When Jean and Pat Fiedler were looking to support their hometown high school, they discovered that, thanks to the Sauk Centre Area Community Foundation, they could do more than contribute money. Now, they want more people to learn how the foundation can benefit themselves as well as their community.
“To be able to give local and designate a project you want your money to go toward, that’s just wonderful,” Jean said. “There are always causes going on in a small town like this.”
Jean grew up on a dairy farm and moved back to Sauk Centre when he was 30, founding Modern Farm Equipment and eventually buying 3,500 acres for his own farm.
The SCACF got on Jean’s radar a couple of years ago, when Sauk Centre High School contacted him about updating their 63-year-old gym building. Jean and his six siblings were all alumni of Sauk Centre High School, and he credited the education he received there for his successes in life; Jean and Pat’s four children and 13 grandchildren all went through the Sauk Centre school system.
“They all did really well and got a very good education,” Jean said. “After three generations of the school going above and beyond and making our lives and our family successful, it was time to give back.”
The Sauk Centre High School gym needed a new floor, ceiling, sound system, bleachers and more, all coming to an estimated cost of about $800,000, which was above what Jean was expecting.
Later, Jean was talking to Jacqueline Alderman with Ameriprise Financial in Sauk Centre, who was also with SCACF. He did not know how he could raise $800,000, but she recommended donating stocks to SCACF, so Jean and Pat started a fund.
“I had some stock we bought for $30-40,000, and it had grown to $250,000,” Jean said. “I donated the stock to the community foundation, and then they sold it for $200,000.”
Because he also got a donation receipt from SCACF, Jean was able to save extra on his tax return.
“By donating money, I made money,” Jean said. “If I’d sold that stock on the open market, I would’ve been giving half to the government, and this way, I used it all as a donation. That worked out so well that, a year later, I donated some more of that stock to the community foundation — unrestricted, so they could use it for whatever they wanted.”
Additionally, Jean got some people together to do some of the work in getting the old bleachers out of the SCHS gym, saving the school thousands of dollars and lessening the burden on local taxpayers.
“It was fun,” Jean said. “It’s the best thing I ever did. … It was good for me and just a win-win situation.”
For Jean, one of the most surprising things about SCACF is how few people know it. He had received mailings before, but when he was looking to support the Sauk Centre High School gym, he found only about half of the local accountants he knew were aware of it — nor did Jean himself know of it at the time.
“I had no idea you could donate stock or land or a car or corn or cattle or whatever,” Jean said. “I’m really, really surprised about the need for education on how this works.”
Jean hopes more people become aware of the opportunities presented by the SCACF — to the organization, to themselves and to their community as a whole.
“The big thing is to learn about it, to talk to a board member or the director,” Jean said. “Let your interest up to the point where you make a phone call and say, ‘I want to talk, I want to learn about it.’ … People just don’t know how it works; once you get to know it, as far as advice, if you have a pet project, you can have your own account within the community foundation.”