1. Start a blog.

I started with an extremely personal (free) blog to let friends and family know what was happening throughout the process. The adoption journey can be long and tedious. There are so many times your outer circle may think you’re just sitting there doing squat, when in reality, you’re filling out the 100th financial worksheet for your adoption agency. So, start the blog. Share the mundane. Share photos of you buying your fire extinguisher for your home study tour. Share the stories of all the late nights you’ve stayed up watching required educational videos. Your blog will help you rally a network of support that will be able to come alongside of you in multiple ways. Your blog will help you explain your fundraiser concisely and will allow people to ask questions in an easy space. You can organize all your activities for your event there on your blog which will allow you to keep all your ducks in a row. Throwing a fundraising event can be overwhelming, but utilizing your blog to help keep yourself organized and in check will benefit you in the long run.

2. Get creative.

People respond well to fundraisers where they get something, so work those tangible fundraiser items into your big fundraiser event. People seem to have more success doing things that gave people something tangible in return for their donation. If you have a skill, use it. Make those jewelry pieces and sell them. Utilize Etsy and your social media connections to hit a wider audience. Bracelets always seem shinier when they’ll help bring a sweet baby home. Working these into your fundraiser event will help that event be more lucrative and more successful. You’ll bring in more cash and possibly more participants. 

3. Manage the timing. 

Know your timeline and make your fundraising work. Make sure to schedule your event at the time of year that will make you the most bang for your buck. Call for donations for your adoption fundraiser yard sale in March and April, then host the sale in May. You wouldn’t do well (and would freeze your sweet fanny off accidentally) doing this in November. If you have some downtime while you wait (because let’s be honest, there’s a lot of waiting), plan an online silent auction. We hosted ours on Facebook and made about $1,500. We did it in February one year—that was a slow time for us personally which allowed us to put a lot of time commitment into the auction. People shopped from the comfort of their snuggies at home, and we were able to pay off some serious international. Know your timeline and organize it well. Fundraisers that makes sense within the schedules of your donors will make a huge impact.

4. Don’t waste your time on silly ventures.

Not every fundraiser will fit your schedule, your family, or your circle of supporters. A dinner never worked for us. We had two biological kids while we were in process, so we just didn’t do it. Thankfully. Honestly, I wouldn’t have wanted to try and find a big enough location, bought and prepared all that food, to walk away with $200. We tried a poker tournament one year and ended up in the same boat. I spent weeks advertising, acquiring donated tables, snacks, and necessary items like cards and chips, finding a location, and organizing the night. We ended up with quite a few people, and all the participants had a ton of fun, but we walked away with $300. Sure, $300 is still $300, but it was weeks of work and didn’t even cover one fee entirely. We didn’t do it again. It was a one and done, lesson learned kind of deal. Be honest when it comes to figuring out who you are and who you know. Don’t try and sell flowers as a fundraiser if all of your family has allergies.  

5. Have faith.

Adoption is not for the faint of heart. It takes persistence and passion to hang on until the ride stops (or just begins, really). Bringing your kid home is the opposite of implying your journey is over, and sometimes you just have to have faith. We fundraised half of our adoption through our blog and creative ideas when I couldn’t even sell a roll of wrapping paper in high school for our chorus field trip. It’s hard, but it’s possible. Love your family, wherever they may be, and keep on keepin’ on. Do not worry about tomorrow; the money will come some way or another. Just have faith.

