Five Ideas To Help With The Cost Involved With Adoption
Adoption fundraisers are still excellent tools for raising money, and what a wonderful cause, adoption. However, before you begin your fundraising process seek adoption advise. You should check with a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or tax attorney to make sure you follow the IRS tax rules. If you are planning a Utah adoption or Nevada adoption, you can be sure your friends, neighbors and even strangers will help, if contacted in the right way.
The important thing to do in fundraising is to run it by the book. People want to know their money is going to really help you and not for some other purpose. A designated bank account can help with this concern. What could be a better cause than an adoption?
So where do we go from here? Adoption costs vary according to the Adoption Agency and type of adoption you choose. First study the types of adoption: open, closed, independent, foster care, international adoptions, and licensed adoption agency.
After you have done your homework, you will then need to decide what kind of adoption you desire and then study the potential adoption costs involved with your choice. For this article, let’s use the most common and safe, the licensed adoption agency. Studies show your fees might be in the $25,000+ range.
Once you’ve focused on the type of adoption you would like, you’ll need to divide the total amount $25,000 into small steps–steps in the fundraising process that you can meet and that won’t leave you biting your nails and alienated from your friends at the end.
Remember, an adoption doesn’t occur over night, you will have some wait time after you begin the process of adoption. The wait time can be as short as four to 18 months for a waiting child, six to 18 months for an international adoption, and one to seven years for a healthy infant.
Here are five basic keys for producing and developing a successful adoption cost fundraising program: What are you going to do? Who are you going to ask for money? Why are you going to ask them? When is the event going to take place? How are you going to bring it all together?
1. What are you going to do? Begin by making a list of the types of fundraisers you would like to have to help you to adopt a child, estimate the amount of money you think you can raise, the number of people who must attend or participate to make the event a success, and the number of adoption fundraising team members you will need to organize the event. While you are doing this, make a chart and time line which includes the above information and which you can keep track of your adoption costs goal. It would be wise to plan an event every other or every three months, or just one or two events a year, not every week or month.
2. Who are you going to ask for adoption money? Family and friends are usually our first choice to help us and there is nothing wrong with this, of course. If you have a rich aunt or uncle, they may be willing to float you a large gift, but most people don’t have that kind of money lying around. One idea is to ask your friends and family to make a $25, $50 or $100 donation. For instance, if you have 100 friends or relatives who are willing to give you $100 each toward your adoption costs, that’s $10,000 from just one fundraiser.
Other potential adoption costs donors are your church family or members of your place of worship, a business noted for helping to raise funds (this type of group, however, will generally prefer giving a business service or prize donation for you to use at a quiet bid auction, a golf tournament, a lottery raffle, etc.)
3. Why are you going to ask this group? Picking an adoption costs group of people to participate in specific event is important. Not every individual will be interested in every type of fundraiser. Those who like auctions may not like bowling tournaments, those that like raffles, might not like a community service project to clean up a neighborhood park and win prizes. The more people you can “help” with your fundraiser besides just yourself, the better.
4. When is your adoption costs fundraising event going to take place? No fundraiser should be “on the spur of the moment”. This type of planning guarantees failure. It would be a good idea to plan all the fundraisers at once, set dates and then try to stick to those dates. Say you are planning a neighborhood baby and kids’ clothing and toys garage sale; you should begin collecting the donated items two months ahead. A good idea is to find a place to store the items, and then perhaps ask a mini-mall if you can use part of their parking lot to host the event. The more visual your adoption costs event is, the better. You’ll need advertising, perhaps new item donations from some of the “mall” stores or others, time to mark the items, and possibly a big tent in case the weather changes on you. If this is a Nevada adoption, don’t worry. You might even ask a store to donate hot dogs and/or provide bottled water for a donation.
5. How are you going to bring this all together? Most of us will only have enough energy to have one or two big adoption costs fundraisers a year. Remember to keep your adoption team members enthusiastic and be sensitive of their time and money. Yes, you need to get to your goal, but not at the expense of others. A simple event like a bake sale doesn’t take the time and energy of a festival or concert, but might not reap a large amount of money either. You need to remember, are the rewards on this one event going to be worth the amount of time, effort and stress of your adoption team members.