An adoption from China is a serious decision. One of the major factors in this decision is the cost of the adoption. An adoption from China will cost between $15,000 and $20,000 (U.S.). See the costs page for a little more detail on where all of the money goes. This money must be spent within 18 months or less. For some families, this is merely a question of writing the checks but for the rest of us, this money is not sitting in our bank accounts collecting interest. The challenge for families who have decided to adopt a child from China is to come up with the money to pay all of the various fees. This article is intended to be a collection of ways that people have used to fund the adoption of their child. If you have a fund raising method that you have used to finance part of your China adoption that is not listed here, please email the webmaster at: JimLWeaver@aol.com to have your idea included in this collection.
An excellent listing of a variety of adoption financing options is listed at http://www.angelfire.com/journal/adoptionhelp/adopthelp.html.
There are several organiztions that offer grants or loans for adoptions, including international adoptions click here for additional information. If you know of additional resources, please email the webmaster at: JimLWeaver@aol.com.
Do not overlook the potential for simply reducing your everyday expenses and saving the money for the adoption. Here is one example, if you buy your lunch at work every day, the average cost might be around $5.00. That does not seem like much but at 5 days a week for 50 weeks, it amounts to $1,250 over the year between when your dossier goes to China and you go to China. If you make a bag lunch for $1 per day, your net savings are $1,000, which is more than enough to by a round trip ticket to China. If you carefully examine your lifestyle, you may be able to find a number of ways to make simple changes that will add up to significant amounts of money by the time you go to China.
The classical way of getting more cash than you have now is to get a loan. There are also some organizations that offer loans, click here for a current listing. Some banks have specific loan programs to finance an adoption. Check with your branch bank and those of other banks in your area to see if they offer adoption loans. In addition, many banks will work with you to tailor a standard type of loan to cover the cash needed to finance your adoption. Be sure to look carefully at the loan conditions, interest rates, and the penalties for late or non-payment. Some other information is available at: http://www.adoptionfinancing.com/. You may be able to get loans from family members at interest rates better than banks will offer. If you take this route, be very sure to document everything in writing including the exact amount loaned, interest (if any) and the repayment schedule. Failure to do this can result in long-term family feuds to say nothing of messy and expensive legal problems. This also provides legal protection for the person who loaned you the money. If for example you, as a single parent, were killed in a car accident a few months after returning from China and if you had only a verbal agreement about the loan, then the person who loaned you the money would have no legal recourse to collect the money from your estate and would lose the entire amount.
Here is a little trick that I learned from my mom. If you want to keep your money relatively 'liquid' plop it into some short term certificates of deposit. For instance, say you have $6000. You split that in 3 parts of $2000 each. In month One, you take out a 3 month certificate of deposit for $2000. In Month Two, you take out a second 3 month certificate of deposit for $2000. In Month Three, you do the same with the last chunk. In Month Four, the first cd matures. You can take it out or roll it over. Thus, each month you will have a cd maturing. You'll be earning some (not much these days!) interest and still have it fairly available. Since you know what fees are due when, you can easily plan when to cash out a cd.
Effective in 2002, the tax credit for adoption expenses increases from $5,000 to $10,000 and the family income limit goes from $75,000 to $150,000. This may not help in paying the expenses directly, but it can be a source of funds to repay loans. See http://www.adoptiontaxcredit.com/ for more details on this tax credit. These credits can be taken in the year that the money is spent or in years after.
A significant number of companies provide benefits specifically to adoptive parents. The details and amounts vary widely, these can range from additional unpaid leave beyond the requirement of the Family Leave Act to cash benefits of as much as $5,000. A partial list of companies with these benefits can be found at: http://www.adoptionbenefits.com/. If your company is not on this list, contact your human resources department anyway to see if they do offer adoption benefits. Many companies offer these to maintain parity with standard maternity benefits.
Some credit cards will allow significant cash advances to be drawn, these could be used for adoption expenses requiring cash, such as the donation to the orphanage. Others have taken advantage of introductory low interest rates for a new credit card if you are transferring balances from an existing card. Doing this in sequence can have the effect of giving you a significant loan at a very low interest rate. Doing this requires caution to avoid much larger payments after the end of the introductory period. This is a loan that should be paid off as soon as possible.
Credit cards with points - more than frequent flyer miles. The card we have has a max of $10,000 a month toward a 2% rebate for rewards like airline miles. If used for all business expenses of a small business, it can add up. We'll have had our card for two years by the time we travel and will probably be able to get at least $2000.00 in miles from putting business expenses for a family member's small business on the card. Similarly, the card can be used for all everyday expenses like groceries, phone bills, cable bills, gifts, etc. Many places accept credit cards, but don't advertise it - like our local phone company. This was an idea we read somewhere and it looks like it will make a significant dent in the moneys we pay out. The annual fee on our card is less than $40.00. Hope this can help somebody. But make sure the card allows international travel and "fine print" issues like that. We found our card by doing a comparative search on an internet site.
Depending on your situation, think about who or what group you might ask to help you finance your adoption. Some people have stood up in church and requested donations for their adoption. Others have held bake sales, car washes, walkathons and similar such events to raise money for their adoption.
If you know people who do a lot of traveling, they are likely to have substantial accounts of frequent flyer miles. People who are not willing or able to give cash may be more willing to donate miles. These can significantly reduce your travel expenses if you are careful in selecting the appropriate airlines to match the donated miles.
One option is for one or both prospective parents to take a second job, with all of the salary from this job going directly into an account to pay for adoption expenses. This is more practical in a household without existing children.
A number of people have set up a small business from their homes with the proceeds going into the adoption account. These tend to be in the hand-craft category. Take a close look at 'The Mall' for some examples of current businesses.
Anna Bears Adoption Fundraising We embarked on our adoption journey over a year ago, after taking out an adoption loan and an equity line, we found that we were still did not have enough money to fund our adoption. We looked at different fund raising options but none seemed to fit our needs and we did not qualify for any available grants. Deciding there must be a better way, we came up with the idea to sell teddy bears with a logo that says "I support adoption" and a picture of a child. We were able to raise almost $10,000.00 by selling bears to our family and friends and having them sell bears to their family and friends. It is our hope that other adoptive families will be able to benefit the same way we did.
Ask people to donate items to your garage sale to benefit your adoption fund. One parent raised $4100 in seventeen days of garage sales.
One person offered to baby-sit on special occasions and opened her home to 15 children at once charging $10 per child for 3 hours. This is good for Christmas shoppers, dates, Valentine's Day, Anniversaries. Or parents can make a donation of more money than that.
If you are a performer or know people who are performers, organize a concert to benefit your adoption fund. Offer them the opportunity to have tables selling their CDs, T-shirts etc and be sure to advertise their contribution.
If you have used or know of a fund raising method that I do not have listed here, please send me an email and I will add it to the list, the email address is: JimLWeaver@aol.com. Thanks for your help.
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