Now that we are at the end of our fundraising adventures, we
have had several adoptive families ask for advice on how to raise the huge (for us) amount
of money needed for adoption. This is for all of those people!
Here is a blog post I made about 8 months ago now, when we
were still in the thick of fundraising and trying to finish strong. That might
help a little bit!
I am going to try to list as much advice and lessons learned
as I can remember! Forgive me if this isn’t in a great, cohesive order! These
were some of the ways we fund-raised and what worked well/didn’t work well.
1. We started fundraising by first sending out letters to our
friends and family who didn’t live near us and wouldn’t have an opportunity to
attend any of the future fundraising events. Not only did we send a letter
explaining why we wanted to adopt and a little history of Uganda, but we also
included a photo card of our family. We had a photographer friend take pictures
of our family, and we used some cute Pinterest ideas with a globe to get some
Uganda/Adoption pictures. Then, I created a 4x6 photo collage online (I think I
used Walmart? It was something like 7-10 cents per picture). We ordered enough
to send one with every letter and then about 30 extras which we used as thank-you notes. When they came, I used
washi tape and cardstock with a verse we had chosen for our journey to make it
a little craftier. Once all of the photo cards were made, we included one in
each letter. Letters are easy to toss aside or throw away, so we wanted to have
a little something more lasting in each that people could put on their fridge
to remember/pray for our adoption journey.
It also served as an announcement that we were adopting, since this was
at the very beginning of our journey.
·
- What worked: We ended up getting a 4-5 thousand in donations just from the letters alone. I do think the personal touch of our picture card added something, especially for people we had lost touch with or who lived far away. People get tons of requests for financial donations throughout the year, so however you can set yours apart is worth the extra time and effort!
- What I would do differently: I would wait until AFTER applying for a matching grant (more about those later) or when I had a tax-deductible venue for people to give. Some people didn’t care about it because in the grand scheme of taxes, a $100 donation doesn’t get you very far. But others cared very much.I would also order more than 30 extras. We used them as thank-you notes to those who gave in the later fundraisers, and those worked really well! We could just write on the back of the card, and it was really cute. I wish I had more of them!
2. After our home study, I set out applying for EVERY SINGLE
GRANT we were eligible for. I searched online, asked other adoptive families,
etc. We found 12-15 grants we were eligible for, and I arranged them all in an
organized list by order of priority, due dates, likelihood of us getting them,
and stages of adoption (most have to be done post-home study, some are done
post-referral, post-I600, etc.). Understandably, the LAST thing you want to
do after your home study and in the midst of your dossier is MORE paperwork.
The grant applications are time-consuming, and they do add quite a bit of
paperwork to your already overwhelming load. However, we ended up receiving
$10,000 towards our adoption in a combination of grants. We found that many of
the grants asked the same essay questions and required the same information.
Once we had about six or seven different essay questions answered, each grant
seemed to ask a combination of three or four of them. Copy/Paste was my best
friend! I spent around an hour on each grant application, and we received $10k.
15-20 hours of work for that amount of payment is a pretty great fundraiser!
Also, we had a few people say only to apply to grants that people we knew personally
had received. I can see why that is a common piece of advice- why spend time
doing something that is not likely? However, we did every one we were eligible
for, and we did receive some obscure grants. Even if a grant is small and only
worth $500, that is $500 less that you have to raise!
Here are the grants we applied for (spend time
searching online for more in your state/financial status/family size, etc. AND
routinely check for more throughout your process): Lifesong, ShowHope, Katelyn's Fund, Hand in Hand, The Lydia Fund, Help Us Adopt, Families Outreach, Saving Children Foundation, The Oath Ministry, OneLess, JSC Foundation, Beautiful Feet Outreach, Gift of Adoption, Affording Adoption Foundation, A Child Waits, Adoption Aid, Room for One More, God's Grace, and possibly one or two more! Those are the ones I remember.
- · What Worked: we received three grants we applied for totaling $10,000!
- · What I Would Do Differently: I would apply for the matching grants first, as those are a big help in conducting other fundraisers.
3. When we received a matching grant from Hand in Hand for
$5,000, we had about 6 weeks to raise the amount. They would only match
donations given in this time frame. It was right at Christmas time when people
were already stretched, and we were scrambling to find a way to raise money.
