For the love of Pittsburgh: Kate and Alex Gionta
Tocqueville donors Kate and Alex Gionta met in 2005. She was from Ebensburg, a small Pennsylvania town, and he was from nearby Murrysville. They met at their first job at KPMG and fell for each other and the City of Pittsburgh. Married in 2012, the Giontas have lived downtown for over a decade. Kate also serves on the Tocqueville Society committee. We asked them about their commitment to United Way. Here are highlights from that conversation.
Kate, you’re now managing director at KPMG. Take us back to the beginning when you and Alex first met.
Kate: At public accounting firms, a lot of young people start together at the same time. You don’t know anyone else, so you work and hang out a lot together. Growing up in a small town, I would get butterflies in my stomach driving out of the tunnel and seeing the city on the other side. Pittsburgh can be hard to break into, but Alex is from here and knew the places to go.
Alex: We met within a month of starting at KPMG. I was going to take a job in Baltimore but then a position opened, and I took that job instead of moving. We became really good friends and the rest is history.
Charitable giving often starts with a personal story. What’s yours?
Kate: My dad has been a volunteer firefighter in my hometown since 1968 and was an officer for more than 25 years. He’s 75 now and still goes out on fire calls, driving the truck. I was even a volunteer firefighter for a brief moment. My mom was always involved in our church, which in a small town is the center of the community.
Alex: For me, living downtown for 12 years has spurred me to get more involved. We’ve watched it change from when we first lived here, when there were more people downtown, then no one during the pandemic. It’s more balanced now. There are so many different people downtown all the time.
How did you connect to United Way?
Kate: I become involved in Women United several years ago through KPMG. Living downtown, you see that people need specific services. Learning more about United Way made me want to be involved. Also, it’s our civic duty to contribute.
Alex: Every job I’ve had, the company has been involved with United Way through workplace campaigns and volunteering. At Covestro, where I’m a senior tax accounting specialist, it’s an important part of our culture, and we want to get as many people involved as possible.
Tell us about your involvement in reviewing requests for funding.
Kate: We both helped review applications for funding and it was phenomenal. There are so many smart minds in the community who develop these organizations and do really meaningful work. Reading those applications, I appreciated the breadth of what United Way supports. As an auditor, it was important to me to see the level of diligence that goes into funding decisions.
Do you have a favorite United Way memory?
Kate: I really like Big Book Drop at Acrisure Stadium. During the pandemic, we were so happy to be out and doing something and I loved the scale of it. It was so much fun to be out with other people.
Alex: Definitely the grant review. It’s a lot of work, but you learn a lot, which I think is so important. I feel much clearer about the needs of the community and how we can help.