Organization’s layoffs forced by ‘twin economic challenges’ of financial downturn, founder James Dobson’s departure

In the latest round of cuts, Focus on the Family has laid off 110 workers, reducing its staff to 750—and by nearly half from eight years ago.

Announcing a $27 million reduction in its budget earlier in August, the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based organization said that the move was “necessitated by twin economic challenges.”

Gary Schneeberger, Focus’ vice president of ministry communications, cited the continuing economic downturn and the February departure of the ministry’s founder James Dobson.

“Business analysts say it’s not unusual to see organizations transitioning from a founder’s leadership to lose 50% or more of their support,” Schneeberger said. “We feel blessed that even though the pain of these reductions is very real, we have not been affected to that degree. We still expect to receive more than $100 million this year from our friends—that’s a lot of resources to do a lot of good work.”

Focus is widely known for producing family-centered resources in association with Tyndale House Publishers, and for promoting Christian marriage and parenting products through its radio broadcasts as well as online and print publications.

The cut in its workforce focused in several areas, including the information technology, communications and legal departments, Focus officials said. The staff impacted by the latest layoffs were given severance packages, and were offered counseling and job placement.

There were only minimal reductions in Focus’ “core mission and competencies” such as its daily radio broadcast, Web site content and resources for couples and parents, Focus officials said.

“This is not a happy time, obviously, having to say goodbye to some of our ministry family,” Schneeberger said. “But our mission, and the measure of our success, isn’t how many of us work here, it’s whether those of us who work here are helping families thrive. We are, and we will keep doing so robustly.”

Focus’ 2010-11 financial year budget was slashed to $105 million—a $27 million reduction from last year’s budget. Focus’ budget for the 2008-09 financial year was $160 million. Schneeberger told Christian Retailing that donations were down approximately $19 million compared to budgeted income for the financial year, which begun Oct. 1, 2009.

“We’ve chosen to scale back on our infrastructure,” Schneeberger said. “There will be little or no discernible impact to the families we serve because over the last few years we’ve leveraged technology to increase the capacity and flexibility of our team.”

Schneeberger added that the organization will continue to promote responsible social policy that benefits families through the leadership of Focus President and CEO Jim Daly.

“Under our president, we have remained and will remain as resolutely committed to our public-policy advocacy as we have been at any point in our history,” Schneeberger said. “Jim’s style may be different than Dr. Dobson’s, but his passion to defend truth is exactly the same.”

Dobson—74, who left Focus on the Family so that the ministry could be passed on to the next generation of leaders—host the daily “Family Talk with James Dobson” radio show with his son, Ryan. The show covers many of the same topics as Focus’ flagship radio broadcast, including marriage, child-rearing and national issues.

Dobson announced plans on his radio show in August to form a political action group similar to Focus’ CitizenLink, The Gazette of Colorado Springs reported. Dobson also said the show, which started in May and heard on 326 U.S. stations, was struggling financially and asked listeners for help. The ministry had been staying afloat thanks to the $1 million start-up donation Focus gave it in February, the newspaper reported.

• Prev
• Next