The Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board (MMBB) was authorised in 1911 by the Northern Baptist Convention and chartered in New York State in 1913 “to promote interest in the better maintenance of the ministry.” Its core purpose was the provision of pensions to aged or disabled ministers. At MMBB’s creation, American philanthropy was in transition from patterns of traditional charity to new structures designed to provide fundamental solutions to social and economic problems based on principles of business and science. Reflecting that change, MMBB became a pioneer by developing its pensions as a form of delayed, justly earned compensation that differed from the rare and often meagre charitable grants previously available to a very few.

At its creation, MMBB depended upon financial resources philanthropically provided by Baptist laymen, notably Milo C. Treat and John D. Rockefeller, and more modest contributions by others. But by 1921, MMBB developed a retiring pension fund, an early form of defined benefit plan funded by contributions from individual members and employers. This approach, undergirded by philanthropic gifts, enabled the development of a long-term, sustainable pension fund. Later MMBB was a pioneer in developing a variable annuity form of fund investment intended to link pensions with economic development. Its hundred-year record of success, through major wars, the Depression, and market cycles demonstrates MMBB’s ability to raise adequate resources for its programmes, its long-term practice of prudent management based on actuarial projections, and a succession of competent and committed executive leaders—all principles based on the persistent, focused vision of founder, Henry Morehouse.