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1. Adoption Bridge is a ministry of Every Child Has a Name. Their mission is to bring waiting children and loving families together by bridging the gap between the emotional needs and financial challenges of adoption. You can use their crowdfunding feature to secure up to 1/3 of the expenses. You start by creating a Waiting Family profile. You can also create a Waiting Family profile using the non-crowdfunding feature to tell your story to birth mothers. For more information visit www.adoptionbridge.org
2. AdoptTogether is the world’s largest crowdfunding platform. On the website you simply create an AdoptTogether family profile to tell your story then you invite friends and family to make designated donations that are tax-deductible to help you bring your child home. To create your profile visit www.adopttogether.org
3. You Caring is the leader in free online fundraising. They focus on compassionate fundraising and support for humanitarian causes. You Caring has helped raise over $1 billion with more than 857,000 fundraisers. You can begin your fundraiser in as little as five minutes. To create your fundraiser, visit www.youcaring.com.  
4. Go Fund Me is one of the easiest crowdfunding websites to use to raise money. Just like YouCaring, there is no fee. All you do is create your site, share your story, share your site with friends, and collect your funds. It’s easy to share your site using social media platforms such as Facebook. To get started visit www.gofundme.com

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How do you go about adoption fundraising?

The cost of adoption can be overwhelming and even discouraging to the point that it hinders many couples from ever starting the process. For many families, including my own, adoption would not be possible without fundraising. It’s intimidating and humbling to ask others for help. So, how do you get over being afraid to ask for help? Ultimately, you need to be willing to be vulnerable, and that takes courage.

When my husband and I announced our plans to adopt, we wrote an open letter on our blog explaining our heart behind why we wished to adopt and invited others to join with us and support us financially. We included a link to our online fundraising page. This first step was hard as we allowed others a glimpse into our hopes and dreams for our family. You can’t control the responses you will receive, for better or worse. But I remember being overjoyed when we received our first donation from a woman who we weren’t that close with, but she had been touched by the gift of adoption in her family.

We proceeded on in our fundraising with confidence, though it stung to be vulnerable at times, and I was often plagued with worry. We bought a house right before we announced our plans to adopt. I worried some people would roll their eyes and scoff and think if they can afford a new house, then surely they can afford an adoption. I desperately wanted to justify our purchase by telling people that although our new house was bigger and in a nicer area, the move actually helped provide us with cash to help towards our adoption because we bought our first home as a foreclosure and spend several years slowly fixing it up. But you know what? I didn’t tell anyone. Because I knew if I did that then I would end up justifying every single purchase in my life and feeling guilty about every purchase.

I had a revelation years ago, which is that when I give, I need to give freely and willingly; it’s not my place to judge. I don’t expect people who are fundraising to stop living. It was my prayer that others granted me the same grace as we fundraised. We saved as much as we could, and ultimately put most of our money towards our adoption, but we still needed help from others, and that help allowed us to not be quite so completely wiped out when our son came home.

It’s also important to remember that some people are delighted to give generously and they want to have a part in creating your family. And on the flip side, understand that people don’t have to give, and you can’t take it personally. One thing is for sure: enduring the fundraising process has made us more generous in our giving. I hope others find the same to be true. We are all in this together.

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For many people considering adoption today, the number one reason that they are not moving forward and actually starting the process to adopt is money. Is fundraising an adoption possible?

The high cost of adoption, whether international or domestic, is a huge deterrent to families pursuing it. The average cost of an international adoption currently ranges from $32,000 to $45,000 depending on the country and agency. The average domestic adoption has a huge cost range, but can go as high as $40,000 for private adoption of a newborn.

Most couples who want to adopt simply don’t have that money on hand to fund an adoption. So how can you proceed with your dream of adopting when you don’t have the money to do it?

We started our first adoption of our daughter from China in November 2012, and brought her home in December 2013. Our total cost for her adoption from beginning to end was just over $30,000. We did not have $30,000 upfront, but we were fully funded by the time we completed the adoption.

We are now finishing the process to bring our son home from China. We have budgeted $40,000 for this adoption because we are bringing our three children with us when we travel. We have worked really hard, and we have raised all of the funds we have needed and will be fully funded again.

Here is how we went through fundraising an adoption for our son.

Personal Funds: The first thing that we did was take a good hard look at our finances. Most agencies ask for a summary of them anyway as part of the application process, so we took it upon ourselves to dig deep and see what we had. Between our savings and a money market account, we have contributed $6,200 of our own funds to this adoption. Here is a free resource to help you look at your finances.

