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When it comes to civic engagement, Minnesota is hard-wired to step up. It's in our DNA. This is being proven true once again in Haiti.

I have just returned from my first visit to Haiti as a board member of the American Refugee Committee (ARC), a global relief organization with headquarters in Minneapolis. I am proud to say that Minnesota-related contributions are readily evident.

Disasters such as the Haiti earthquake present a dilemma for corporate executives. We are moved by devastation and human suffering but struggle with how to respond. Financial contributions for disaster relief do not neatly fit into corporate giving strategies as they do not directly benefit our customers nor do they usually fall within our areas of operational expertise.

Yet, we feel a moral and civic obligation to help our community -- our global community -- while still trying to be good stewards of company funds.

Haiti provides a clear demonstration. More than 70 percent of ARC's donations for Haiti have come from our home state. We received major gifts from organizations like Mosaic, Medtronic, Mayo, Mortenson and others that allowed us to launch a quick and sustained response. ARC had a relief team on the ground within 48 hours of the earthquake. As expected, giving has slowed but we are confident that the combination of individual, corporate and public funding will continue to support the rebuilding phase of the recovery effort.

Beyond the money, Minnesota's hardscrabble talents are also unmistakably benefiting the earthquake survivors. Technical experts are working to improve the disastrous situation, including architects, doctors and other health care professionals, engineers, ground-water professionals and logistics experts. We are working with the University of Minnesota in a variety of areas, from civic planning and design to business case studies, with the ultimate goal of developing best practices for international relief.

The outpouring of generosity has a great side effect -- it is also fulfilling to Minnesotans. This is particularly important to us at ARC because we have a distinct dual mission to serve both our beneficiaries around the world and to enrich the lives of our donors. This goes beyond good governance and transparency around the use of the funds. It also includes enriching the lives of the employees, customers and constituents of our corporate donors by providing a direct and meaningful connection to the work their funds allow us to do.

A 'cultural stew'

In the three months since the earthquake, ARC has created advocacy groups for people who want to help but are not sure how. We have met with more than 50 organizations including businesses, school groups, rotary clubs and many others to provide insight into what is really happening in Haiti, how contributions are being used, and what is needed in the future.

We are deeply grateful to partner companies including Baker Tilly and UCare that have provided significant support to Haiti.

Together, Minnesotans create a cultural stew of civic engagement, smarts and a distinct brand of practical problem-solving that is powerful and rare in the world-at-large.

This approach is the same as our homegrown relief organization, ARC. The organization has an unmistakable, practical and urgent intensity when the times call for humanitarian action.

As the chief financial officer of "the other" Minnesota cereal company, I live a professional life more familiar with the world of bean counters than of relief workers, airlifts, tarp purchases, latrine construction and U.N. negotiations over emergency clinics and land settlements.

Even though I know how well the organization works, I was awestruck by how quickly ARC -- which operates refugee camps around the world, but never before in Haiti -- mobilized, and was on the ground making a difference. And I'm not the only one who noticed.

The United Nations has tapped ARC to be one of the "go-to" stewards to establish large numbers of these life-saving camps. As the rainy season exacerbates conditions in Haiti, ARC is a linchpin for managing settlement camps, protection of women and children and building medical care capacity.

Though much work lies ahead, what's clear to me now is how much of our success as a nonprofit is grounded in the DNA of Minnesota. It simply does not work this way in most places, and we need to acknowledge this important and powerful chemistry. Minnesota's "instinctive alliance" of civic, business and academic smarts is helping to save a generation of people in Haiti.