Succession plan at Focus on the Family advances with search for third leader
Jim Daly, the second president and CEO of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family and who more than 20 years ago replaced founder Dr. James Dobson as the organization’s leader, is retiring.
A search is on for the third head of the multimedia organization that reported $138.3 million in revenue for the last fiscal year, Gary Schneeberger, assistant to the president for media relations, said Monday. Daly is on vacation and unavailable for an interview, he said.
Board members will identify and interview qualified candidates over the next few months, Schneeberger said.
But the process to install Daly’s successor is expected to take 12 to 18 months, which means a new top official will be in place for Focus on the Family’s 50th anniversary that will be observed throughout 2027.
Daly will continue his duties, including hosting the Christian ministry’s daily radio show, until a new person is on board, according to Schneeberger.
“We don’t know how long it will take to find the individual who is the kind of president that Focus has set out to get,” he said. “We know the timetable will be the Lord’s.”
Board members have been talking with Daly about leadership transition for months, as his 65th birthday nears, Schneeberger said.
Schneeberger also noted that Focus is not facing any sort of “crisis” at this time. In recent years, leaders of other Christian organizations have left over moral, financial or other situations.
In this case, it’s just a natural progression of succession, he said.
“Jim Daly has done a great job of steering the ministry through some very challenging times, and it’s his No. 1 commitment when it’s time for him to step away as president and hand the reins to the next president, he wants to give that person the most thriving, healthy organization that he can.”
Daly has said, as he moves aside, he wants to make sure a younger top executive is well thought out and positioned.
“As we go beyond 50 years, we want to continue to go on for another 50 and having the next generation leadership will help us do that,” Schneeberger said.
Focus on the Family, which has about 750 employees at its 49-acre campus off Briargate Parkway, is widely considered to be one of the most impactful ministries in the nation and the premier organization promoting effective Christian parenting and families, according to FaithSearch Partners, an executive firm orchestrating the search.
“The next president at Focus will have big shoes to fill. Daly and his team have significantly grown the ministry. This will require the new leader to have incredible skills and talents in public/media communication, relationship-building, fundraising, strategic planning and administration,” Ed Fry, founder and CEO at FaithSearch Partners, said on the company’s website.
Today’s challenges in Christian media and messaging are different from the past and likely the future, Daly has observed.
Last year, staff counselors provided free consultations to more than 13,000 people on its hotline, (800)-A-Family.
Issues that families sought guidance on when Daly became president and CEO — thumb sucking, bedwetting and childhood discipline — have developed into today’s parents needing advice about social media, electronic screen time and LGBTQ+ matters.
Ideal candidates also must subscribe to the core biblical principles of traditional marriage and Family Values that Focus promotes.
“When the transition from Dr. Dobson to Jim Daly happened, their mooring in biblical principles was exactly the same,” Schneeberger said. “If they were both train conductors, the train they were engineering was going to the same destination and that is biblical wisdom to help families thrive.”
Daly has alluded to the 2005 transition when he took over Dobson’s job as being difficult. Schneeberger, who worked at Focus at the time and continues there today, said that primarily was due to personality differences.
But Daly took notes two decades ago, and he’s applying what he learned to make this go-around smoother, Schneeberger said.
In all, Daly has worked at Focus for 37 years, starting as a field involvement representative in 1989 and moving up to vice president of the international division, vice president of marketing, executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Accomplishments include making Focus’ first documentary, “Truth Rising,” with The Colson Center and ColdWater Media. It was released last September.
Daly has used his childhood roots as an orphan and foster kid to expand the organization’s focus on media products into helping churches and families demonstrate their Christian faith through services such as pregnancy resource centers.
When combined, Focus’ broadcast, digital and print media platforms reach about 18 million people in nearly 100 countries. And Schneeberger says its Welcome Center and broadcast studio on the campus remain a tourist destination for 200,000 unique people annually.
Coming for the anniversary, a biography, “The Faith of Jim Daly,” will be released in mid-2027.
Also debuting early next year is an animated “Adventures in Odyssey” movie, presenting the origin story of the characters in the popular audio drama program.