Fundraisers: While many people are hesitant to ask friends and family to contribute to their adoption, we found that most people were willing donors. Many commented that they didn’t feel like they were in a place to adopt, but were excited to help someone else. For our son’s adoption, we did two major fundraisers.

1. Christmas Ornaments: We decided to adopt our son in October of 2016 and were ready to announce his adoption to our friends and family by November. We did that in the form of a social media post, and included a link to our fundraiser, which was Christmas ornaments. A friend designed the graphic for the design, and it cost us about $500 out of pocket for the fundraiser, between the cost of the ornaments and the cost of mailing them to people who weren’t close enough to hand deliver. Instead of asking for a set cost, we did a number chart from 1-200. We asked people to pick a number and donate that number in dollars to our YouCaring account. They got one ornament for whatever donation they made. We raised $7,200.
2. Yard Sale: We scoured our house for sellable items, and then put requests out on Facebook and social media asking our friends and family to donate any items they had but didn’t want. It was a great opportunity for people who couldn’t afford to give money to our adoption to still participate by donating items from around their houses. We had a hall donated to us and hosted one giant sale. When it was over, we took home what we thought we could sell on social media for a decent price, and donated what was left to charity. We made $3,800 total. TIP: If you have them, make sure you put pictures up of the child that you’re adopting or at least put signs up that the sale benefits your adoption. When people read that, they’re likely to pay more for their items knowing it’s a great cause.

Grant: Sorting through the variety of grants that are available to see what you qualify for and then going through the application process for each can be tedious, but it’s also often very worth the trouble. With our first adoption, we applied for four grants and received three. This time, we only applied for one grant and we got it. My husband is a pastor, and we are eligible for a $3,000 grant from his denomination upon returning home with our son, so we will receive that money at the end of the process.

Extended Family Donations: We are very fortunate to have friends and family who are eager to help us bring our son home, and they have been very generous. To date, we have received $12,100.

Families from China: We have been the recipient of an unexpected $6,200 gift from the foster families that have cared for our son to this point. They all contributed in his name to the medical foundation that oversees his care, and asked that that money be sent to us to help us get him home.

Proceeds from My Book: As a 2016 Christmas gift for a couple of family members, I wrote a book of devotions. I wondered if I could bring in any money toward our adoption by publishing it and putting it up for sale. I went through that process and to date have made $250. It’s not the most lucrative venture, but every bit helps!

Other Donations: We have not hesitated to share our story and our goals with our friends, family, church congregation, and on social media. And even though we have only ever asked for money in connection to a fundraiser, we have been continually surprised by the people that are moved by a blog post we write about our adoption journey or by a trial that we faced on our way to get him. We kept open the YouCaring account that we set up for the ornament fundraiser, and to date, we have an additional $4,000 that has been given either through that account or through checks pressed into our hands at church or through a few dollars that is tucked into a card we received.

The total we have raised for this adoption now stands at $42,750. We are fully funded.

As you start your journey, here are a few tips to make your process go smoothly and your funding flow.

• Share your story. Never underestimate the generosity of people touched by your story. Start a blog or a Facebook group. Document your process on social media.

• Limit the amount of fundraisers you do. Many people want to give but are tapped out. We have found that if you invest your time and energy in just two or three major fundraisers, you’ll have more success than doing a different one every month.

• Don’t limit generosity. We sold 78 Christmas ornaments. Had we sold them for $15 each, we would have made $1,170. Because we left the donation requests open, we received donations in the range of $1 all the way up to $200 for the same ornament. Doing it this way, we averaged $92.30 per ornament.

• Apply for grants. As I mentioned, we applied for more grants with our first adoption than our second, but the money is out there. Take the time to fill out the applications.

