NAB Foundation - Our History
Did you know that the North American Baptist Conference has been involved in an estate planning ministry since 1915? The NAB Foundation was built upon the strong shoulders of several executive directors, field representatives, and department directors, who worked with this ministry for many years under the umbrella of the NAB Conference.
The year 1985-86 was a pivotal time. The Conference estate-planning staff of five was spending around $250,000 a year, but they were not seeing the results they thought they should. The Conference hired Ray Lyne as an estate planning consultant. He began to give direction to the program, and one of his major recommendations was to start a foundation. He explained that a foundation would:
1. Raise the visibility of estate planning in the Conference.
2. Employ a board of directors comprised of business people, which would communicate competence in handling larger gifts.
3. Provide an accountability factor for the staff through the board of directors.
4. Allow current funding to be separated from deferred and planned giving.
Ray assisted in writing a proposal to create one foundation that would serve the Conference and the two NAB college/seminaries. A meeting was held with all three entities, but at the time, the schools were reluctant to be part of one estate-planning foundation.
Connie Salios became director of the Conference estate-planning ministry in 1987 and instituted the Stewardship Weekend events that are still being held today. The idea of a foundation had been put on the shelf but was still on his mind.
In 1994 Connie wrote a paper endeavoring to communicate that the financial future of the Conference (and other Christian organizations) would be dependent upon estate gifts. The paper was reviewed and refined by the Conference department directors and was ready to be acted upon at the l994 Triennial. Connie, however, recommended that it not be brought to the floor at this time because he felt it would be too much to ask the new Conference executive director, Phil Yntema, to lead the Conference and the new foundation at the same time.
More years passed and other issues took precedence. Then Connie and Jackie Loewer put the foundation on the agenda again. The General Council agreed to consider it, and in 2000, the concept of an estate-planning foundation was finally approved!
Phil Yntema called for a task force to be formed. Under the guidance of Dr. Frank Minton, an NAB consultant, all of the legal documents were written, officially launching the new NAB Foundation. Phil and Connie carefully supervised the development of the Foundation, getting it up and running.
In 2003, Phil resigned as Executive Director of the Conference and joined the Foundation as its first president. Connie and Phil shared the field work, while Jan Wiess assisted in the office. Together, they have raised the ministry of estate planning and stewardship to its highest level to date.
Now, Conference and Foundation leaders are pledging their support to Ron Norman, who took over as the Foundation’s new president in May 2011. Ron will spend much of his time in the field, with Phil and Connie assisting part-time. We expect to see Ron raise this ministry to an even higher level, assisting people to find God’s plan of stewardship for their estates and live a biblical lifestyle of stewardship.
The NAB Foundation has accomplished what Ray Lyne said it would and more. God has blessed the work of the board and staff, and we give Him the glory for what He has done.