Thrivent ( ) is a US
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
not-for-profit financial services organization headquartered in
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
, and
Appleton, Wisconsin
Appleton ( mez, Ahkōnemeh)
is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. One of the Fox Cities, it is situated on the Fox River, southwest of Green Bay and north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the c ...
, and founded by
Lutherans
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...
. As a member-owned
fraternal benefit society
A benefit society, fraternal benefit society, fraternal benefit order, friendly society, or mutual aid society is a society, an organization or a voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit, for instance insurance for relief fr ...
, it operates under a chapter system, serving nearly 2.3 million members.
Operating through its local chapters nationwide, Thrivent and its subsidiaries offer financial products and services including
life insurance
Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...
,
annuities
In investment, an annuity is a series of payments made at equal intervals.Kellison, Stephen G. (1970). ''The Theory of Interest''. Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc. p. 45 Examples of annuities are regular deposits to a savings account, m ...
,
mutual fund
A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV i ...
s,
disability income insurance, credit union products, money management, brokerage services, and retirement planning.
The organization and its members provide volunteer services to charitable organizations and schools. For example, Thrivent members reportedly volunteered more than 8.6 million hours in 2013 and contributed $182.7 million in that year to organizations and activities that aim to strengthen families and communities.
In June 2013, members voted to allow non-Lutheran
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
to join, and in March 2014 the marketing name was shortened from "Thrivent Financial for Lutherans" to "Thrivent Financial". In the middle of 2020, the company was rebranded as "Thrivent".
Predecessor groups
Thrivent Financial was officially formed on January 1, 2002, with the merger of Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL) and Lutheran Brotherhood (LB), which had been established in 1902 and 1917 respectively. The merger formed the largest fraternal benefit society in the United States.
Aid Association for Lutherans
![New home office building, Aid Association for Lutherans, Legal Reserve Fraternal Life Insurance, Appleton, Wisconsin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/New_home_office_building%2C_Aid_Association_for_Lutherans%2C_Legal_Reserve_Fraternal_Life_Insurance%2C_Appleton%2C_Wisconsin.jpg)
History
In the late 19th and early 20th century, the
Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The LC ...
forbade its members to join fraternal societies because these required initiation rites and secret oaths. Life insurance was also frowned upon in some quarters because
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
had written against similar enterprises in his day, as the practice could be considered a form of
usury
Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is ch ...
and it reflected a distrust in
God
In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
.
[Alvin J. Schmidt, ''Fraternal Organizations''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980, pp. 25-26.]
In 1899, Albert Voecks, a member of
St. Paul Lutheran Church in
Appleton, Wisconsin
Appleton ( mez, Ahkōnemeh)
is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. One of the Fox Cities, it is situated on the Fox River, southwest of Green Bay and north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the c ...
, broached the idea of creating an insurance society for Lutherans to fellow church members Gottlieb Ziegler and William Zuehlke.
They each gave $13 to the fund, and found several hundred others willing to contribute $5 each.
In 1902, the founders of the society recruited the 500 applicants necessary to receive a charter from the State of Wisconsin for their group.
It was chartered on November 24, 1902, as the Aid Association for Lutherans in Wisconsin and Other States.
Like most fraternal benefit societies of the time, the AAL operated on the
actuarially unsound graded assessment system. In 1905, it began a move to the legal reserve system, a transformation that was completed in 1911. Women were also admitted as members in 1905.
Most of the early business was conducted in German, until this was discontinued in 1927.
Membership was open only to members of the Missouri Synod and other Lutherans who were in fellowship with it until the mid-1960s, when it became open to Lutherans of all denominations. In the late 1960s, the association had 792,000 members which increased to about 1.2 million members in 5,019 branches in 1978. By 1979, it was the largest member of the
National Fraternal Congress of America The American Fraternal Alliance (AFA) is an umbrella group of fraternal orders in the United States. It was founded as the National Fraternal Congress of America in 1913, in Chicago and adopted its current name in 2011.
History
The origins of the ...
and ranked 13th among the 1,800 insurance firms in the country.
[Schmidt, p. 26.]
Rituals
The AAL had no initiation rites, oaths or other rituals.
