Colorado Christian University Case Study
Focus on the Family
February 2014
PRESERVING THE TIES THAT
BIND CIVILIZATION
Author: Krista Kafer
Contributors: Karen Neville and Sarah Norris
Editor: Gabe Knipp
Graphic Designer: Bethany Bender
Focus on the Family:
PRESERVING THE TIES THAT
BIND CIVILIZATION
It started as a 15 minute radio broadcast and a two
room office. Thirty-seven years later, Focus on the Family
has over 600 employees, an $89 million budget, ministries in
12 countries, and radio shows that reach millions of listeners
in the U.S. and around the world. Although it has grown
and adapted over time, the heart of the Christian ministry
founded by psychologist Dr. James Dobson, now headed
by Jim Daly, remains the same as it was in that small office
decades ago. Focus on the Family exists to equip and support
families, disciple Christians of all ages, advocate for children,
families, and people of faith, and reach out with a message of
love and truth to a world that desperately needs it.
Every month Focus on the Family receives 250,000 calls,
emails, and letters asking questions and seeking advice: “How
do I help my autistic son make friends?” “My wife has left me
and I’m hurting.” “My new spouse’s kids don’t respect me;
what should I do?” “My 42-year-old daughter moved back
in during the recession and hasn’t left.” No two questions are
the same. Every email and letter is answered personally. Form
letters are not used for this purpose. Those who connect by
phone can receive up to an hour of free professional overthe-phone counseling and a referral to a vetted Christian
professional in their area for continued support.
On the Focus website, families of all ages—dating
couples, newly married spouses, pregnant moms, parents,
empty nesters, and seniors—can access articles, download
booklets and podcasts, read family-friendly movie reviews,
sign up for monthly publications, and purchase books. The
guidance helps individuals and couples know what to expect
from life’s momentous events like marriage and childbirth
and long seasons such as child rearing, caring for elderly
parents, and retirement. Focus also offers advice for those
facing hardships such as marital conflict, a spouse’s military
deployment, chronic pain, debt, infertility, or addiction.
Daly’s radio broadcast reaches 2.9 million listeners a week
on more than 1,000 radio stations across the U.S., and Focus
produces other broadcast programs in the U.S. and around
the world in 27 languages. The organization staffs ministries
in South Africa, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea,
Malaysia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Canada, Australia, and New
Zealand. In Singapore, for example, married couples have the
same opportunity as their U.S. counterparts to take Marriage
Mentoring classes so they can be a mentor to new couples.
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Families in Egypt can access Focus’ resources in Arabic on the
Focus on the Family Middle East website. One couple, who
recently participated in a Drug Proof Your Kids class, said
that program was drawing them closer as a family. Because
the program focuses more on reinforcing family bonds than
merely warning kids about drugs, the father was spending a
lot more quality time with his son.
Helping families to develop deep, abiding relationships
is one aspect of Focus’ discipleship efforts. The ministry is
also dedicated to deepening the Christian faith and walk
of believers of all ages. Children can find Bible lessons,
games, and activities at Focus’ Clubhouse and Clubhouse,
Jr. websites. Millions of children tune in to Focus’ Adventures
in Odyssey radio drama on 2,000 radio stations around the
world. The program is produced and recorded by professionals
in Hollywood and features entertaining stories that inspire,
build character, and affirm Biblical principles.
For high school students, Focus offers TrueU, a DVD
series on foundational apologetics that fortify students’ faith
before they embark for college. After TrueU, teens are ready
for The Truth Project, a 13 hour DVD presentation on the
Christian worldview for teens and adults. Focus created The
Truth Project to address startling survey results by the Barna
Research Group—only 9% of Christians have a Christian
worldview. The Truth Project, designed to be experienced
in a small group setting, has helped more than 3 million
Christians understand how to apply their faith to everyday
life. College students can go a step further and enroll in an
eight week summer semester at the Focus Leadership Institute
that deepens their understanding of the Bible, hones their
leadership skills, and helps them to integrate their faith into
their upcoming professional lives. High schoolers, college
students, and young professionals have resources at their
fingertips through Rising Voice, a website that equips them
to transform the culture they have inherited.
