Dec. 18, 2024

This paid piece is sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation.

If you ask Craig Lloyd what to bring to a meeting, the answer isn’t going to be “two peanut butter sandwiches and a garbage bag.”

But that’s exactly what Steve Metli, then city planner for the city of Sioux Falls, told him to pack for a meeting in 1974.

“That’s how I’m going to meet this guy,” Craig said. “I thought I was going to take him out for lunch. Instead, we went and picked up trash along the Big Sioux River.”

Craig sits back in his chair and takes a moment to remember that day – and what downtown Sioux Falls looked like more than 50 years ago. That same riverfront where he and Metli walked and talked is just outside his office in The Steel District, the mixed-use development built by Lloyd Cos. and housing its headquarters.

Now, housing, businesses and amenities fill in the space, much of it visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows in Craig’s office.

The sprawling lawn of Levitt at the Falls. New restaurants and shops that have opened. Dogs soon will have another downtown dog park. Jacobson Plaza at Falls Park is taking shape.

“I’ll tell you, I’ve learned a lot about ice,” Craig laughs. Lloyd Cos. has built many of the projects within his view.

He returns to thinking about Metli.

“He cared so much about this community, and he wanted to see it look better,” Lloyd said. “He had such a dream. The city is what it has become because of him and so many other great visionaries.”

Inspired by others

Craig and Pat Lloyd are humble people.

In the middle of a conversation, they often pause to offer gratitude. To the people in Sioux Falls who trusted them. To the community leaders who welcomed them. To each other, for the times that were good and the times that were hard, raising a family and building a business, and the teamwork it takes to weather both.

“Others really inspired our giving,” Pat Lloyd said. “And if we can help inspire others, that will be so meaningful to us.”

They never shy away from giving others credit for shaping the city and their own personal philosophy on philanthropy.

Craig first credits his father – whom he calls a lifelong tither – for instilling the importance of philanthropy.

“If you make a buck, you tithe a dime,” he said. “Sometimes, he was giving away money we didn’t have, but he was diligent about it.”

In Craig and Pat’s early professional career, there were a few influential businessmen and women who encouraged the fledgling Lloyd Cos. to give back to the community.

But it might have been an encounter over breakfast one Sunday morning when the Lloyds found themselves across the table from Carl and Marietta Soukup.

“They started telling us about the different things they had done in the community,” Pat said. “They weren’t bragging. But it was eye-opening; they were passionate about what they were doing and how they loved being a part of giving back. I can remember getting tearful as I listened to the stories they were sharing.”

The Lloyds had been somewhat involved before this, but not in any streamlined way.

“I had never considered philanthropy on that kind of scale before,” Pat said.

“We didn’t have a plan,” Craig agreed. “But they set the stage for us to think about it, and it’s part of our budget today. It’s intentional. If anybody asks what the turning point was – that was it. Making our giving intentional.”

That intentionality became part of the fabric of Lloyd Cos., where now employees pitch their favorite nonprofits for the organization to give to every year.

But it also became part of how the family approached giving. And it wasn’t always easy.

Family philanthropy

Pat talks about a memorable gift early in their family life. The girls were in grade school and junior high. The holidays were approaching.

“We told our daughters we weren’t going to buy them gifts that year, instead we were going to help a family in town,” she said. “And, oh, the girls just cried.”

But Craig and Pat knew they would understand once they began the process of giving. They shopped for the family, with a list of needs. The girls were excited, Pat said, and they had the gifts wrapped and sent to the family.

A bit later, a thank-you letter arrived in the mail.

“Gosh, I think it was three pages long,” Pat said. The letter detailed how the gifts had been a blessing and how the new clothes and boots offered some confidence – now proud of how they were dressed.

“It’s our Christmas story,” Pat said, pausing as her eyes fill with tears. “You could just picture the father, especially, because the wife wrote about him, and how he looked at her and said, ‘I think we can go to the family Christmas this year.’ It’s sad to imagine someone would be feeling that low.”

They still have the letter, and they read it every year with the family at Christmas.

It’s a reminder that giving back is part of the fabric of their family.

But their giving has evolved over the years. Like many people, they gave often to causes their friends were passionate about.

“We were very disorganized,” Pat said.

As they looked to be more strategic in their personal giving – just as they were with Lloyd Cos., they turned to the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation for guidance.

Now, the Lloyd family has a road map for where they want to give – and how it will continue long after they’re gone, all aligned to a family mission statement. Pat calls it a work in progress.

They have regular family meetings to build consensus, to help instill a sense of place and remember how much Sioux Falls has meant to the Lloyds.

“We’ve been trying to help our family understand the importance of this community and how good it’s been to our business and our family,” Pat said.

They’ve learned along the way that when they are more focused in their giving, more strategic, they also can make a bigger difference. Several scattered gifts become one larger one, dedicated to causes they care about, including empowering youth in our community.

“Sioux Falls will forever benefit from what they’ve done,” said Mary Kolsrud, chief philanthropy officer for the Foundation.

The Lloyds have a Donor Advised Fund at the Foundation that allows them to streamline their giving during their lifetime. They also have made plans for a gift through their estate, creating an endowment that will continue to support the community and be guided by future generations of the Lloyd family.

“They are all about family,” Kolsrud said. “They want their legacy to reflect that by ensuring their children and future generations can continue to give back to the community they love through their family endowment at the Foundation.”

The Foundation helps the Lloyds stay true to their family’s philanthropic mission by facilitating family discussions.

“We can help families come together to explore their shared values and passions, and create a giving plan that reflects those values while benefiting the community,” Kolsrud said. “That legacy can live out in this wonderful way.”

A giving community

“Sioux Falls has always been a very giving community, and it’s part of the culture,” Craig said.

He tells businesses coming to Sioux Falls that they will be asked to give back. “You’ll be asked more here than any place else to give. But you’ll also get more in return if you give back.”

Again, he and Pat glance outside. The space beneath his window is all being developed because of philanthropy. The Steel District itself is a private development.

The line between business and private sectors has always been thin in Sioux Falls, where people continue to come together to build things such as the Arc of Dreams, Washington Pavilion, the zoo and so much more.

“It’s not because of us,” Craig said of this solidarity in the community. He names families who built the city with their giving. Families everyone may or may not know. Too many to mention. “I always say, if you have a good thing you want to raise money for, that involves children or the betterment of the community, there’s nothing we can’t go raise money for.”

He laughs.

Tells the story of projects that started with one ask and ended with a much bigger one. From the concrete to pour the base of the Arc of Dreams to fundraising for the hockey arena at Augustana University.

Craig grows serious for a moment.

“The community came together, and I think we see that time and time again,” he said. “People care. They care to make it better because they know it’s better for business and better for their family.”

It’s important that the business community and families continue to unite for Sioux Falls, he said. “Whatever you can give, just give it. You won’t miss it. It takes all of us.”

He calls it the collective power of Sioux Falls.

“We are grateful for the success of Lloyd Cos.,” Craig said. “We don’t take it for granted. When you are involved in building a community, the community then keeps building on itself. We need those business leaders who are here for today and tomorrow, and to train that next generation.”

For Craig and Pat, it’s part of their personal philosophy.

“We’re just here for a speck of time,” Craig said. “Philanthropy takes it all to the next generation.”