Our adoption coordinator at our agency suggested an Envelope Fundraiser, and it
was phenomenal!! The basis of an envelope fundraiser is choosing an amount (we
chose 100) of envelopes and numbering them (1-100). People “sponsor” an
envelope and give that designated amount. I had students sponsoring the smaller 3-4-5
envelopes; we had parents sponsoring envelopes in honor of their kid’s jersey
number, etc. It was an awesome fundraiser because many people who wanted to
donate to our adoption but felt silly only donating $12 were able to help out.
We were not asking for any larger donations than $100 (or whatever the highest
number you choose), and there was an amount for pretty much anyone! When every
envelope was sponsored, we had over $5,000 given. But every envelope was
important- even the $1 envelope! I am not sure of the mathematical process to
figure out how many envelopes would be best for your fundraiser. I am an
English teacher, and I had to have one of our math teachers (thanks, Foster!) figure it out for me! I do know that
increasing the number of envelopes to 200 raises the amount to around $20,000,
so it could be a long-running fundraiser for your adoption.We filled most of our envelopes via publicizing the fundraiser through Facebook.
- What Worked: The Envelope Fundraiser
- What I Would Do Differently: While ours was thrown together because we didn't have a lot of time, one of my friends thought she might do it and give each person who sponsors and envelope a cute handmade Christmas ornament. I have seen some really cute, easy ornaments with the continent of Africa cut out of paper and slipped into a glass ball. Pinterest is awesome for those kinds of things!
4. We also bought and sold BEAUTIFUL handmade paper bead necklaces from a
ministry in Uganda (Ekubo Ministries) throughout the entire fundraising time, but especially at
Christmas. Half of the proceeds went to those women to support their families,
and half went to our adoption. We loved the way we were supporting the country
our son is from, as well as working to keep families together, and also working
to bring our son home. We fell in love with the mission and heart of the ministry, and it's one we support monthly now and hope to visit when we are in-country. Uganda is full of beautiful people, and we want to acknowledge that and have a continuing relationship with our son's country! They ALWAYS need supporters, so if you are adopting from Uganda and looking for a way to give back to the country gifting you with your child, check them out for sure!
- · What Worked: this worked great! We raised over $1,000 in doing so, as well as donated over a $1000 to the awesome women who created them.
- · What I Would Do Differently: Nothing! I would definitely advise doing a fundraiser that gives back to your child’s country! It is important for us (and the people around our kids) to learn about the culture and heritage of the country. These showed the amazing creativity and beauty of the Ugandan people, and I loved selling them and love wearing them!
5. In the spring, we held a Skate Night for families at the
local skating rink. Our skating rink did not charge us anything to hold the
event (and they did it outside their regular business hours, so they weren’t
losing money). People could skate or mini-golf, and we also sold concessions
and had face painting, etc. While this was a fun event, it was not as
well-attended as we had hoped.
- · What Worked: the idea worked, and selling food at any event always adds some income!
- · What I Would Do Differently: I am not sure I would hold many events. It seems like events are not as well-attended because people are already so busy! We ended up making $1400 from the event, but it was a lot of time and effort!
6. We sold t-shirts, bottle cap hair-bows, and bottle cap necklaces. We made two
designs because I teach at a public high school. While administration was fine
with me selling t-shirts to the kids, one had a verse on it, and I didn’t want
that to be the only option available, especially for kids who weren’t
comfortable with that. We were able to get t-shirts (through connections at the
high school I teach at) for about $4.30 each, and we sold them for $15. Towards
the end of the adoption, we continually discounted the few random sizes we had
left, so not every t-shirt netted $10. However, we made around $1500+ from the
t-shirts.
- · What Worked: People love t-shirts, and as long as you can get them cheap enough, it is a good fundraiser. No one in the adoptive community that I know has ever made more than a couple thousand on t-shirts, though, because you’re probably only going to sell a few hundred shirts. We initially ordered 150 and ended up selling almost 200.
- · What I Would Do Differently: order more XL and toddler sizes. Youth smalls weren’t small enough for most of my friends’ kids, and we also ran out of XL much faster than I expected to. We did put in a second round of orders (about 25 more shirts) to fill orders for people who really wanted them. Definitely talk to the person making the t-shirts because she had a great input on how many of each size to order.
7. We had a pancake breakfast over the summer, and again, it
was a lot of effort, thankfully not a lot of overhead (most food was donated,
including the pancake mix), for not a lot of income.
- · What Worked: the food was delicious, and the event only cost a few dollars!
- · What I Would Do Differently: I probably wouldn’t have it, as we only made a few hundred on it. I know a lot of people have successfully done chili suppers, breakfasts, etc. and were very successful, so that might have been our fault somehow!
