You’ve looked at your resources, you’ve cut back your budget, and you’ve applied for a bunch of loans and grants. You look at your adoption budget . . . and there’s still a deficit. Welcome to the world of adoption. If you did get this far and you’ve paid for your adoption, then congratulations! However, most of us just aren’t in this category.
Now that you’ve pursued these first avenues to fund your adoption, you need to get creative. Now is the time for fundraising! Here are some great ways to fundraise for your adoption:
Letters to Family and Friends
I recommend that one of the places that you start with your fundraising is a letter to family and friends. A lot of people don’t feel like they should adopt themselves, but they do want to be involved in the miracle of adoption. We sent letters to our friends, our parent’s friends and also to members of our church. We have been overwhelmed by the generosity that has come our way. People we hardly know have donated money towards our adoption and they have been so excited to be involved in bringing our children home. You may feel uncomfortable about asking your friends and family for assistance. However, try to write the letter from the angle that you are just letting them know about what is going on in your lives and how excited you are about the adoption. Mention that you need help financially if anyone wants to help, but also make it clear that you don’t want anyone to feel obligated. You will be surprised how many people will be excited for you and will want to be involved.
Community Dinner
After writing letters to friends and family, this was our next project. We approached our pastor and asked permission to hold a fundraising dinner after church one Sunday. We served baked potatoes, salad and cookies. It was a great success. The church had a great time and it also raised awareness of our adoption. It also raised over $2500 towards our adoption.
If you are not a member of a church, then you could have a dinner or lunch at a community center or another public place. Often you can get permission to use these locations at no cost to you.
Great foods to serve are spaghetti or, like we did, baked potatoes. These items are relatively inexpensive and easy to prepare. You can ask friends to back cookies and brownies to serve for dessert, which will further reduce your cost. Some people charge a specific amount per person, but we decided to do it by donation only. As far as we can tell, most people donated about $15 and some donated as much as $100. For us, the fundraising dinner was a great experience and it really warmed our hearts to see how much our church and community cared about us and about our future children.