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Most couples know coming into an adoption what types of costs they will face during the process. Yet somehow many find themselves half way through the journey wondering where the money will come from. While there are many avenues available to help families find money for adoptions, one that is often over looked is that of fund raising.
Too often, families get stuck looking for grants, loans, employer reimbursement (all which should be pursued) but we forget that there are other avenues that with a little elbow grease, income can come in to help with expenses. Often this is much easier when people realize the reason for the fundraiser.
About a week or two ago, this article ran in the Arizona Republic Online Edition I thought that you guys might find this interesting and helpful. Let us know what you have done to raise funds for your adoption.
Fund-raisers help couples cover high adoption fees
May. 14, 2006 12:00 AMStories by Lisa Nicita Photos by Pat Shannahan
Most couples awaiting the arrival of a child adjust their budgets for endless packages of diapers, the perfect car-seat-and-stroller combo, and irresistible outfits their kids will hate them for years later. Some start socking money away in a college or wedding fund.
But for Suzanne Hanson, all that stuff is an afterthought. Her worry is how to come up with the $20,000 it will cost her just to become a mom, something she and her husband have dreamed of for years.
Like so many couples who choose adoption as their path to parenthood, Suzanne and Dan Hanson of Glendale were a little scared by the expense. But they didn’t let it deter them. Instead, they turned to fund-raising to help bring them a little girl from China.
Adoption fund-raising is becoming increasingly popular throughout the United States.
Some couples try classic methods, proved successful in neighborhoods nationwide every day. Like the high school bands needing new uniforms, or the cheerleaders looking to go to summer camp, they sell Gold Canyon Candles, tubs of cookie dough or candy bars. They hold carwashes, silent auctions and “adoption garage sales.”
“Unless you have $20,000 to lay out, it’s impossible,” said Dan, 31.
Adoption’s price tag
The cost of adoption varies drastically, though many international adoptions and domestic private adoptions can cost as much as $30,000.
In domestic adoptions, most of the money goes to the agencies that find the birth mothers and attorneys who handle the paperwork. International adoption fees go to the country a family is adopting from, the U.S. agency facilitating the adoption and the organization caring for the child overseas. Country fees vary widely: $1,500 in Hong Kong, $10,000 in South Korea and $19,000 in Guatemala.
The dollar signs can be overwhelming.
“We’ve fallen into the increasing number of people who can afford a child once she gets here, but we don’t have that chunk of money laying around,” said Suzanne, 30. “It’s such a big amount of money. Our life has become a fund-raiser.”
Getting started
The Hansons, both teachers, said they could never afford adoption on their own. But Suzanne admitted the idea of fund-raising for an adoption made her a little uneasy.
“It was very scary,” she said. “I just felt weird about it. But there’s no other way to do it.”
They began fund-raising in July, when Suzanne decided to sell the cute scrapbook-style notecards she was making as a hobby. She started notecard nights with friends, packaged the cards and sold each six-pack for $10. The package reads, “Thank you for helping bring our child home from China.” The couple also held a garage sale last month. Neighbors and friends pitched in with stuff they didn’t need, allowing the Hansons to keep the profits. Posters taped to the garage told bargain-hunters what the money would be spent on.
“I think they bought more and didn’t argue the price as much once they knew,” Suzanne said.
Ruth Ellen Heaton, co-owner of A Mother’s Charm, a nationwide adoption-advocacy organization out of Dallas, said she has seen a lot of adoptive parents turn to garage-sale fund-raisers and spaghetti dinners, and she knows some people who are selling items on eBay.
“It is kind of weird at first, but only until people realize that it’s not that weird,” Heaton said. “There’s tons of people that have to do this.”
About 200 adoptive parents nationwide have used Scottsdale-based Child Adoption Funds to help bring legitimacy to their fund-raising efforts. The organization, which deals only with adoptions from developing, Third World countries, helps parents set up personal foundations, or 501 (c)(3) accounts, to bank the money they have raised.
Joe Asta, the organization’s founder, said most of his clients raise money by sending letters to family and friends.
Fund-raisers get bigger
Suzanne, a special-education teacher with a lively personality, seemed to be tied in emotional knots last month as she and her husband hosted their biggest fund-raiser yet, a coffee comedy house event.
As a comedian took the stage at North Phoenix Baptist Church, Suzanne surveyed the crowd from a perch at the front of the room near banquet tables holding donated brownies, Rice Krispies treats and bundt cake.
While about 80 people chatted at votive-lit tables and browsed the dessert table, she nervously clutched a roll of raffle tickets as donation envelopes began to fill a jar nestled between posters of adorable children in Chinese orphanages.
Suzanne emitted a nervous energy that many waiting adoptive parents can relate to. Inside, that nervous energy was hugged by excitement. Suzanne is on her way to becoming a mother.
For waiting adoptive and biological parents, it is a ride aboard the same emotional roller coaster, exciting and daunting all at once.
Seated at a high-top table at the back of the room, James and Neely Brown said they were happy to attend the event and donate to the Hansons’ adoption fund.
Neely, 26, said people at the church love the couple and are invested in their effort to start a family.
Didn’t feel strange
She said giving didn’t feel strange because she viewed the fund-raiser as a necessity. It was a way for everyone else to play an active role in the Hansons’ quest for a child.
“This is kind of their pregnancy part,” she said over the music of a jazz band performing on stage. “Just to get to this point is incredible. All the people that are rooting for them, it’s really cool to see.”
Dan and Suzanne ended up making a couple of thousand dollars from their event at the Baptist church.
The generosity they saw left Suzanne speechless.
“The support we’ve had, I can’t say enough,” she said.
Combined with money they were given by a family member to get the paperwork process started and the proceeds from the garage sale and notecards, they figured they still needed about $10,000.
When checking messages on her cellphone after the fund-raiser, Suzanne heard the voice of a friend who was visiting her brother in Texas tell her to call no matter how late it was.
She cried when she found out why it was so urgent.
Her friend’s brother and his wife wanted to pay for the rest of the adoption, and yes, they knew it would be about $10,000.
Her hands shaking at the wheel of her car as she drove home, Suzanne said she believed this was their miracle.
They won’t even know what their child looks like for another 10 months, but now, they can take a deep breath and enjoy shopping for a stroller, decorating a nursery and buying booties.
“I just want people who are thinking about it to know that as soon as you open it up and let people experience the miracle with you, it’s amazing how wonderful people are,” she said.
“They want to be a part of something amazing.”
