Need to find ways to raise money for adoption? There are many simple ways to raise money while not milking your friends and family.
This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
Many times finding the money to fund an adoption is one of the most difficult parts of the adoption process. Funding an infant or international adoption can be incredibly expensive. For most, the average cost of an adoption is $40-50k. But the cost doesn’t have to be something that keeps you from adopting. There are many ways to look into helping you pay for your adoption.
1. Fundraising
This was very intimidating to me at first. I wasn’t sure I wanted to bother people by asking them for money. But honestly, this became one of the most motivating experiences of our adoption process. So many people joined in and showed us how much they loved us in truly sacrificial ways. I can’t express to you how touched we were by our fundraisers.
There are limitless ways of fundraising, but let me give you a few that worked for us.
We used gofundme for the majority of our fundraising. We loved how simple it was to set up and how little we had to do to up keep it. While using this platform, we did learn that running mini “fundraiser campaigns” for the gofundme was actually very successful. For instance: we did a “Everyone give $5” which got a lot of response. Plus many people gave more than just the $5. We also did certain pushes when we were about to meet a milestone on the account. So if we were close to $1,000, we would say, “Help us reach our goal in 24 hours.” This really helped our friends and family want to get involved. Gofundme has taken a lot of flack for their fees, but recently their fees have decreased, and we didn’t have a big problem with the credit card processing fee.
My favorite fundraiser we did was a t-shirt fundraiser through Bonfire. I love the features of Bonfire. Bonfire is a platform that allows you to design a t-shirt, sell it, and keep the proceeds—all while they manage the selling, making, and shipping for you. It truly is THAT easy. Plus, you and your tribe get an awesome t-shirt out of the deal. I highly recommend using Bonfire.
There are many ways to fundraise that we looked into, but didn’t get the chance to do. Here are a few of them:
Host a 5k—inexpensive for you to put on so whatever you make the entry fee, you’ll get to keep
Garage Sale—get people to donate items to the cause
A Silent Auction—these days, this can be done on social media
Host a Party—find a Mary Kay, Thirty-one, Premier seller and ask if they would agree to donate their commission of a party you host to your adoption
Restaurants—several restaurants will allow you to set up a fundraising day where they will donate X amount of their profits during a meal time towards your cause (Chick fil-a, Panda Express, Chuckie Cheese)
There are so many ways to fundraise for adoption. These are just a few outside the box that we really liked the idea of doing.
2. Apply for Grants
I highly recommend that you apply for grants to help with your adoption. We knew we needed some help with our adoption costs, so I went to work on applying for every grant I could find that we were eligible for. Here is an awesome little website I found that lists a ton of grants you can apply for and has links to their websites. It took some work, but it was worth it in the end because we received several grants that helped take the financial burden off our back some.
3. Adoption Loans
There are several organizations and banks that will allow you to get an adoption loan. If you use a bank, many times they have a lessened interest rate for an adoption loan. But there are also several agencies out there that will extend to you an interest-free loan. The most well-known organization is the ABBA loan, but there are several others.
4. Adoption Tax Credit
We didn’t know about this one until our orientation for our adoption agency. The year that your adoption is finalized (meaning you have a court date where the child’s legal name is changed to your name) you are eligible for a tax credit. You will probably want to talk to a good tax accountant to make sure you can qualify and get your tax credit handled correctly. But tax credit can amount to a little over $13,000 currently. Make sure you keep receipts from every adoption expensive you have, including family pictures, gas money from trips, hotel stays, agency fees, etc.
5. Pinch Pennies
At our orientation, we heard the story of a couple who has decided to adopt, but didn’t want to borrow or fundraise any money. They realized they were going to have to give up somethings about their lifestyle in order to do that. They sold their house and used some of the money they made to start their adoption fund. They also were saving on monthly mortgage payments since it was a little smaller of a house. She picked up a part time job that they saved all of the paycheck from to put towards adoption. There were countless other things they did for a year so they could pay for their own adoption—which they did! So maybe for you that’s just not buying a coffee on your way to work, or quitting your cable company while you are saving. There are certainly ways we can all be more frugal I’m sure.
There are many ways that you can make an adoption affordable for you and your family. There are people and organizations ready to rally around you as you take part in the wonderful ministry of adoption.