8. GARAGE SALES! We did two garage sales (one on a regular
weekend, and one on the town-wide rummage sale day), and they were the BEST. So
many people are willing to donate their “stuff” to you, and then you can price
it and sell it. It’s much easier to price other peoples’ donations because you
have no sentimental attachment to it, so you can sell it CHEAP! Garage sale
go-ers LOVE cheap, and they love big sales! We made $1700 on our first sale and
$1200 on our second sale. While it’s a lot of work to collect and price
everything, it’s income with practically no overhead, and it’s also income
generated from people, the majority of which, you don’t know. You don’t want to
ask continually the same people over and over for money and donations and event
fundraisers. They get burnt out pretty quickly! I would definitely recommend garage sales, and maybe if you have an awesome friend or relative who wants to help but can't donate financially, have them organize and hold one for your cause! We are planning to continue having a huge sale in the town-wide sales each year and donating the proceeds to Ekubo Ministries in Uganda.
- · What Worked: the garage sale, as a whole, was a very successful fundraiser! Definitely price things cheap, include things in a “bundle”, let people haggle with you, have posters about your adoption efforts letting everyone know this is a fundraiser, pictures of Uganda/your child, etc. We also left a donation jar out, and so many people donated.
- · What I would do differently: always have it at my house. One sale we held at someone else’s house because they lived in the bigger town that is close to us. No one really comes to our tiny town unless it’s for the town-wide rummage sale! While it was super awesome of our friends to let us use their house/yard, it was HUGE frustration to collect everything at our house and haul it all to theirs. I would expect the same type of frustration with holding it at a church, etc. It was really nice to be able to walk out of my garage and have the sale, and be able to run inside easily for whatever we needed.
Random Tips:
- · Be creative! The other fundraisers we did were specific to our talents/skills. My husband is handy, and I can paint, so we created personalized projects from barn wood. We made over a thousand dollars doing this, and it’s actually become a little side business for us! Also, I teach high school, so I got some of my teacher-friends to come alongside me and offer an ACT prep course for area schools. Find what YOU can do, and use that to make money for your adoption!
- · Be mindful of people. You don’t want to ask people continually for money for two years, so stick to targeting different groups of people with each fundraiser (my students, friends far away, families in our church, strangers with the garage sale, etc.) You don’t want to ask the same people over and over to fundraisers. People get tired of it, feel taken advantage of, and generally get a bad taste in their mouths about adoption.
- · Be OPEN. Be consistently forthcoming about what you’re doing, where their donations are going, and how you’re handling their money. We kept a completely separate account for adoption fundraising, which I highly recommend! We also consistently updated people on how much we made and what that money was paying for.
- · Be willing to put in quite a bit of your own money. We put in quite a bit of our savings; we both took on extra duties at school/extra jobs to pay for this adoption. Don’t expect people to do what you aren’t willing to do!
- · Don’t pay attention to the people who don’t donate; pay attention to those who do! We were advised this at the beginning. Instead of obsessing why about Great Aunt So and So didn’t give, pay attention to the girl you knew from college whose husband worked three jobs to make ends meet yet still wanted to give. Pay attention to the ones who sacrificed to bring your little one home. Those are the memories you want from fundraising- the ones who challenge you and humble you and make you better, not the ones who make you bitter!
- · Direct-Sales fundraisers- you will have many people want to do a fundraiser by donating their commissions from selling X,Y,Z. Those can be awesome fundraisers, or they can end up costing you money! I loved that people wanted to help further our cause, and I loved getting free hostess benefits. BUT, don’t expect these to be huge money-makers, and don’t invite the same people over and over (remember your target audiences). These, on average, only made us about $75, but we did pay for birth certificate copies and marriage license copies and shipping our dossier- all the little charges that add up and are not expected!
- · Kohl’s Associates in Action- Kohl’s has a program for their employees that gives back to communities. If you have a fundraising event, you can sign up for their Associates in Action through their website. If your local Kohl’s has three+ employees sign up to volunteer at your event, Kohl’s will donate $500 towards the cause. It has to better the community (which I believe adoption does) and be a 501c3 (most agencies are, so the check can be written to them). The associates who came to help at ours were the sweetest people! In addition to their great sales, I love Kohl's even more now.
- Always have a donation jar out! Little donations add up!
If you have any specific questions, feel free to contact me on Facebook! Good luck to you all!
