Vol. 6, No. 1• November 2001
Foundation
provides financial support to adoptive families
by Maureen Hogan, Executive Director,
National Adoption Foundation
As many of you know, one of the
principal barriers to adoption is money. As the cost of adoption continues
to grow, the ability of many families to adopt is compromised. For many
families, especially those adopting children with special needs, the
cost of the adoption itself is often only the beginning of additional
expenses.
When Norm and Judy
Goldberg adopted their daughter eight years ago, they decided to do
something for families who wanted to adopt but lacked the necessary
financial resources. In 1994, they established the National Adoption
Foundation. Since its inception the Foundation has had a single mission—to
provide financial support, information and services to adoptive families
and prospective adoptive families.
This nonprofit foundation
provides support to families in a number of ways.
Direct Grants
Families can make
applications for outright grants from the Foundation. The grant program
is open to all legal adoptions including private or agency adoptions,
international adoptions, and special needs adoptions. There is no income
requirement. There is a simple one page application and the only requirement
to apply is a home study, or one in progress. The Foundation's board
meets four times a year (during the last week of each quarter) to award
grants in amounts ranging from $500 to $4,000.
Low Interest,
Unsecured and Home Equity Loans
Because the foundation
was inundated with grant requests they recognized almost immediately
that they would only be able to fund a limited number of applications
for outright grants. As a result of the overwhelming response, they
looked for other ways to assist prospective adoptive families with unmet
financial needs.
In partnership with
MBNA, the world's largest independent credit card issuer, NAF developed
an unsecured loan program that gives families, whether owners or renters,
an additional source of needed funds without pledging their homes or
other forms of collateral.
MBNA has also established
a low interest credit card program for the foundation with added benefit.
NAF receives a contribution for each card issued. Every time the card
is used, MBNA makes another contribution to the foundation. All the
proceeds from this program are disbursed as grants to other adoptive
families. Comparable to the Working Assets program, families who use
the card know that, in addition to getting a solid financial
deal, they are helping children find families.
In partnership with
First Union Bank, the Foundation
also negotiated a home equity loan program. The proceeds from any of
these loans can be used for adoption expenses, legal fees, travel or
educational expenses, construction costs or anything a family requires
to support an adoption.
Using an all-volunteer
staff, funds from private donors and its partnership with the corporate
community, the National Adoption Foundation has created an innovative
program that works exclusively to provide financial support directly
to adoptive and prospective adoptive families. While many organizations
seek to raise money to support bloated, ineffectual bureaucracy, NAF
sends its funds directly to families who need support.
In my years as an
activist and promoter of adoption, I have become increasingly concerned
about growing financial barriers to adoption for middle and working
class families. Also, I have seen countless adoptive families selflessly
assume enormous financial responsibility for children with serious,
lifelong special needs.
I have seen few programs
that operate as effectively as the National Adoption Foundation or that
meet a greater need. They recognized instinctively what we have always
believed. If you invest in families, you will get results. Millions
of dollars are spent every year on "innovative initiatives"
designed to recruit families for children with little or no tangible
benefit to children. Countless wonderful families never even consider
adoption because they assume they will not be able to afford it. By
empowering families, the National Adoption Foundation has focused on
solutions and investing in results! I hope you will support their important
work.
For more information
about grant or loan programs contact:
National Adoption Foundation
100 Mill Plain Road
Danbury, Connecticut 06811
Phone (203)791-3811
Fax (203)791-3801
<http://www.nafadopt.org/>
Maureen Hogan is the Executive Director of the National
Adoption Foundation.