Non-profit organization
The association was organized on two levels: the local branches attached to Lutheran congregations and the national level, which consisted only of a board of directors that met four times a year. The AAL was particular about its locals ''not'' being called "lodges" because that was too similar to the nomenclature of oath-bound, ritualistic groups such as the
Freemasons
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
or the
Oddfellows. The AAL was headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Philanthropy
The AAL was also involved
philanthropically, giving money to scholarships, support for educational institutions and training for church workers. Grants were made to agencies, boards and homes for the aged, disabled and to minorities. The association also had its own family health program and sponsored blood drives and family health workshops. It also joined the
National Center for Voluntary Action
The National Center for Voluntary Action was an independent, private, non-profit organization that existed in the 1970s, and then extended on in merged forms, that sought to encourage volunteerism on the part of American citizens and organizations, ...
.
Lutheran Brotherhood
History
The roots of Lutheran Brotherhood go back to the founding convention of the
Norwegian Lutheran Church of America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) was a Lutheran denomination that existed from 1917, when it was founded as the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (NLCA), until 1960, when it joined two other church bodies to form the second American Luthe ...
when
Jacob Preus, the
state insurance commissioner of Minnesota, proposed launching a
not-for-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
aid society.
As with other Lutheran denominations, this move proved controversial, with some saying it indicated a lack of faith in God. Those who favored the society prevailed by arguing that the new aid society would prevent Norwegian Lutherans from joining unacceptable secret beneficial societies or "lodges" which was forbidden by conservative Lutheran doctrine.
[Schmidt, p. 210.]
The organization authorized by the convention was called the Luther Union, and was incorporated in the state of Minnesota on September 18, 1918. That month, the Luther Union entered into negotiations with Lutheran Brotherhood of America of
Des Moines
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
,
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
. These two organizations merged in the Lutheran Brotherhood in 1920.
The articles of incorporation of Lutheran Brotherhood stated its purpose:
To aid the Lutheran Church in extending the Lutheran Faith, to foster patriotism, loyalty, justice, charity and benevolence, to provide education, instruction, proper entertainment and amusements, to encourage industry, saving, thrift and development on the part of its members, to give aid in the case of poverty, sickness, accident or old age, and otherwise promote the spiritual, intellectual and physical welfare of its members.
Membership was open only to Lutherans. There were 550,000 members in 1965 and 900,000 in 1979.
Non-profit organization
Local units were called "branches", which were divided into three categories: A-1, affiliated to Lutheran congregations; A-2, usually sponsored by a group within a Lutheran parish; and A-3, geographic branches. The Lutheran Brotherhood had a quadrennial convention and a board of directors who managed its business. It was headquartered in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
.
[Schmidt, p. 211.]
Philanthropy
The LB helped establish new Lutheran congregations through the Church Extension Fund, sponsored scholarships for Lutheran clergy and arranged seminars on Christian topics.
Mergers
Lutheran Life Insurance Society of Canada
In 1972, the Canadian branches of the Lutheran Brotherhood and the Aid Association for Lutherans merged as a result of the desire to have an indigenous Canadian fraternal benefit society. They formed a new fraternal order called the
Faith Life. Like the AAL and LB, the LLISC was organized into branches and run by a board of directors. There were 120 branches in 1979. The society was based in
Kitchener, Ontario
)
, image_flag = Flag of Kitchener, Ontario.svg
, image_seal = Seal of Kitchener, Canada.svg
, image_shield=Coat of arms of Kitchener, Canada.svg
, image_blank_emblem = Logo of Kitchener, Ontario.svg
, blank_emblem_type = ...
. The LLISC provided scholarships to Lutheran educational institutions, gave grants to churches and church-related organizations and projects, and gave reduced rate mortgages for Lutheran churches.
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
The AAL and LB functioned independently throughout the 20th century. In June 2001, after close consideration of how combining the two organizations would be of benefit to members, the AAL and LB merged, with the merger completed by the end of that year. Following the merger, in 2002, a new name was voted upon and approved by the members of the merged organization: Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
Financial services
Financial standing
In 2016, Thrivent Financial ranked 318 on the Fortune 500and received an
A.M. Best rating of AA+ (Superior) and a
Fitch rating of AA+ (Very Strong).
Outreach
Thrivent members made donations to Haiti relief following the
2010 Haiti earthquake
A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...
through
Lutheran World Relief
Lutheran World Relief (LWR) is an international non-governmental organization that focuses on sustainable development projects and disaster relief and recovery. The organization was founded in 1945 to collect and send aid to people living in p ...
,
ELCA Domestic Disaster Response,
LCMS World Relief/Human Care, and
WELS
Wels (; Central Bavarian: ''Wös'') is a city in Upper Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is the county seat of Wels-Land, and with a population of approximately 60,000, the eighth largest city in Austria.
