New Charity Chief Executive Keeps Focus on 'Family'

James Dobson has long been the famous face -- and the soothing voice -- of Focus on the Family. A child-development specialist, Mr. Dobson founded the Colorado Springs nonprofit organization in 1977 with a weekly radio program that broadcast his views on family and faith to a small but dedicated audience.

That modest radio program has since blossomed into a powerful nonprofit organization that runs 74 ministries, broadcasts in 164 countries, employs 1,400 people, and raised more than $150-million in private donations last year. The group also has a public-policy lobbying arm that raised $12-million last year.

But while the 69-year-old evangelist still carries the banner for most of Focus on the Family's public activities nearly three decades after its founding, the organization has been quietly grooming its next generation of leadership.

Focus on the Family recently promoted Jim Daly, a former executive at International Paper Company who has worked for the charity since 1989, to become its new chief executive officer. He succeeds Don Hodel, 70, who had been the organization's volunteer chief executive since May 2003 and remains on its board of directors. Mr. Daly, 43, earns $185,000 annually in his new role.

Mr. Daly, who was orphaned at age 12, says he has a deep faith and has been listening to Focus on the Family's radio programs since he was a college student in the early 1980s. When he was 27, Mr. Daly turned down a lucrative promotion at International Paper to work in Focus on the Family's public-affairs division and has since played a key role in building the organization's international presence.

Mr. Dobson says Mr. Daly's business background -- and his fervent belief in Focus on the Family's mission -- makes him the right candidate to lead the organization.

"Jim has a forward-thinking spirit of innovation that will only serve to build upon that foundation in the years ahead," Mr. Dobson wrote in a recent letter to the organization's supporters. "Specifically, he has an earnest desire, which is shared by all of us, to adapt to the needs of younger families in the 21st century and to reach out to those who may never have heard of Focus on the Family before."

Mr. Daly assumes his new position as the organization appears to be hitting a high point in its prominence. With about three million active followers, a vigorous fund-raising machine, and a growing social platform, Focus on the Family's influence has arguably never been greater.

But the organization, which has supported an array of family-friendly policies championed by the Bush White House, has also become a lightning rod to those who believe the organization's mission is too closely aligned with Republican Party politics. Mr. Dobson, for instance, was outspoken in his disdain for the removal of the feeding tube from Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman at the center of a national dispute; has been a leader in the push to keep marriage limited to opposite-sex couples; and, most recently, has been critical of Democrats' attempts to block Bush's judicial nominees.

While those efforts have grabbed headlines and prompted criticism from those who oppose Focus on the Family's social platform, Mr. Daly says public policy is a small part of the group's mission. The organization, he says, is careful not to mix politics into its day-to-day programs.

Focus on the Family will continue to be vocal on public-policy issues, he says. At the same time, it will primarily stick to its mission of helping families raise responsible children, fostering healthy marriages, and spreading its evangelical message.

It is that mission that attracted Mr. Daly to leave the corporate world back in 1989.

"It's a wonderful thing to wake up every day to put your effort into helping marriages and parents and talking about the social issues and things that we believe are causing problems in the culture," he says. "That's the invisible paycheck, if you can call it that. It's the intrinsic benefit."

In an interview, Mr. Daly discussed his new role:

How far does your mission carry into the realm of public policy?

In terms of our budget, what we're spending is about 5 percent on public-policy issues and 95 percent on our bread-and-butter programs. But what the press wants to focus on is the public policy.

We feel that if you only do one of those sides of the equation, you really aren't doing the best job you can for a family. We feel like we have to do both because family is under assault. That is who we are. We're both.

How do you separate politics from your day-to-day mission?

What we're trying to do is debate the issues, to have a simple debate. But for some reason it's become very divisive. That divisiveness is something unique to the United States and Western Europe. If you look at Australia, the feminists would work with the Christian right to combat pornography. You don't see that happening here.

There's the belief out there that you can't get into the public arena to talk about a moral issue. But yet we're representing a faith community. How do you muzzle someone talking about something so deep in their heart?

To not be respected enough to walk into the public square and talk about your belief is quite discriminatory in itself.

How do you change that?

We want to respect people even if they disagree with us. We need more people to say, "I respect this person's right to have an opinion. We just don't agree with what this person's position is."

What are the organization's greatest challenges when James Dobson eventually retires?

The most obvious in the actual transition is how the donors will react. The challenge for the younger leadership is how do we stay true to the principles while also reaching the younger families.

I think the culture is right for that. We're airing a commercial on the Super Nanny program. There's also Nanny 911 and plans for a Marriage 911. The businessman in me tells me that if there are multiple programs on marriage and parenting, there must be commercial viability in what they want to do. That means the culture is more ready than ever for our resources.

We will have a long run here -- if that's what the Lord wants.

ABOUT JIM DALY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, FOCUS ON THE FAMILY

Education: Earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from California State University at San Bernardino in 1984 and an M.B.A. in international business from Regis University in 1997.

Previous employment: After finishing his undergraduate degree, Mr. Daly worked at Tension Envelope Corporation and later International Paper Company, where he was a sales manager. He was hired by Focus on the Family in 1989 as assistant to the president of public affairs and has since held a series of positions with the organization.

What he's been reading: Mr. Daly is a fan of devotional literature and has been reading Streams in the Desert, by L.B. Cowman and James Reimann. A management guide, Leading Change, by John P. Kotter, is another of his recent favorites.