in his status as ‘total package’ with priorities in the right order, namely, Jesus always first!” the bishop says.

Reflecting on his time with the diocese, Kelley’s eyes fill with tears.

“There is no question where God wants me to be. He called me here 40 years ago, and it has been a blessing every day of my life. When I look back, I can’t think of a better life I could have had. I try to give back, and I will keep doing that until the day I die.”

— Lisa M. Geraci

Jim Kelley by the numbers

3,500+ contacts in his cell phone
1,800 people committed to estate gifts
$750 million helped raise
400 endowments
193 capital campaigns
142+ dioceses spoken at
93 churches visited, countless times over
68 phone calls in one day (personal record)
65 appointments in one week
50 states visited
42 years of marriage
36 priests have told his wife Joan she is “going straight to heaven”
30 boards served on
27 boards chaired
25 office shelves, each dedicated to a different job responsibility
15 countries visited to make stewardship presentations
4 bishops and vicars general served
3 CFOs served
2 children
1 grandson
0 people who could replace him

Published: 29 October 2025