Resources that make adoption affordable
The adoption process can bring an immense amount of joy, but depending on the program a family adopts through, it can also be expensive. While the majority of costs are covered for those who adopt from foster care, families who chose to adopt through U.S. infant or international adoption are faced with a variety of adoption fees. Families from all economic situations can adopt by tapping into a variety of resources and strategies.
Your Adoption Finance Coach
Your Adoption Finance Coach services are now free for our families, including: access to training and funding application templates, one-on-one consultations to discuss each family’s specific financial situation, help creating and implementing a finance plan, opportunities to join an adoption finance boot camp, and more!
Access Your Adoption Finance Coach
You can learn more about Your Adoption Finance Coach by visiting the portal. Once you’ve logged into the portal, you will gain access to the many resources made available through this service. Current client families: please email us if you’d like to create a login for immediate access to the Your Adoption Finance Coach portal resources.
Access Your Adoption Finance Coach PortalAdoption Support Fund
Through private donations, Children’s Home and LSS offer the Adoption Support Fund to families in our adoption programs, as well as to post adoption clients. Priority is given to families that are adopting a child or children with known special needs, relatives, school-aged children, or large sibling groups. Families must be Children’s Home or LSS clients and have committed themselves to adopting a specific child or sibling group. Applicants are evaluated based on financial criteria including need, commitment to funding the adoption, income ($100,000 gross income or less with a $10,000 deduction for each child in the home), expenses, assets and debts. Grants typically range from $70 – $3,000. Additionally, the Adoption Support Fund offers child-specific grants for international waiting children who are in need of additional advocacy. Typically these grants range from $2,000-$10,000. Please contact Kristina Berg for an Adoption Support Fund application.
Brittany’s Hope Foundation
Children’s Home and LSS are proud to be affiliates of Brittany’s Hope Foundation, which offers financial grants to individuals who are adopting a child with identified needs, an older child or a sibling group. The household income threshold for this grant is $125,000. To learn more about the BHF Seedling Gift program, contact Lisa Trinh or Brittany’s Hope Foundation. Please also contact Lisa Trinh for the application.
Adoption Financial Aid & Grants
There are a number of organizations that provide financial aid and grants to adoptive families. To help you find the resources that meet your family’s needs, we’ve put together an Adoption Financial Resource Sheet.
View Resources that May be Available to YouEmployee Benefits
Many employers offer adoption benefits and others might be willing to consider ways to become more adoption-friendly workplaces. Speak with your HR department about whether or not your employer offers adoption benefits. If they do—then be sure to utilize them! If they don’t, The Dave Thomas Foundation provides Adoption-Friendly Workplace kits that will help your employer find ways to become more adoption friendly.
Visit Dave Thomas Foundation Website for More InformationEducational Resources for Funding Adoption
Debt-free Adoption Webinar | Julie Gumm, Adoptive Mother and Author, Adopt without Debt: Creative Ways to Cover the Cost of Adoption, talks about strategies you can use to adopt a child debt-free.
How to Afford Adoption | For Creating a Family with Dawn Davenport, Dawn interviews the director of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and the founder of affordingadoption.com. Topics include grants, loans, tax credits, employee benefits, and fundraising for adoption.
Resources4Adoption | A one-stop resource for grants, loans, and advice about funding your adoption.
Adoption Fundraising Infographic| Find ten resources, fun activities and fundraising campaigns that will help offset the cost of adoption.
Create a Payment Timeline
Through a payment timeline, agency fees and adoption costs are staggered over the course of the adoption process, enabling you to plan ahead for costs, but making it unnecessary to have all of the fees in savings when you begin the process. The fees are broken down and collected in increments, with the majority of the costs due at, or shortly after, the time you receive referral information about a child. The entire amount will need to be paid by the time of travel (international) or placement (domestic infant).
