From Cattle Pens to Capital: Jonathon Haralson Joins Rural Gone Urban Foundation Board

Jonathon Haralson, Rural Gone Urban Foundation Board Member

On any given morning, Jonathon Haralson might be checking calves before daylight and running financial projections before lunch. That overlap — dirt on his boots and numbers on his desk — is exactly what he’s bringing to the Rural Gone Urban Foundation as its newest board member.

Haralson, founder and managing partner of Empire Ag, has built a career on both sides of agriculture: on the back 80 and in the office. He launched Empire Ag to help producers rethink how they handle finance, succession, and strategy. Now, he is lending that same vision to a nonprofit that has been quietly rewriting the rules of rural philanthropy.

The Rural Gone Urban Foundation, established in 2022, offers scholarships to rural students, small-business grants to women entrepreneurs, and “Love Bombs” — judgment-free grants given to women in the thick of cancer treatment. The work is equal parts pragmatic and personal, and Haralson said that’s what drew him in.

“Joining this board feels less like a role and more like a responsibility,” Haralson said. “I know what it takes to hold a business together when margins are tight and the stakes feel higher than the balance sheet shows. Rural families are doing that every day — raising kids, running businesses, carrying more weight than most people realize. If I can help amplify the Foundation’s reach, then I’m doing what I should be doing.”

Brooke Taylor, founder and board chair, said Haralson’s addition brings a balance of vision and candor.

“Jonathon doesn’t just understand the math of rural America, he understands the heartbeat of it,” Taylor said. “He’s as comfortable talking legacy and capital structures as he is talking hay yields, and that is exactly what this Foundation needs as we continue to grow.”

Haralson’s approach has always been straightforward: a business is a business, whether it’s a ranch, a feedyard, or a local startup. That perspective, honed through his work with Empire Ag and the newly launched EA Capital, is expected to strengthen the Foundation’s push to expand funding for women-owned small businesses.

Still, he insists the work is less about scaling programs and more about remembering names and faces.

“Every scholarship, every grant, every Love Bomb is tied to a story,” he said. “This is about showing up for people when it matters most. That’s the kind of work I want my kids to see me supporting.”

Haralson, who grew up in and now raises his family in Texas, said the Foundation’s mission resonates with how he was raised: invest in people first, and the rest will follow.

The Rural Gone Urban Foundation board is made up of business leaders, educators, and community builders who share a belief that rural women and families deserve more than survival — they deserve support, access, and the chance to thrive.