[3] While he worked as a partner in the financial firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. from 1900 until his death in 1931, he also devoted much of his time to the development of scouting in America.

After a long tenure as vice-president of the BSA beginning in 1910,[4] during which he also appeared on the cover of Time magazine on February 14, 1927,[5] he was elected president of the organization in 1931.

The property for the Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation was purchased by his mother, named in his honor, and donated to the BSA for their national training center in April 1933.

The Bronze Wolf award was first initiated in 1935 and given to Lord Baden-Powell, four years after the death of Mortimer Schiff.

They had two children: his daughter, Dorothy Schiff (March 11, 1903 – August 30, 1989) was an owner and then publisher of the New York Post for nearly 40 years.