5 Ways To Fund Your Adoption

There are so many aspects of adoption that can be overwhelming and for that reason most people opt out of even trying.  Kudos to you for continuing to chase your goals and dreams of motherhood!  Funding your adoption is one of the most important steps in your journey as it really holds the key to the different opportunities within the journey itself.  Many times people automatically assume that they need to default to Foster Care because they will never be able to meet the financial burden that comes along with private adoption. This is simply not true, anything is possible with a plan and support.

On the topic of foster care I want to be super clear, it is amazing!  There are tons of children that need homes and that go into the system each and every day.  It shatters my soul to think of this reality, that there are so many children that have that level of uncertainty in their lives is just devastating.  However, I know that I was not cut out to be a foster parent.  This was painfully reconfirmed after our first adoption disrupted at 7 days of parenting.  I highly commend people that can do that, they are warriors of a whole other level.

For me private domestic adoption was the best route but when I was starting my journey that $10,000 - $40,000 cost for adoption was just sickening, overwhelming and incredibly scary.  I simply didn’t have that type of cash just hanging out in my bank account, so off to google I went.  After tons and tons of research I had a game plan.  So I am sharing all the paths with you so hopefully you can create your own game plan to fund your adoption.  I do think it is important to acknowledge that no two journeys are the same and it is important to take what you learn here and write your own game plan.  If you need help with that you can join my Free Facebook Group below where we help each other with all aspects of adoption. 

5 Ways To Fund Your Adoption

1. Grants

2. Savings

3. Loans

4. Tax Credits

5. Fundraising

Grants

There are thousands of adoption grants available and they are extremely popular since you don’t have to pay them back over time.  The idea of applying for grants can be another one of those overwhelming steps within the adoption process. It is vital to plan ahead for adoption grants because they are not something that moves quickly and often have specific deadlines for the application process and allocation of funds.  

Different grant applications will require you to be in different stages of the process in addition to more typical requirements that we face in the adoption process like: marital status, income, religion, location, etc.  I have included a grant planner in The Adoption Financial Planner that you can get here. 

Applying for adoption grants to fund your adoption can be a bit more specialized than traditional grant applications.  Here are a few quick tips to help you: do your research on the organization that you are applying for to make sure you are a great fit and then ensure you are communicating that within the grant application, understand what makes you a great fit for this particular grant, take your time writing your application as it will show in the final product, pay attention to the details and share from your heart as it will help you stand out from everyone else applying for adoption grants to fund their adoption.

Savings

This is pretty obvious on the surface but is really important to make sure you have the right mindset around savings.  While it is very tempting to go all in with your savings to make your adoption budget larger I would think holistically about everything you will need to accomplish financially before plowing all of your savings against the adoption opportunity. It is very important that you write out your adoption funding plan to make sure you have thought of everything.  If you need help with that join my Free Facebook Group as we help each other through all aspects of the adoption process.  

There were some expenses that we had not planned that caught us a bit off guard in our adoption journey.  Those expenses included: travel expenses (we were gone for 3 weeks for our first opportunity!), paying the neighbors and friends to take in the mail, trash, etc while we were traveling, the cost of caring for our dogs while we were gone for such a long time, renewal of home study/agency fees, thank you gifts for the hospital and adoption agency staff.  The point is it is vital to think about the entire picture and leave some cushion before draining your entire savings account into your adoption match budget. 

If you are looking for some creative ways to save money for your adoption I highly recommend my friend Jen Smith over at Modern Frugality.  She has an amazing podcast and blog full of really helpful tips to help you take control of your spending so you can reach your adoption financial goals faster.   Modern Frugality

Loans

There are a variety of loans available and some that are adoption specific.  Of course each of these loan options come with their own set of requirements and interest rates so it is vital that you do your research. I always warn against going into debt in general but especially when you are just starting out in your adoption journey.  It is important to remember that you will have a child to care for at the end of this journey and kids are expensive.  I know it might risk sounding ungrateful but it is the truth, even raising them frugally will result in expenses that you will need to factor in throughout your adoption fundraising journey.

In our adoption journey we borrowed from retirement to help close our funding gap, which at the time sounded like a great idea as the market was at an all time high.  However, the paying back of that loan stunk worse than a dirty diaper.  We had planned for it and knew things would be tight but I had not factored in the cost of diapers and formula. Talk about being blinded by the desire to be a mother, that was me 1,000%.  Don’t get me wrong we figured it out like you will too but it would have been better had I planned for that on the front side of our journey.

Tax Credits

Let me first start by saying I AM NOT AN ACCOUNTANT and that anything shared here is simply my opinion and experience. You should do your own research, talk to tax experts, etc before you plan this as a cornerstone of your adoption journey.  I will also not be political but those politicians in Washington always love to make rules that mess up our plans so be sure to keep an eye on when the tax code changes because it does often.  

If you google the adoption tax credit and the current year you will find tons of articles from experts but the only true expert here is anything with a .gov web address.  There are a few important things to double check here: income eligibility, approved expenses, when the expenses were paid, if/when/if ever the adoption was finalized.  Read the official policy and see how it applies to your specific situation: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc607

Fundraising

This topic is one that is covered extensively on my blog from an idea perspective.  You can check out 25 Adoption Fundraiser Ideas and even 10 Adoption Fundraiser Ideas that are not a T-Shirt. 

But let’s talk about fundraising for your adoption in a slightly different way as I have recently had a lot of people share that they are not comfortable asking for donations.  Obviously that is an intensely personal choice but I thought I would offer you another perspective on the situation, it is ok to ask for help.  Asking for help is often a hard thing for us strong willed women to do because we are proud or we don’t want to admit a weakness or a whole host of other things.  But if there is one lesson that I would highly encourage you to learn before you become a Mother it is how to ask for and accept help.  It is something I struggled with for years and still do in certain instances.

Asking for help funding your adoption does not make you weak, does not give them a voice in your adoption, does not give them a right to know the details of your child’s story, etc.  It simply is allowing others to support you and for that you owe them nothing in return that you don’t want to give. Adoption is so very hard and you are likely tired from the journey to even get to this point, take all the help you can honey.  The journey yet to come will be long, beautiful and hard too so surround yourself with people that love you and can help.  And don’t forget to learn from those that have gone before you, join my free Facebook group and I will give you all the love and support I can. 

You can do this and I have got your back

-Amanda

Hi, I Am Amanda

I help women build their families through adoption by giving them the step by step guide to adopt a child and support them on their journey