• Look for creative ways to save money for your adoption. Many adoptions, even domestic ones, require travel. Invest in a credit card that earns you hotel points or airline miles early on in your process. We are paying for a portion of our in-country travel with points.

• Low-interest loans are available. If all else fails and you need a loan, check out this resource for more information on what’s available.

Don’t let money hold you back from welcoming a child into your family forever. And don’t forget to check out these other ideas for fundraising an adoption.

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Many adoptive parents aren’t sitting on thousands of dollars of liquid cash, just wanting to be passed around to various agency and governmental organizations. If you do have that, kudos to you. We all want to be you when we grow up. But, the majority of us have to bust our rear ends to meet those pesky fee deadlines. Some of us utilize various sources to help, from grants, direct donations, second (or third or fourth) jobs, loans, and fundraising techniques. Well, here are ten of the craziest, most fun adoption fundraising ideas that just might work.

1. A Tailgater’s Dream

Do you love tailgating? If you bleed a specific color and HAVE to attend each and every event, this fundraiser may be the perfect fit for you. Have various beaded necklaces and alcoholic shot options – any donation can get you either a necklace or a shot. You just need a couple bold friends to join you as you walk around soliciting for donations. It’s fun, little to no overhead, and you can make serious cash fast.

2. Parents’ Night Out

You may go crazy by the end of the night, but a fun way to make some cash in one night is to offer your babysitting services for an evening. Parents can drop off their kids at your house for a few hours while they get a much deserved night on the town. Donated amounts help bump up the price, and you’ll probably have a good laugh dealing with all the little crazies running around. Plus, what better way to prepare you for your own kiddo?

3. Silent Auction

Although it may not seem very crazy at the start, a silent auction can turn into a fast-action battle when a few bidders are passionate about your items. Gather donated items. Make sure your items are awesome and span a variety of price points and demographics. List them all online (social media sites are a good place for this) with a start and end time and date – be specific! You can either use a starting bid, or do any donation welcome. Then, as you’re coming down to the wire, make sure to remind those bidders when they’ve been outbid! Keep things interesting. Close out your auction promptly, despite any battles. Mail things out as quickly as possible and roll in your profits. You can easily make hundreds, maybe even thousands, which is pretty fun if you ask me.

4. Goat Milk Soap

I thought we were crazy to sell soap as an adoption fundraiser. Who would buy these cute little bars? Would we even make a profit? Guys – we made over $1,000 selling these soaps and loved every minute of it. They keep your house smelling amazing while you’re hosting your fundraiser, and the soap really does sell itself. Check out details at https://gmsfundraiser.com/.

5. Beard-a-thon

If you’ve got some hairy men (or women!) in your life, this is the perfect fundraiser. You’ll need a couple guys to ward off shaving for a certain time – typically people choose 2-6 months of fundraising time for people to grow their beards! Once you have your beard growers, those growers will need to get sponsors. Ideally, you’ll want about 10 sponsors per beardie, paying about $10/month of growth. This can give you a huge profit at little to no effort. You just need some people who strive to be “hairy for orphan care.”

6. Yard Sale

An adoption yard sale can be nuts. When you start asking for donations, people come out of nowhere to give you their unwanted items. The amount of stuff you’ll accumulate will be almost too much to deal with, but it will be so nice to sell it off! Pick a nice day, at a great location, to make sure you can get the most traffic. Make awesome signs stating how many families donated and where the proceeds are going. You can quickly make over $1,000 in a weekend, but you will be completely exhausted by the end!

7. Bazaars

All you have to do is gather some awesome vendors in for a fun night! They can either pay a vendor fee, or donate a certain percentage of proceeds to your adoption fund. Then, collect your cash and make some friends. If you time it right, you could even go Christmas shopping at your own fundraiser!

Fundraising is stressful, but it doesn’t have to be boring. If you use some of these creative ideas, you’ll be sure to get enough proceeds to cover some of those impending fees. Roll up your sleeves, put on a smile, and get to work.

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