| Founded | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Founder | James Dobson |
| 20-0960855 (EIN) | |
| Location |
|
Key people | Craig DeRoche (President & CEO) [1] |
Revenue (2022) | $2,435,770 for the 501(c)3 [2] $1,314,136 for the 501(c)4 [3] |
| Website | familypolicyalliance |
Formerly called | CitizenLink, Focus on the Family Action |
Family Policy Alliance (FPA), formerly CitizenLink and Focus on the Family Action, [4] is an American conservative Christian organization that acts as the lobbying arm of Focus on the Family [5] [6] [7] at the level of state government politics. It is an umbrella organization for an "alliance" of state organizations known as Family Policy Councils [8] which are state-level Focus on the Family affiliates.
The stated mission of Family Policy Alliance is "to advance biblical citizenship, equip and elect statesmen, promote policy and serve an effective alliance, all committed to a common vision". [9] The organization opposes and advocates against same-sex marriage, [10] transgender rights, [11] legal abortion, sexual consent education, [12] marijuana decriminalization, [13] and the Equal Rights Amendment. FPA supports Reaganomics [14] and traditional gender roles. [10] It considers LGBT rights to be a dangerous "LGBT agenda." [15]
As an organization with 501(c)(4) tax status, FPA faces fewer political lobbying restrictions than its affiliate [6] Focus on the Family. FPA lobbying includes "rigorous training by experienced Christian legislative leaders" for politicians who align with the organization's conservative priorities. The organization maintains a 501(c)(3) called Family Policy Foundation or alternatively Family Policy Alliance Foundation. It is a different organization than The Family Foundation, although both are a part of Focus on the Family and have similar goals.
It was founded in 2004 by James Dobson and operates from Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs.
The alliance of lobbying groups that FPA currently coordinates was built by James Dobson, a Southern California psychologist and evangelical Christian radio broadcaster, beginning in the 1980s. Dobson is the founder of Focus on the Family, which described the alliance-building as a "behind-the-scenes" program to affect legislation and culture without appearing to be coordinated. [16] According to The United Methodist Reporter members were urged to keep the existence of the alliance a secret so that they would appear to be diversity of different groups, rather than a coordinated effort. [17] The members of this alliance became known as Family Policy Councils.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Focus on the Family and its state-level Family Policy Councils were associated with highly-visible culture wars, including strong opposition to legal abortion and same-sex marriage. [18] The alliance was unable to maintain its secrecy and became more widely known in the 1990s. The organization Family Policy Alliance has operated since 2004, coordinating the state Family Policy Council organizations. It shares Focus on the Family's Colorado Springs headquarters building.
In 2017, FPA filed an amicus brief jointly with Women's Liberation Front, a trans-exclusionary radical feminist organization, to the US Supreme Court. The brief, in opposition to a lower court ruling for a transgender student, stated "pro-family Christians and radical feminists may not agree about much, but they agree that redefining "sex" to mean "gender identity" is a truly fundamental shift in American law and society." [19] The head of FPA Kansas called this partnership "co-belligerence with strange bedfellows." [20]
At the time of the Trump–Raffensperger phone call, FPA of Georgia sent a fundraising email in support of Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the US presidential election. The group's executive director, Cole Muzio, expressed concern that Georgia is become more liberal and that the church in Georgia is become weaker. Muzio says that these demographic trends are a form of "cheating" in elections, requiring FPA to respond by advocating for election laws favoring conservative Christians. [21]
Journalist Sarah Posner considers this action by FPA to be part of a larger trend in which the American Christian right embraces voter suppression techniques. [21]
In 2024 the Family Policy Foundation filed a Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) complaint against a website which criticized it as "a fake charitable organization with a mission to keep gay people at an inferior legal status." [22] The World Intellectual Property Organization denied the attempt to seize the critical website on the grounds that the organization uses a "confusing" mixture of names (Family Policy Foundation, Family Policy Alliance, and Family Policy Alliance Foundation, all of which are difficult to distinguish from The Family Foundation ) which do not establish strong trademark protections. [23] [24]
According to its website, critics of Family Policy Alliance refer to it as a hate group. [25]
Elisa Rae Shupe, a former supporter of FPA and speaker at their Statesmen Academy, says that the goal of FPA is "to inflict maximum harm" on transgender people. Shupe regrets providing training to lawmakers on how cause harm. She feels that the FPA exploited her mental illness when they recruited her as a speaker. [26]
Family Policy Alliance maintains associations with state-based family policy councils in 40 US states. [27] Each of these partners lobbies for conservative policy at the state government level. Allies include:
Focus on the Family is a fundamentalist Protestant organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s. As of the 2017 tax filing year, Focus on the Family declared itself to be a church, "primarily to protect the confidentiality of our donors." Traditionally, entities considered churches have been ones that have regular worship services and congregants.
James Clayton Dobson Jr. (born April 21, 1936) is an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder of Focus on the Family (FotF), which he led from 1977 until 2010. In the 1980s, he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesmen for conservative social positions in American public life. Although never an ordained minister, he was called "the nation's most influential evangelical leader" by The New York Times while Slate portrayed him as a successor to evangelical leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.
The Christian right, otherwise referred to as the religious right, are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation of the teachings of Christianity. In the United States, that means opposing any interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution that implies a "separation of church and state".