Geography
Wels is in the H ...
Committee on Relief. Thrivent Financial provided funding for the 2003 film ''
Luther
Luther may refer to:
People
* Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement
* Luther (give ...
''.
Thrivent Choice
Through its Thrivent Choice program, members gave 43 million dollars in 2016. The program offers members the opportunity to make recommendations for where some of Thrivent's charitable outreach funds are directed. The list of charities comes from members and non-profits can apply to be eligible for choice dollars.
Thrivent builds with Habitat for Humanity
Thrivent has formed an alliance with
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a Ch ...
called
Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity through which it contributes financial assistance for building affordable homes. The initiative also sponsors homebuilding trips by Thrivent members throughout the world.
The Thrivent Builds alliance began in September 2005, with a four-year commitment of $105 million. Thrivent Financial chose Habitat for Humanity as an ally because, in the previous ten years, its members had already proven their interest in volunteering with them by building over 500 homes. In December 2007, Thrivent Financial increased its total commitment to $125 million. The alliance makes Thrivent Financial one of Habitat's largest single allies and aims to increase Habitat's annual house production by hundreds of U.S. homes per year and more around the world.
Programs
There are two programs within the Thrivent Builds alliance.
*Through Thrivent Builds Homes, Thrivent Financial and other Lutheran volunteers help build more than 300 homes a year within the United States with more than 200 Habitat for Humanity affiliates. By year-end 2008, over 1,000 homes had beem built with Habitat for Humanity families through this program.
*Thrivent Builds Worldwide offers Thrivent Financial members the opportunity to volunteer for one- to three-week homebuilding trips around the world where there are existing Habitat for Humanity programs. Thrivent Builds volunteers have helped build Habitat homes in Romania, Poland, South Africa, New Zealand, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and many more destinations.
Additionally, there are two whole communities being built:
*In the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Thrivent Builds is sponsoring a community of 28 homes with families displaced by Hurricanes
Katrina
Katrina or Katrine may refer to:
People
* Katrina (given name)
* Katrine (given name)
Meteorology
* List of storms named Katrina, a list of tropical cyclones designated as Katrina
** Hurricane Katrina, an exceptionally powerful Atlantic hurrican ...
and
Rita
Rita may refer to:
People
* Rita (given name)
* Rita (Indian singer) (born 1984)
* Rita (Israeli singer) (born 1962)
* Rita (Japanese singer)
* Eliza Humphreys (1850–1938), wrote under the pseudonym Rita
Places
* Djarrit, also known as Rita, ...
.
*An additional community of 75 homes is being sponsored in Santa Ana,
El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
, with 40 teams of Thrivent volunteers helping to build in 2009.
Library
The Aid Association for Lutherans maintained a library of over 12,000 books on business management, fraternalism, and life and health insurance.
Recognition
Since 2012, Thrivent has been named on the list of The World's Most Ethical Companies, eight years running, by ''
Ethisphere Magazine''. Assessment is based upon the
Ethisphere Institute
The Ethisphere Institute is a for-profit company that defines and measures corporate ethical standards, recognizes companies that excel, and promotes best practices in corporate ethics. The company is located in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The compan ...
's Ethics Quotient (EQ) framework which offers a quantitative way to assess a company's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (35%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%), culture of ethics (20%), governance (15%) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10%), and provided to all companies who participate in the process.
Private prison controversy
Thrivent has been the subject of awareness campaigns by migrant rights groups and other activists for its holdings in
CoreCivic
CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasle ...
and the
GEO Group
The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) is a publicly traded C corporation that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in North America, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, the company's f ...
, the two largest U.S. Government immigration detention contractors, whose assets include detention facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border. In it
first quarter 2019 SEC filings Thrivent reported 87,038 shares of CoreCivic, Inc—currently valued at over $1.5 million—and 142,432 shares of GEO Group—currently valued at just under $2.5 million. Banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and others have divested from these companies after calls from migrant rights groups.
See also
*
Lutheranism in North America
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
References
{{Authority control
Appleton, Wisconsin
Companies based in Minneapolis
Companies based in Wisconsin
Organizations established in 2002
Financial services companies established in 2002
Lutheran organizations
2002 establishments in Wisconsin
Non-profit organizations based in Minnesota
Non-profit organizations based in Wisconsin
Habitat for Humanity