Praxis Mutual Funds is the investing arm of Everence Financial, and it’s the one faith-based fund family rooted in the Anabaptist peace tradition — Mennonite, Amish, and Brethren. It screens out weapons makers, engages companies as an active shareholder, and routes about 1% of every fund into community-development loans. Roughly $1.2 billion sits across its funds, with about 30 years of history behind them.
Where Praxis comes from
Praxis didn’t begin as a fund. It began in 1945 as Mennonite Mutual Aid, an organization built to give Anabaptist families insurance and savings products that fit their convictions about peace, simplicity, and caring for one another. The fund family itself arrived in 1994, one of the very first names in faith-based fund families in America, launching the same year as the Timothy Plan. In 2012 the parent rebranded as Everence Financial, but the mission and the community ownership never changed.
The name is the whole point. “Praxis” is Greek for practice, or action — the Anabaptist conviction that a faith you never act on isn’t really faith. James 2:17 puts it bluntly: faith by itself, if it isn’t accompanied by action, is dead. That idea runs through everything the fund does, from what it refuses to own to where it sends a slice of every dollar. Everence operates as a ministry of Mennonite Church USA, which means the fund answers to a church community, not just a board of directors. In 2023 Everence was named Faith-Based Organization of the Year, and in 2024 Praxis marked 30 years of what it calls stewardship investing.
“Stewardship investing”: the three-part method
Most faith-based funds stop at exclusion — they tell you what they won’t buy and leave it there. Praxis builds on three legs instead. The first is screening, both negative (cutting harmful businesses) and positive (favoring companies with strong environmental, labor, and governance records). The second is shareholder engagement: Praxis uses its ownership stake to press companies toward better behavior, filing resolutions and voting proxies, often shoulder to shoulder with other faith investors through the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. The third — the rare one — is community development investing. Together they make Praxis less of a filter and more of a working steward.
That middle leg deserves a second look, because Praxis runs it differently than the activist funds you might picture. The Anabaptist tradition prizes dialogue over confrontation, so its engagement reads less like a hostile campaign and more like a long conversation — using the leverage that comes with ownership to nudge management toward more just and sustainable practices. Praxis treats a share of stock as a relationship to steward, not just a line on a statement.
The peace screen that sets Praxis apart
Here is where Anabaptist theology reshapes the portfolio. Praxis excludes weapons makers and military contractors as a matter of doctrine, not preference. The Anabaptist peace witness traces back to the 16th-century Radical Reformation and a flat refusal to take up arms; for a Mennonite investor, holding a weapons manufacturer isn’t a gray area, it’s participation in violence. Matthew 5:9 — “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” — functions here as an actual screen, not a wall hanging. Most evangelical BRI providers treat defense stocks as acceptable, even favorable; Praxis draws the opposite line, and that single difference is the clearest reason to choose it or to pass. The funds also screen on environmental harm, labor and human-rights abuses, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and pornography.
Community Development Investing (the part nobody else does)
Praxis routes roughly 1% of every fund’s assets into community development — loans and investments channeled through Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and similar groups serving low-income communities. To date that adds up to about $25.8 million directed toward affordable housing, small-business lending, microenterprise, health clinics, and childcare in places mainstream capital tends to skip. It’s the modern echo of an old Anabaptist habit: barn raisings, shared funds, mutual aid. The early church in Acts 2:44–45 held things in common and gave to anyone in need, and the CDI program is that instinct expressed through a bond fund. Praxis publishes annual Real Impact Reports so you can see what the money actually built. If community lending appeals to you, our piece on CDFI community investing explains how the mechanics work.
