Financing
"We provide the resources and platform to empower families to raise funds for their adoption, and engage their community with the powerful story of why they are choosing adoption."
Article - "Insider Tips to Afford the Adoption Process" by Shelley Skuster
Scholarships and Grants:
There are more scholarships for international and special needs adoption. Also, if you are religiously affiliated talk to your church and look for those specific scholarships as well. Be persistent. If you don’t get the grant or scholarship but can apply again, please do. Many grants/scholarships do not want you to apply until you have been matched with an expecting momma. I found making an excel sheet of the scholarships/grants with deadlines helped me keep track. When you get to this step please let me know as I already have an awesome excel sheet ready for you. I'm also happy to provide our personal statement as an example.
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Two grants I always recommend are Help Us Adopt and Gift of Life.
Fundraising:
You can set up a campaign on Adopt together page (adopttogether.org). This would also be a good time to see if your employer offers any adoption assistance or matching. I've also had "Raise the Dough" site brought up by a client before as well and is worth checking out. If they don’t I encourage you to advocate, they do. Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has a lot of great ideas and key points to start this conversation. Also know you cannot quality for short term disability because you did not actually give birth for FMLA leave. There are a ton of fundraising ideas on our Pinterest page. One of my favorites is Gobena coffee (all proceeds go to orphanages) and for every bag of coffee you sell you get $4 towards your adoption (and the coffee is good!) Another site is gorings.com (jewelry you can sell and get a proceeds of). You can also do T-shirt fundraising through Bonfire (although I recommend you design a shirt that many different types of people would want to wear). If you end up doing any fundraisers please do them tastefully AND let me know (I'm happy to purchase a shirt and wear it proudly!) The reason I mention doing this tastefully is if you listen to adult adoptees many were uncomfortable or unhappy hearing their family fund-raised to "purchase them." This is why if you do a garage sale for example I don't think you need to label it "adoption garage sale." I also would say utilize your talents or friends/family talents. For example if you make anything and can sell it or services like photography etc.
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Another great resource is Dave Ramsey's daughter created a video on how to pay for adoption here.
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Loans:
Christian Community Credit Union is a great place to contact. You can also finance through your home too.
Interest free Loan: The application form is uploaded on their website and we are accepting applications through the end of June. As our funds grow, and more people donate, we will provide more loans and help bring more children into their forever homes.
Vystar Credit Union also offers an adoption line of credit as well.
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Adoption Tax Credit:The adoption tax credit for adoptions finalized in 2018 is up to $13,810 per child. This is a non-refundable tax credit, which means that you must have federal tax liability in order to claim the credit. You have five years to use the full amount of credit to reduce your federal tax liability. You can hire someone to help you with your taxes but know we used TurboTax and it worked well for us.
Tax credit Information "2019 Federal Adoption Tax Credit" by Adopt Help
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Military Adoption Reimbursement Program The military will reimburse active duty personnel for most one time adoption costs up to $2000 per child. Travel costs, foreign or domestic, are not covered. There is a maximum of $5000 in a given year. Reimbursement is made only after the adoption is finalized and only if the adoption was done through a state adoption agency or a non-profit private agency. Eligible personnel should complete form DD2675 (Reimbursement for Adoption Expense). For more information concerning this program contact the adoption exchange association at 1-800-260-0218.
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