What happens when you believe things can be better?
For Diane and William Kent Krueger, the answer starts with hope.
The St. Paul couple has been married for 53 years and built a life together in Minnesota. Diane is a retired attorney who spent 25 years working for the State of Minnesota. Kent is a New York Times bestselling author best known for his Cork O’Connor mystery series, much of it inspired by Minnesota and its North Woods.
Minnesota is also where the Kruegers have chosen to invest their generosity.
For years, they have partnered with the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation to support causes they care about—from housing and hunger to the environment, Indigenous communities, civic engagement, and the arts.
Ask Diane what the Power of Possible means to her, and her answer is simple: hope.
“It means that there are possibilities. There are alternatives, and there are people out there and organizations out there that see those alternatives and possibilities and work for them.”
Kent, a storyteller by trade, immediately agrees. “If you asked me what I write about, I write about hope.”
Their partnership with the Foundation has helped turn that hope into action and introduced them to opportunities they might never have discovered on their own.
“One of the things I think that the Foundation has done is opened our eyes to all of the possibilities that are out there for charitable giving,” Kent says.
Through their donor advised fund, the Kruegers can focus their giving while partnering with people who understand their priorities and values and can connect them to meaningful work happening across Minnesota. For the Kruegers, that has included affordable housing, support for nonprofits facing sudden funding challenges, and investments in communities close to home.
And they believe possibility grows when people come together.
“Acting individually, it’s very hard to accomplish that much,” Kent says. “But acting as a whole … can actually, we believe, absolutely bring about necessary change.”
Asked what they hope for the future, Kent says they want to keep giving “as much as we can for as long as we can, to as many as we can, in every way that we can.”
Diane’s response?
“What he said.”
That spirit is at the heart of the Power of Possible, a storytelling initiative from the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation celebrating people across Minnesota who see what could be and help make it happen.
What’s your Power of Possible?
Share your story at SPMCF.org/POP.
