Jones Family Foundation

Jones Family Foundation

The Jones Family Foundation was established in 1988 by R. Scott Jones, Anne Jones, and Scott's parents, Ora G. and Barbara R. Jones, in Red Wing, Minnesota. Its endowment was permanently capitalized by the family's banking wealth, crystallized in the 2004 sale of Signal Financial to Associated Banc-Corp in a $176 million transaction (per American Banker, 2004). The foundation's mandate binds it, unusually, to a single small city on the Mississippi River. Rather than operating solely as a check-writing charity, the foundation acquires, redevelops, and holds physical assets within Red Wing. Its property interventions include the Hallstrom Building mixed-use redevelopment at 317 Bush Street and aesthetic improvements to the Eisenhower Bridge of Valor. It consistently co-invests with the Red Wing Shoe Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the city's largest private employer, on civic projects — a pairing that effectively consolidates local philanthropic capital for downtown revitalization. The foundation also funded the North Band Shell in Central Park, blending cultural infrastructure with place-based economic development. The foundation does not disclose its asset base or staff size. Scott Jones previously served as president of the American Bankers Association from 2003 to 2004 — an industry leadership role that placed a small-town Minnesota banker on the national stage just as the family's liquidity event approached. The foundation's structural distinction is its extreme geographic concentration. Most family foundations diversify their grantmaking across multiple causes or regions; the Jones Family Foundation concentrates nearly all observable activity in a city of 16,000 people. This makes it functionally resemble a single-city endowment, blurring the line between philanthropy, community development finance, and direct real estate investment — a model achievable only because the family's wealth was generated from the same community the foundation now targets.