On a Minnesota Farm, Generosity Comes First

Every fall, before the harvest is sold, Pat and Kristin Duncanson keep a promise: the first load goes to the community, not to market.

The Duncansons own Highland Family Farms in Mapleton, Minnesota—a 5th-generation family farm that Pat and Kristin now run alongside two of their four children. Each autumn, that first truckload of corn goes to a local grain elevator, and the proceeds flow into a donor-advised fund with the Mankato Area Foundation. It is generosity rooted in the land itself.

"Philanthropy is part of our heritage, and we want to be strategic and deliberate about our giving," Kristin said. "Donating grain is one great way to do just that."

A Legacy Worth Passing Down

The Duncansons made that quiet promise to themselves early on: that the farm's bounty would flow back into the community that helped sustain it. The grain donation is how they fulfill their pledge, year after year—a tradition they hope their children, and their children's children, will carry forward.

Five generations have farmed this land. The sixth is already working it. The giving, like the farming, is meant to last.

"We know how important it is to be philanthropic because we have been so richly blessed ourselves," Kristin said. "Even through the hard times, and even when things are really tight, we recognize how lucky we are. 

And really, what better way is there to celebrate that blessing than by sharing it with others?"

A Foundation Built for Farmers

The Mankato Area Foundation makes it easy for farming families like the Duncansons to give strategically. Their donor-advised fund supports a church, nature conservancies, organizations working to put food on neighbors' tables, and more—causes that reflect the values of the community the farm has always been part of.

"We live in such a generous region," said Nancy Zallek, president and CEO of the Mankato Area Foundation. "And our farming community is a big part of that."

For farming families like the Duncansons, giving from the land is as natural as working it.

Generosity Builds is a storytelling initiative from the Council on Foundations highlighting the ways charitable foundations show up as a nonpartisan force for good in our communities — from scientific breakthroughs to community childcare, veterans support, and disaster relief.