Thrivent Financial for Lutherans on solid ground financially
CEO discusses its philanthropic activities, state of company
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Volunteers work on a Habitat for Humanity home Aug. 31 in Appleton. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans continues to play an important role in the Habitat program. / Wm. Glasheen/The Post-Crescent
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Thrivent at a glance
What it does: A fraternal organization that provides financial and insurance services to 2.5 million members across the U.S.Employees: Appleton 1,775 (includes operations center, Thrivent Bank, investment management and investor services; Minneapolis 1,153 (includes corporate headquarters and subsidiary operations)
Top executive: Brad Hewitt, president and chief executive officer
Assets under management: $$73.1 billion (end of 2010)
Website: www.thrivent.com
Executives with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans say as the economy struggled, some of its core products including life insurance and annuities saw increased business as people sought ways to protect their long-term income.
Brad Hewitt, president and chief executive officer of Thrivent, recently was in Appleton for the company's annual report to the community.
Will Thrivent continue its commitment to the Salvation Army Red Kettle campaign in the Fox Cities?
Actually, for us, all of those community involvement activities, the Red Kettle campaign, Thrivent Builds for Habitat for Humanity, we've built those into strong brands. There really is no going back now.
As long as we continue to do well, it will continue. I just can't imagine it stopping. We're not looking at getting out of anything, especially based on our recent results.
Does this mean that Thrivent also will remain committed to its partnership with Habitat for Humanity?
What most people don't realize, we worked with Habitat long before the merger between Aid Association for Lutherans and Lutheran Brotherhood.
What we've done was package everything together into one brand and added funding to it to create consistency, so it wasn't just one church or one chapter involved, it was a Thrivent build.
The reason we discuss our involvement in the program every year is because we have to decide where the resources are needed.
How many houses will be built? Is there demand for more international builds? Is there interest in more domestic projects? Where does the interest fall with our members? What congregations are raising their hands because they want to do more with Habitat? This is what are annual review is about. We think we have a good brand here and we will keep doing it. It's a great success.
Similar to our Red Kettle campaign, which is only in the Fox Cities, if there are a bunch of chapters also doing work with the Salvation Army in their areas, if we could rebrand our Red Kettle campaign, maybe we could also do more with that through our chapters.
Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity will be back next year. There are a lot of causes we participate in and our chapters love to do it. If you make things easier for the chapters to help people, everyone benefits. Everyone wins if you make things simple for people to execute.
Where do you think the company is heading in 2011?
So far, we're right on plan. Our focus is about the core business. Most mutual insurance companies, growth between 4 percent and 8 percent is kind of the sweet spot. It should be a good year. Our assets are up to $75 billion now and will reach $78 billion soon. We're just rolling right now.
