Focus on Family Is Offered $4 Million for Colorado Move

A Colorado foundation has offered to give James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, now located in Pomona, a $4-million grant to move to Colorado.

The Christian Evangelical agency, which produces national radio programs, recently disclosed that the El Pomar Foundation offered the money to buy 50 acres of wooded land near the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Focus on the Family announced in June that it plans to move to Colorado Springs within two years.

The grant was described in a July newsletter to Focus supporters, who were told that the move is contingent on the organization’s sale of its California property. The El Pomar Foundation promotes community and economic interests of Colorado. Focus on the Family must move to Colorado in order to receive the grant.

Dobson, 55, a psychologist and former associate clinical professor of pediatrics at USC, founded Focus on the Family in 1977. He is the author of a number of books on family life and child-rearing that promote traditional Christian moral values. Officials said Focus on the Family took in $55 million last year.

Organization officials cited California’s high cost of living and operational overhead as reasons for the move to Colorado, which they claim will save more than $5 million a year. High housing costs in California were another major consideration, they said.

Half of the organization’s 700 employees have said that they will move to Colorado and another third indicated that they will move if spouses can find jobs in Colorado.