THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 13, 1996 TAG: 9601130322
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Operation Blessing, a relief organization largely funded by Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, has laid off a third of its staff and dramatically cut truck convoys that deliver food to poor people in the nation's cities, including those in Hampton Roads.
The nonprofit organization, which has a $36 million annual budget and maintains offices in Virginia Beach and Riverside, Calif., laid off 22 employees in its 65-member staff during the first week of January, said Paul Thompson, Operation Blessing's president and CEO.
Thompson, who took the helm in June, said the layoffs were necessary because the organization had grown too quickly over the past two years, expanding from 13 employees to about 70 employees.
``There was growth that occurred that did not look at long-term sustainability,'' he said. ``In 20-20 hindsight, we shouldn't have grown that quickly or to such an extent.''
Thompson said a nationwide downturn in charitable giving has also taken a toll at the organization and its parent, the Christian Broadcasting Network.
In October, the nonprofit, tax-exempt network laid off 65 people in an effort to streamline and redirect its current staff of about 900 toward a greater focus on international evangelism. Gene Kapp, CBN's vice president of public relations, said at the time that the company faced financial challenges. CBN does not release information about its fund-raising efforts.
The layoffs at Operation Blessing have hobbled one of the organization's best-known programs, the ``Hunger Strike Force Convoy,'' which is focused on trucking bulk food supplies to inner city neighborhoods across the nation. In 1994, the organization said that it provided more than 2 million meals to families in 17 cities.
The organization had 16 trucks in its force, but it has sidelined 12 of them as a result of the layoffs, Thompson said. Four remaining drivers will continue to make deliveries in East Coast cities. Thompson said the organization hopes to re-hire some of the drivers eventually, but won't do that until it can find a new and substantial source of funding.
Operation Blessing started as a part of CBN, but was spun off as a separate organization in 1993. The organization received about $20 million of its $36 million budget in fiscal 1995 as a direct donation from CBN, Thompson said. It also received about 12 million in product donations from corporations, such as food supplies.
But Thompson said he has been charged to lead the organization toward greater self-sufficiency, even as CBN continues to be a major donor. ``It is not healthy for an independent organization like Operation Blessing to put its pole in the CBN fishing hole and only fish there,'' he said.
Operation Blessing will be investigating new sources of revenue, such as corporate grants and private foundations, Thompson said. It will also explore whether some of its programs can receive funding from the federal government.
Thompson said Operation Blessing is going through the process of ``re-invention,'' and has decided to focus its efforts on doing relief work in urban population centers rather than in rural areas, where many relief agencies already operate.
For example, it is continuing a project to convert a passenger jet into a hospital on wings, to fly to major cities in underdeveloped countries, he said. The organization has previously estimated that project's costs at $20 million.
``Changes are necessary inside Operation Blessing,'' Thompson said. ``What is our mission going to be? What is our niche? What distinguishes us from the myriad Christian relief organizations?'' by CNB