I was recently asked about creative adoption financing. I thought I'd put links to all of my past posts on fund raising or adoption financing here in one post for those of you who are new to my blog.
Hope this is helpful. Click on the title to go to the post.
God Finances Adoption
Adoption Fundraising 101
Our Fundraiser
Silent Auctions
One of the couples I'm working with is throwing a fund raiser September 13th. Check out their INVITATION at their blog, and while you're at it why don't you consider giving a donation to their adoption fund! There's a handy pay pal link on their blog.
Showing posts with label Fundraising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fundraising. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Employee Adoption Benefits on the Rise
For a great article on the increase of employee adoption benefits go to CNN.com
If you're considering adoption, make sure you inquire to find out if your employer offers adoption benefits. I've seen benefits include reimbursement for expenses ranging from $2,000-10,000. In addition many companies are offering time off for adoption travel. I even have heard of one case where an employee asked his company to consider adding adoption benefits, explained to them the benefit of creating an adoption benefit package, and the employer added this to the company benefit plan!
If you're considering adoption, make sure you inquire to find out if your employer offers adoption benefits. I've seen benefits include reimbursement for expenses ranging from $2,000-10,000. In addition many companies are offering time off for adoption travel. I even have heard of one case where an employee asked his company to consider adding adoption benefits, explained to them the benefit of creating an adoption benefit package, and the employer added this to the company benefit plan!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Silent Auctions
A silent auction can be a huge success and is always a lot of fun at a fund raiser! Have a starting bid and an ending time, and allow people to out bid each other throughout the evening.
This gift basked contained candles, CD's, and tickets to the Kansas City ballet!
Here's a fun basket with some teas, coffee, and hot chocolate!
Hit up your local coffee shops, hair salons, day salons, and other local businesses for donations of goods and services!
This gift basked contained candles, CD's, and tickets to the Kansas City ballet!
Here's a fun basket with some teas, coffee, and hot chocolate!
Hit up your local coffee shops, hair salons, day salons, and other local businesses for donations of goods and services!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Adoption Fundraising 101
In addition to grants and loans that are available for couples pursuing adoption, there are many creative ways to raise the large amount of money needed.
I always advice my couples this way:
1. Let people know you are planning to adopt. Send out a letter to family and friends, like a birth announcement! Let them know the expense that you are facing and ask them to support you if they can. Share with them your heart for adoption and allow them the joy of partnering with you. There are many people out there who cannot adopt but desire to walk out James 1:27 by giving.
2. Plan a fund raising event. Be creative.
- Choose a theme (Be unique: I just attended a Valentine themed dinner, Ours was a crazy 80's night theme, one of my couples is planning a Mexican Fiesta)
- Decide what you will serve (I've seen everything from dessert and coffee to a sit down catered dinner and everything in between.)
- Find a location (community centers, churches, restaraunts, etc)
-Get HELP! There are always friends out there who love doing this kind of thing. Get help so you don't burn yourself out. You can even see if you can get a party planner to give you a good deal and take the whole thing for you!
-Always make your fundraiser a ticketed event. My suggestion is that you give people options for their ticket prices. For our 80's night music themed fund raiser, we had different ticket prices like this: Vinyl- $25, Silver- $50, Platinum- $100, Gold $250. Friends of ours had a flower themed event and their tickets were Carnation, Daisy, Rose, and Orchid (I think).
-Other things you can add to your dinner:
-A silent auction (get local businesses to donate gift certificates, gift baskets, products or services, get local artists to donate photography and artwork)
-A live auction is fun too!
3. Raffels or Online Auctions. You can get people to donate good and services and have an online auction through ebay or even on your blog with a deadline. In the blogs people can leave their bids in the comment section and have a limited number of days until the auction closes.
Other ideas:
1. One of the couples that I am working with set up an account with www.onecause.com
OneCause is a nontraditional fundraising program that will help us earn the funds we need through everyday opportunities, such as shopping on-line, in stores and catalogs, purchasing gift certificates, by using the OneCause credit card, or through a variety of other easy programs.
2. If you like to write and especially if you have a lot of family and friends out of town, set up a blog to journal your process and allow people to stay connected and feel part of your journey. You can even set up a DONATE link on your side bar for people wanting to give to your adoption fund.
3. Non-profit Fundraising Sales: Gather a group of eager helpers, maybe even kids from your youth group at church and do a fund raiser similar to what some schools do to raise funds for band, senior trips, etc. Here's a link to check out.
4. Here's another option A Child's Desire.
(there are hundreds of other adoption fundraising ideas with just a quick google search!)
Feel free to post other ideas that have worked for you or others you know!!!
Again, Pray! Above all else I believe that God's heart is for adoption and He will provide!
I always advice my couples this way:
1. Let people know you are planning to adopt. Send out a letter to family and friends, like a birth announcement! Let them know the expense that you are facing and ask them to support you if they can. Share with them your heart for adoption and allow them the joy of partnering with you. There are many people out there who cannot adopt but desire to walk out James 1:27 by giving.
