Promise Keepers Recalls Employees

Promise Keepers, the Christian men’s evangelical group, which last month laid off its entire paid staff of 345 people, has recalled all of its employees.

The Denver group, best known for holding religious rallies in sports stadiums around the country, said that it could afford to reinstate its staff members because it received $4-million in donations last month. The contributions, from tens of thousands of individuals and churches around the country, flooded into the organization after it announced a budget shortfall and the layoffs in mid-February.

Promise Keepers officials said at the time that revenue from donations and product sales — which totaled $7-million for January and February — had not kept pace with the group’s $67-million budget for 1998.

Until last fall, the group relied almost entirely on the money it earned from admissions fees to its religious events. But in a surprising turnaround, Promise Keepers announced that it would no longer charge men $60 to attend the events and that the group would instead rely mostly on charitable donations to finance its works.

In all, the layoff, effective March 31, lasted little more than two weeks. During that time, about 100 workers stayed on as volunteers. They were joined by about 75 non-employees who volunteered their time. More than 300 employees were expected to report back to work last week.

A Promise Keepers spokesman said that the group had shaved this year’s budget down to $48-million but that it would still stage the 19 stadium events planned for 1998.