Focus on the Family Board Launches National Search for Successor

President Jim Daly eyes 12- to 18-month transition timeline, citing need for next-gen leadership.

Focus on the Family, one of the country’s largest evangelical nonprofits, has launched a search for a new president ahead of President Jim Daly’s planned retirement after more than 20 years leading the ministry.

Jim Daly / Photo via Focus on the Family

“Over the next few months, our board of directors will be identifying qualified candidates, determining which of them to interview and, after completing those initial interviews, identifying a group of finalists for additional interviews,” Gary Schneeberger, Focus’ assistant to the president for media relations, told Ministry Watch via email. “From that list of finalists the next leader of Focus on the Family will be selected — with board approval.”

50 years of mission work

Focus on the Family, founded in 1977, is a Christian nonprofit that serves more than 2 million families a year and helps people live by biblical principles, aiming for “to happier, healthier families and a stronger society,” according to its website.

“Our goal is to see redeemed families, communities and societies worldwide,” the website states.

The organization produces radio broadcasts and print and online content, and offers counseling services and conferences on topics such as marriage, parenting, foster care and adoption, special needs, and spiritual development.

Roughly 880 people work at Focus on the Family’s headquarters in Colorado Springs, according to the website. The ministry reported more than $138 million in revenue, $81 million in assets, and $142 million in expenses in its 2025 annual report.

The search for a next-gen leader

Schneenberger said the job description for the new president is “bathed in much prayer” and has been “posted nationally.”

“We are looking for the best candidate to speak to and offer help to the couples and their families we serve today, including younger families of 30-to-40-something parents,” Schneenberger told Ministry Watch when asked if the organization would hire from within. “Next-gen leadership, Jim has called it. Our current staff is, of course, free to apply.”

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To manage applications and select final candidates, Focus is partnering with FaithSearch Partners, which has been helping ministries scout leaders for nearly 20 years, according to Schneeberger.

In an online statement, FaithSearch Partners called Focus one of “the most impactful ministries in the nation and the premier organization promoting effective Christian parenting and families.”

“We are honored and blessed to be leading this incredibly important effort,” said Ed Fry, founder and CEO of FaithSearch Partners. “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.”

Daly hopes the succession process wraps up within a 12- to 18-month timeline, Schneenberger said — a timeframe that would coincide with the ministry’s upcoming 50th anniversary in 2027.

“Jim has been clear in discussing the transition with our ministry family and constituents that there is no ‘crisis’ here.” Schneenberger said. “We are not in a rush, and this is simply a reflection of the stage of life he’s in as he approaches his 65th birthday and our desire to ensure that the next generation of leadership is set up for success.”

Schneenberger also promised to keep constituents “informed of the timeline as the process cycles through key milestones.”

Jim Daly’s decades of leadership

Daly, who assumed the role of president in 2005, has worked at Focus since 1989.

Focus will remain consistent with its founding, biblical principles, while addressing today’s cultural issues, which have changed over the past 50 years, Daly said, such as gender and sexuality issues, screen time, and social media dangers, according to The Christian Post.

“My core belief was it’s good to get new faces, new energy, younger leadership to kind of speak to the 30-, 40-somethings now about what they’re facing with marriage and parenting,” Daly told The Christian Post. “I’m going to be turning 65 here. It’s time to start looking for the next-gen leadership. That’s really the goal, and to do it well is the other goal.”

While cultural tides and topics have shifted, Focus’ biblical principles have remained unchanged and are key standards in selecting the next president, Schneenberger said, adding that the organization is working to “ensure that its next president remains ‘on mission.’”

“The skills and experience being sought for our next leader, as you might expect, are many and varied,” Schneenberger told MinistryWatch. “The most critical one is that the next leader be someone who is true to the biblical principles on which Focus on the Family was founded and on which we’ve operated for the last almost 50 years.”

Daly told the Christian Post his own inauguration as president “had some difficulty.” He drew lessons from that experience and will do “the best he can” to avoid similar pitfalls. Daly succeeded founder James Dobson, who left Focus in 2010 to launch the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. Dobson died in August 2025.

“Christians should be leading the way on how to do this well,” Daly said.

Daly will continue his daily responsibilities, including hosting the ministry’s daily radio show — which reaches more than 5 million listeners weekly — until his replacement is ready, according to The Gazette.

Focus’ board of directors will vote on the final candidates to select the next president. The board has also asked Daly to consider staying on in donor relations or a similar role, but he said his top priority is ensuring a smooth transition.

“The outgoing person really sets the tone,” he told The Post. “To make it healthy, I think deference is critical…I’d really encourage the next person not to [try to] be me. You’ve got to be who you are.”

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