2. Plan a fund raising event. Be creative.
- Choose a theme (Be unique: I just attended a Valentine themed dinner, Ours was a crazy 80's night theme, one of my couples is planning a Mexican Fiesta)
- Decide what you will serve (I've seen everything from dessert and coffee to a sit down catered dinner and everything in between.)
- Find a location (community centers, churches, restaraunts, etc)
-Get HELP! There are always friends out there who love doing this kind of thing. Get help so you don't burn yourself out. You can even see if you can get a party planner to give you a good deal and take the whole thing for you!
-Always make your fundraiser a ticketed event. My suggestion is that you give people options for their ticket prices. For our 80's night music themed fund raiser, we had different ticket prices like this: Vinyl- $25, Silver- $50, Platinum- $100, Gold $250. Friends of ours had a flower themed event and their tickets were Carnation, Daisy, Rose, and Orchid (I think).
-Other things you can add to your dinner:
-A silent auction (get local businesses to donate gift certificates, gift baskets, products or services, get local artists to donate photography and artwork)
-A live auction is fun too!
3. Raffels or Online Auctions. You can get people to donate good and services and have an online auction through ebay or even on your blog with a deadline. In the blogs people can leave their bids in the comment section and have a limited number of days until the auction closes.
Other ideas:
1. One of the couples that I am working with set up an account with www.onecause.com
OneCause is a nontraditional fundraising program that will help us earn the funds we need through everyday opportunities, such as shopping on-line, in stores and catalogs, purchasing gift certificates, by using the OneCause credit card, or through a variety of other easy programs.
2. If you like to write and especially if you have a lot of family and friends out of town, set up a blog to journal your process and allow people to stay connected and feel part of your journey. You can even set up a DONATE link on your side bar for people wanting to give to your adoption fund.
3. Non-profit Fundraising Sales: Gather a group of eager helpers, maybe even kids from your youth group at church and do a fund raiser similar to what some schools do to raise funds for band, senior trips, etc. Here's a link to check out.
4. Here's another option A Child's Desire.
(there are hundreds of other adoption fundraising ideas with just a quick google search!)
Feel free to post other ideas that have worked for you or others you know!!!
Again, Pray! Above all else I believe that God's heart is for adoption and He will provide!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Our Fund Raiser
To read about our fund raiser click HERE and HERE.
In addition to "selling tickets" with suggested levels of donations like Vinyl, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, we had an auction of some artwork, a large gift basket, and some fun 80's items at the event. (all items were donated)
People give because they want to give and believe in what you are doing. Most of our tickets were purchased for a minimum of $50-100 each. We sold an old Atari system for several hundred dollars. The important thing at a fund raiser is that you have fun and people hear your story and feel part of what you are doing!
I'll post more fund raising ideas down the road!
Monday, November 26, 2007
God Finances Adoptions
People have asked me many times. How much did your adoption cost? How did you get the money?
That seems to be one of the first questions out of people's mouths when they find out that we adopted a baby.
To be honest it was one of the first questions we asked when we first began to pursue adoption in a serious way. Here's our story.
October 2007. We met with a couple who had just adopted, and their question to us was "Are you really serious about this?" Our answer was "Yes". They then began to tell us their story, all the things we would need to do to begin our journey, and they connected us with Amy Young, our adoption consultant. Our question was "How on earth do we afford this?" Over and over again they told us "God will take care of it. The money will come in!"
November 2007. We were handed a check for $1000 and took "baby step #1" and scheduled our first home study visit.
November 2007. An unexpected inheritance check came a few weeks later and we sent our payment to Christian Adoption Consultants, and they began preparing our profile. $1900 was left from the inheritance check and we started our savings account. Another check for $800 came in from an overpayment on our mortgage on the closing of our house in Pennsylvania.
You can add. That makes $2700, and we were well aware that would need up to $25,000. I'll be honest, the though overwhelmed me.
Our next step was to send out a letter to friends and family announcing our adoption plans and asking them to consider supporting us in it. Several thousand dollars came in and our savings account began to grow.
January 2008. Our second step was to begin plan a fund raiser. Our friends had been successful with a fund raising event and were willing and ready to help us plan ours. If not for their story I would have never believed it possible to "raise" enough money for an adoption with an event like this.
February 19, 2007. In the midst of planning our fund raiser, we finished our home study and were matched with a birth mom in Louisiana. And we'd been matched to an agency that was non-profit and very low cost. We were told that we may only need about $10,000-$12,000. Another answer to prayer!
You've never seen a fund raiser put together so quickly. We mailed out invitations in the midst of phone calls to check on our birth mom who is due early April and on bed rest with toxemia. And we prayed.
February 27, 2007. We are given a check for $3000.