The Family Research Council (FRC) is an American evangelical 501(c)(3) non-profit activist group and think-tank with an affiliated lobbying organization. FRC promotes what it considers to be family values. It opposes and lobbies against: access to pornography, embryonic stem-cell research, abortion, divorce, and LGBT rights—such as anti-discrimination laws, same-sex marriage, same-sex civil unions, and LGBT adoption. The FRC has been criticized by media sources and professional organizations such as the American Sociological Association for using "anti-gay pseudoscience" to falsely conflate homosexuality and pedophilia, and to falsely claim that the children of same-sex parents suffer from more mental health problems.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious liberties and practices within public schools and in government, outlaw abortion, and oppose LGBTQ rights. ADF is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with branch offices in several locations including Washington, D.C., and New York. Its international subsidiary, Alliance Defending Freedom International, with headquarters in Vienna, Austria, operates in over 100 countries.
"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a term used by sectors of the Christian religious right as a disparaging way to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations and relationships. The term originated among social conservatives in the United States and has been adopted in nations with active anti-LGBT movements such as Hungary and Uganda.
The Arlington Group was a coalition uniting the leaders of prominent Christian conservative organizations in the United States. Founded in 2002 principally through the efforts of American Family Association President Donald Wildmon and Free Congress Foundation Chairman Paul Weyrich, the group sought to establish consensus goals and strategy among its members and translate its combined constituency into an overwhelming force within the Republican Party, particularly at its highest levels. Its membership and purpose overlapped to a high degree with the Council for National Policy; but the group is much more narrowly focused, choosing to emphasize such issues as same-sex marriage, abortion, and confirmation of like-minded federal judges.
Richard Cizik is the president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good. He was the Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and one of the most prominent Evangelical lobbyists in the United States. In his position with the NAE, Cizik's primary responsibilities were setting the organisation's policy on issues and lobbying the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Cizik also served as NAE's national spokesman and edited a monthly magazine, NAE Washington Insight. Since 2003, Cizik has been active in a type of environmentalism known as "creation care". His stance on global warming has drawn both support and criticism from fellow Evangelicals. He serves on the board of advisors of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.
A Family Policy Council (FPC) is one of several US state-level organizations affiliated with Focus on the Family (FotF), a nationwide conservative Christian organization. Family Policy Councils work for policies that FotF describes as "pro-family". These include opposition to same-sex marriage, LGBT adoption, and LGBT workplace protections, and support for abstinence-only sex education, increased legal restrictions on abortion and traditional Christian gender roles. FPCs also work to shape public opinion, organize political demonstrations, and cultivate future politicians.
The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation is an American conservative non-profit organization and grant-making body formed in 1970. Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the organization was founded by Richard DeVos Sr., co-founder of the multi-level marketing company Amway and former finance chair of the Republican National Committee, and his wife Helen. As of 2014, the foundation had $54.9 million in assets. It is one of five non-profit organizations established and operated by the DeVos family; the others, all founded by siblings of Richard DeVos Jr., include the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation; the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation; Cheri DeVos’ CDV5 Foundation; and the Douglas and Maria DeVos Foundation.
The National Day of Prayer Task Force is an American evangelical conservative Christian non-profit organization which organizes, coordinates, and presides over Evangelical Christian religious observances each year on the National Day of Prayer.
Social conservatism in the United States is a political ideology focused on the preservation of traditional values and beliefs. It focuses on a concern with moral and social values which proponents of the ideology see as degraded in modern society by liberalism. In the United States, one of the largest forces of social conservatism is the Christian right.
Jim Daly is the head of Focus on the Family, an international Christian communications ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He succeeded founder James Dobson in 2005.
Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is an American Christian organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded in 1983. MFC is a family policy council affiliated with Focus on the Family and Alliance Defending Freedom. The organization advocates for the passage of socially conservative policies in the state. It also produces voter guides to encourage its supporters to elect conservative lawmakers. After registering as a political action committee in 2011, MFC has lobbied against abortion and same-sex marriage, and in favor of single-sex school bathroom and athletics policies.
The Women's Liberation Front (WoLF) is an American self-described radical feminist advocacy organization that opposes transgender rights and related legislation. It has engaged in litigation on transgender topics, working against the Obama administration's Title IX directives which defined sex discrimination to include gender identity. WoLF describes itself as radical feminist, and according to its mission statement, it wishes to "abolish regressive gender roles and the epidemic of male violence using legal arguments, policy advocacy, and public education". It has been described by news sources including The Washington Post, The Advocate and NBC as feminist, but progressive and feminist organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)and the National Organization for Women (NOW) challenge this characterization, with NOW describing WoLF alongside Women's Declaration International as "anti-trans bigots disguised as feminists."
Nebraska Family Alliance (NFA) is a fundamentalist Christian 501(c)(3) organization based in Lincoln, Nebraska. It most prominently lobbies against LGBT rights, such as same-sex marriage and LGBT adoption. The NFA also seeks legal restrictions on abortion, and to change public policy on gambling and human trafficking. It advocates for traditional family structures and gender roles.
Family Foundation of Virginia is a socially conservative and Christian fundamentalist lobbying organization headquartered in the US city of Richmond, Virginia. It was focused originally on opposition to sex education. It has expanded to opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, nondiscrimination policies, and same-sex marriage. The organization supports legal conversion therapy for minors and increased legal restriction on abortion.
Family Policy Alliance of Kansas is a conservative Christian lobbying group and the state affiliate of Family Policy Alliance in Kansas. The affiliate was previously known as Kansas Family Research Institute.
The Hands Across the Aisle Coalition (HATAC) is an organization founded in 2017 and operating primarily in the United States, known for its opposition to transgender rights. The organization aims to connect trans-exclusionary radical feminists with conservative Christian anti-LGBT groups, ostensibly "tabling [their] ideological differences" to "oppose gender identity ideology". The organization actively supports anti-LGBT groups in legislation targeting transgender rights.
Family Policy Alliance, the lobbying arm of Focus on the Family, advocates against education about race and LGBTQ identities under the umbrella of protecting "parental rights."
