Church Sponsored Adoption Fund
Show Hope has a desire to help churches begin and maintain their own adoption funds. This is a list of ideas they provide for churches to raise money for those funds. You can visit their website at www.showhope.org.
Adoption Sunday
Dedicate a Sunday at your church for adoption. Have adoptive parents give their testimony, focus the songs of worship on the Father who adopted us into His family and has called us His own, and ask your pastor to preach a sermon about God’s heart for adoption and His heart for the fatherless. Dedicate some portion of the tithe that day to the adoption ministry or take up a love offering.
A Benefit Concert, Performance, or Play
If a musical artist or your church music staff is willing, having a benefit performance is a way to engage the entire church family as either performers or the audience. Promote the event in your community, at other churches, and at local schools.
A Banquet Featuring a Keynote Speaker
No doubt the older your audience, the more a sit-down event with a well-known speaker will be appealing. Recruit a speaker to address a compelling aspect of adoption. You can sell individual tickets or recruit key supporters to sponsor tables and invite guests to join them—or both. Part of the event will be a fund-raising appeal using pledge cards that encourage some form of ongoing giving, such as Electronic Funds Transfer/Direct Debit. To be successful, you will need to cast a wide net for your invitation list and do some type of follow-up mailing to people unable to attend.
A Silent Auction
You may consider holding an auction in concert with a luncheon or banquet. This requires volunteers to solicit donations of auction items and to display those items at the banquet so donors can write down their bids. You will raise the most money if you have a few “big ticket” items, such as golf outings or vacation packages. Smaller items, such as restaurant and theater gift certificates, can be combined into themed packages.
A Walk-a-Thon or Bike-a-Thon
The fund-raising for these events is through a combination of entry fees for participants and sponsorship pledges collected before the walk or bike ride. Promote the event as a fun family outing and include adoptive families on your solicitation list.
Alternative Direct Mail Campaign
Rather than the standard appeal, create a series of three or four visually striking postcards with portraits of children and their adoptive families. The messages should be short and simple, such as “Every child deserves a loving family” or “Adoption brings orphans and their forever families together.”
Include a simple response card and an envelope. The key is to hand address and personalize the mailing, then send it first class. Donors are more likely to open an envelope from a friend or colleague than an impersonal mailing from a charity. One agency serving homeless children used this type of mailing and increased both their response rate and average gift amount nearly tenfold!