March 5, 2007. Our fund raiser is scheduled for March 7, 2007 and people are beginning to RSVP with checks coming in daily. Our birth mom calls and is in the hospital with high blood pressure again. She may go home if they can get it under control.
March 6, 2007. I've finished all the shopping for the fund raiser and am on my way home to put all the food in the refrigerator. The phone rings. Our birth mom tells me that they will be inducing her in the morning. I kick into high gear... the only gear available to a momma whose baby is going to be born TOMORROW in a state 8 hours away, who is supposed to be hosting a fund raising party in 24 hours.
To make a long story shorter, we pack quickly, get in the van and head to Louisiana, while our dear friends and family step up to the plate and throw our fund raiser without us! Elia's fund raiser becomes a BIRTHDAY PARTY- March 7, 2007!
And God Provided for every need, every step of the way, at the moment it was needed. The fund raiser was a blast and deposits were made into our account for us. Every time we had to write a check, whether to the agency, the lawyers in Louisiana, the hospital, our motel... the money was there just in time.
The remaining costs of follow up home visits, some additional medical bills, and legal fees have all be paid. He paid it all by opening up the hearts of His children to the Spirit of Adoption and by asking them to give. We continue to be overwhelmed at the outpouring of love from the many who have given to Elia's adoption.
God's heart is for adoption, after all it is His desire to adopt each of us into His family. He paid a very dear price to call us His sons and daughters. Elia's life was precious to Him, and He provided the ransom for her to be placed in our family.
If you are considering adoption and finances are in the way, I encourage you to believe that God Finances Adoptions!!!!
That seems to be one of the first questions out of people's mouths when they find out that we adopted a baby.
To be honest it was one of the first questions we asked when we first began to pursue adoption in a serious way. Here's our story.
October 2007. We met with a couple who had just adopted, and their question to us was "Are you really serious about this?" Our answer was "Yes". They then began to tell us their story, all the things we would need to do to begin our journey, and they connected us with Amy Young, our adoption consultant. Our question was "How on earth do we afford this?" Over and over again they told us "God will take care of it. The money will come in!"
November 2007. We were handed a check for $1000 and took "baby step #1" and scheduled our first home study visit.
November 2007. An unexpected inheritance check came a few weeks later and we sent our payment to Christian Adoption Consultants, and they began preparing our profile. $1900 was left from the inheritance check and we started our savings account. Another check for $800 came in from an overpayment on our mortgage on the closing of our house in Pennsylvania.
You can add. That makes $2700, and we were well aware that would need up to $25,000. I'll be honest, the though overwhelmed me.
Our next step was to send out a letter to friends and family announcing our adoption plans and asking them to consider supporting us in it. Several thousand dollars came in and our savings account began to grow.
January 2008. Our second step was to begin plan a fund raiser. Our friends had been successful with a fund raising event and were willing and ready to help us plan ours. If not for their story I would have never believed it possible to "raise" enough money for an adoption with an event like this.
February 19, 2007. In the midst of planning our fund raiser, we finished our home study and were matched with a birth mom in Louisiana. And we'd been matched to an agency that was non-profit and very low cost. We were told that we may only need about $10,000-$12,000. Another answer to prayer!
You've never seen a fund raiser put together so quickly. We mailed out invitations in the midst of phone calls to check on our birth mom who is due early April and on bed rest with toxemia. And we prayed.
February 27, 2007. We are given a check for $3000.
March 5, 2007. Our fund raiser is scheduled for March 7, 2007 and people are beginning to RSVP with checks coming in daily. Our birth mom calls and is in the hospital with high blood pressure again. She may go home if they can get it under control.
March 6, 2007. I've finished all the shopping for the fund raiser and am on my way home to put all the food in the refrigerator. The phone rings. Our birth mom tells me that they will be inducing her in the morning. I kick into high gear... the only gear available to a momma whose baby is going to be born TOMORROW in a state 8 hours away, who is supposed to be hosting a fund raising party in 24 hours.
To make a long story shorter, we pack quickly, get in the van and head to Louisiana, while our dear friends and family step up to the plate and throw our fund raiser without us! Elia's fund raiser becomes a BIRTHDAY PARTY- March 7, 2007!
And God Provided for every need, every step of the way, at the moment it was needed. The fund raiser was a blast and deposits were made into our account for us. Every time we had to write a check, whether to the agency, the lawyers in Louisiana, the hospital, our motel... the money was there just in time.
The remaining costs of follow up home visits, some additional medical bills, and legal fees have all be paid. He paid it all by opening up the hearts of His children to the Spirit of Adoption and by asking them to give. We continue to be overwhelmed at the outpouring of love from the many who have given to Elia's adoption.
God's heart is for adoption, after all it is His desire to adopt each of us into His family. He paid a very dear price to call us His sons and daughters. Elia's life was precious to Him, and He provided the ransom for her to be placed in our family.
If you are considering adoption and finances are in the way, I encourage you to believe that God Finances Adoptions!!!!
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