The fund lineup
Praxis keeps its menu lean — mostly low-cost index funds with the stewardship screens applied, plus all-in-one portfolios for people who don’t want to assemble their own. Here’s the full slate with tickers.
| Fund | Ticker | Asset class |
|---|---|---|
| Praxis Growth Index | MGNDX | U.S. growth equity |
| Praxis Value Index | MVIAX / MVIIX | U.S. value equity |
| Praxis Small Cap Index | MMSCX | U.S. small-cap equity |
| Praxis International Index | MPIAX | Non-U.S. equity |
| Praxis Impact Bond | MIIAX | Intermediate bonds |
| Genesis Conservative / Balanced / Growth | MCONX / MBAPX / MGAFX | All-in-one allocation |
The Genesis portfolios are the simplest route: pick conservative, balanced, or growth, and the fund holds the underlying Praxis funds for you and rebalances automatically. For a hands-off investor who wants the whole approach in a single ticker, that’s the answer. If you’d rather weigh these against other indexed and actively managed options, see our roundup of the best Christian mutual funds.
The 2025 ETF launch
In 2025 Praxis launched its first exchange-traded fund, following the whole industry’s drift toward the cheaper, more flexible ETF wrapper. It pulled in about $100 million in its first five months — a strong start that says investors want the stewardship approach in a form they can buy inside any brokerage account. It also signals that a 30-year-old fund family is still willing to adapt rather than coast on its history.
Strengths and trade-offs
The strengths are specific and real. Community development investing is genuinely one of a kind — no other major faith-based provider hard-wires direct community impact into every single fund. The three-part method of screen, engage, and invest is a fuller expression of stewardship than screening alone. The peace screen carries theological weight for anyone serious about nonviolence. And the index-fund structure keeps costs reasonable while a 30-year record speaks to staying power.
The trade-offs are just as concrete. Praxis is Anabaptist-specific, so its peace stance won’t fit evangelicals who support a strong defense industry. It’s small — about $1.2 billion in fund assets against GuideStone’s $23 billion, Eventide’s $6.4 billion, or Ave Maria’s $3.8 billion — which can mean less scale and less pricing power. The lineup is narrow; you won’t find specialized healthcare or Israel-focused funds here. There’s no separately managed account or advisory service through the funds themselves. And the 1% community allocation, which typically earns below-market rates, is a small but genuine drag — one most mission-driven investors gladly accept. If rock-bottom cost is your single priority, Inspire’s flagship ETF runs 0.09%, well under the Praxis index funds; our Inspire review has the numbers.
Who Praxis is right for
Praxis is the obvious home for Mennonite, Amish, and Brethren investors, and for any Christian who takes nonviolence seriously enough to want it reflected in a portfolio. It also fits people who care about creation care and want measurable community impact rather than just a clean screen, and who prefer low-cost index funds to high-fee active management. Look elsewhere if you want defense exposure, the absolute lowest expense ratios, Catholic-specific screening (try Ave Maria), full retirement-plan services (try GuideStone), or high-conviction active stock picking (try Eventide). Whatever you land on, treat it as one piece of a wider biblical stewardship plan rather than the whole of it.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between Praxis and Timothy Plan?
Both launched in 1994, but they screen from different theology. Timothy Plan applies evangelical BRI screens and generally accepts defense stocks; Praxis applies an Anabaptist peace screen that excludes weapons makers entirely, adds positive environmental and labor screens, and sends about 1% of assets to community development. Praxis leans index; Timothy Plan offers more actively managed niche funds.
Are Praxis funds index funds or actively managed?
Mostly index. The Growth (MGNDX), Value (MVIAX), Small Cap (MMSCX), and International (MPIAX) funds track screened indexes, which keeps expenses down. The Impact Bond fund (MIIAX) and the three Genesis allocation portfolios round out the lineup, and the 2025 ETF extends the same screened approach into an exchange-traded format.
What is Praxis Community Development Investing?
It’s a program that directs roughly 1% of each fund’s assets — about $25.8 million so far — into loans for affordable housing, small businesses, and community facilities in underserved areas, usually through CDFIs. Part of your investment works in real neighborhoods while the rest stays in screened public securities, and Praxis documents the outcomes in annual Real Impact Reports.
Do you have to be Mennonite to invest with Praxis?
Not at all. The funds are open to anyone with a brokerage account. The Anabaptist roots shape the screens — the weapons exclusion most of all — but plenty of Catholics, evangelicals, and mainline Protestants invest with Praxis precisely because