Sadly, the culture is one where children are not always
valued. Each year because of abortion over a million unborn
children never take their first breath. Thousands of adoptable
children languish in foster care. Vulnerable teens fall prey to
traffickers who destroy their lives. Focus on the Family is
working with churches, pregnancy resource centers, Family
Policy Councils, CitizenLink, and concerned citizens to put
an end to these tragedies. Through the Option Ultrasound
Program, for example, Focus provides grants to qualifying
pregnancy medical clinics to cover 80% of the cost of a new
ultrasound machine or sonography training for medical
personnel. When a woman sees her baby on the ultrasound
monitor and hears his heartbeat, she is more likely to choose life
for her precious child. Option Ultrasound has helped save the
life of 230,000 little ones.
Focus is also working with churches and government
agencies to find families for orphans. Currently 104,000
adoptable orphans are waiting in foster care for a family of their
own. Daly, who was orphaned at age nine, remembers how foster
homes, 16 of them in his case, are at best a poor substitute for
a permanent home and at worst a nightmare. Since the Orphan
Care Initiative was launched, more than 10,900 prospective
adoption parents have attended Wait No More recruitment
events and more than 2,550 families started the process to adopt
children from foster care.
To combat human trafficking, attacks on religious liberty,
the sanctity of human life, and other threats to the family,
Focus provides information and direction for citizens to speak
out and seek changes within their schools, communities, and
states. Focus on the Family also works alongside its partner
organizations such as the 37 state-level Family Policy Councils
and CitizenLink, a national family advocacy organization to
effect change.
In the spirit of the apostle Peter’s appeal to the church at
Ephesus that they speak the truth in love, Focus on the Family
has been reaching out to the general public and its critics with
messages that are both powerful and gentle. The 2010 Super
Bowl commercial featuring Tim Tebow and his mother sent
a strong and beautifully persuasive pro-life message. The ad
generated the equivalent of $46 million in free publicity for
Focus on the Family and the pro-life movement before the Super
Bowl as pundits eagerly discussed the upcoming “controversial ad.”
Behind the scenes, Daly and other Focus staff members
have quietly met with critics to find common ground. The
effort has softened hearts, planted seeds, and yielded unexpected
dividends. Focus now has a weekly column in a newspaper
that once mocked the organization and has worked with the
paper to raise money for local crises. Daly has spoken on
college campuses and calmly challenged protesters to show a
little tolerance of their own. In the upcoming documentary
Irreplaceable (to be released in theatres and followed by a 13
part video series), Focus will make the case for the importance
of the family through compelling images from around the world
and from human history. Like everything else the organization
does, the new film will focus on preserving the ties that bind
civilization—the family. ■
FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Patrick P. Caruana, M.S.
Chairman of Board of Directors
Lieutenant General (Ret.), Air Force
Joan K. Singleton, Ph.D.
Vice President of Workforce & Organization
Effectiveness for Milton Hershey School
James D. Daly
Chief Executive Officer, President
Patricia Esser
CEO of KTGY Group, Inc.
Robert E. Hamby, C.P.A.
Former Senior Vice President
and CFO of Multimedia, Inc.
R. Albert Mohler Jr., Ph.D.
President of The Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary
Paul D. Nelson
Retired President of Evangelical
Council for Financial Accountability
Former Executive Vice President/COO
of Focus on the Family
Eric Pillmore
Senior Advisor to the Deloitte Center
for Corporate Governance
Former Senior Vice President
of Tyco International
Kim A. Robinson
President and CEO of the National
Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Former Vice President of Customer Business
Development, Procter & Gamble
Lee Torrence
Former Managing Director for IBM,
Senior State Executive for Georgia
Daniel L. Villanueva
Managing Partner with Fontis Capital
Tony Wauterlek
Founder, Wauterlek and Brown, Inc.
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FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
8605 Explorer Drive
Colorado Springs, CO
80920-1051
1-800-A-FAMILY
[email protected]
www.FocusOnTheFamily.com
MISSION STATEMENT:
To cooperate with the Holy Spirit in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with
as many people as possible by nurturing and defending the God-ordained
institution of the family and promoting biblical truths worldwide.
FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATION
EVANGELICAL COUNCIL FOR FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
ACCREDITED
2011-2012 cash and in-kind donations: $91,072,000*
2011-2012 expenses: $101,460,000
85% of funding supports programs services
8% of funding supports fundraising
7% of funding supports administration
Government funding: none
* With other program income, revenues equal $101,325,000
Jim Daly
President
8787 W. Alameda Ave.
Lakewood, CO 80226