Does Giving Back Pay Off? Thrivent Financial By the Numbers

In Monday’s post, we spent some time talking about the qualities that make Thrivent Financial – and their member-driven loyalty program, Thrivent Choice — stand out. We love how deeply community-minded they are, both in terms of making their members feel like a part of a tight-knit, care-driven group, and by actively giving back to schools and congregations. In addition to building up an undeniable loyalty among members, Thrivent raises the bar even more by allowing its community to participate in deciding exactly how their dollars will be donated, via Thrivent Choice.

But does it work? This approach to loyalty programs is ethical, and admirable, but does it have the numbers to prove that it is, indeed, effective?

In a word: absolutely. Thrivent is transparent about their financials, publishing numbers on their website and providing access to their annual reports. And the results that they have to show speak to the success of their loyalty-building tactics.

Thrivent Financial is number 332 on the 2011 Fortune 500 list (released in spring of 2012), based on an annual revenue of $7.8 billion. They have 2.5 million members across the US, and 1,336 chapters nationally. What’s more, they have $75.8 billion in assets under management, and $170 billion of life insurance in force.

This is not a small scale company experimenting with philanthropy and member participation — this is a massive, lucrative operation. The size and strength of this community has made Thrivent the financial force that it is; the continued loyalty of this community has allowed Thrivent to grow over the past 11 years.

There’s more. That promise of giving back? Thrivent delivers on that, too. Thrivent Financial, and their members, donated $175 million donated to communities in need, not to mention the 10.8 million hours members spent volunteering through local chapter projects. And then there’s the $304 million redistributed to members in dividends.

Thrivent Financial utilizes its loyalty program to build loyalty among its members in their attitude and approach, and the benefits of this are clear. The numbers don’t lie: Thrivent’s community is as lucrative as it is loyal.

You Might Like:

• Whitepaper: The New Event-Driven Marketing
• Whitepaper: How Do I Measure My Loyalty Program’s Incremental ROI?
• Aberdeen Research Report: Customer Loyalty 2012: Enabling Technologies for Customer Engagement, Conversion, and Retention
• Webinar On-Demand: The Power of Analytics to Drive Loyalty
• Meeting Your Customers Where They Are, Anytime, Anywhere (Loyalty Lab Blog)
• Getting Real About Real-Time (Loyalty Lab Blog)
• Offers Looking for People, and People Looking for Offers (Loyalty Lab Blog)
• A Look at Mobile — Why Don’t More Carriers Have Loyalty Programs? (Loyalty Lab Blog)