This guest blog post was provided courtesy of our friends at Nightlight Christian Adoptions.
Nightlight Christian Adoptions was established in 1959 with the focused goal and battle cry of seeing more children in need of families being adopted and to find permanency. Nightlight has done this through a number of innovative means. One such strategy, AdoptionBridge.org was created by Nightlight and is managed by another non-profit called Every Child Has a Name. Staff members of Nightlight and caring adoptive parents founded Every Child Has a Name. The organization’s purpose is to raise awareness and donations to support various orphan-care and orphan related organizations around the world.
AdoptionBridge bridges the three members of the adoption triad: profiles of waiting children, profiles of adoptive families for birthmothers considering adoption to view, and donation pages for adoptive families for online fundraising purposes. Ninety-seven percent of funds donated go directly to the adoptive family’s adoption expenses, as the credit card companies charge a 3% processing fee. Typically, donations are tax deductible; however, donors should consult with their tax accountants.
Since 2014, AdoptionBridge has attracted over sixty thousand users to view profiles of thousands of waiting children in need of forever families. Typically, each child on the site has a photo, if the country allows an online photo, and a brief description of the child. Children posted on the site have pseudonyms and countries of origin are not revealed to protect the children’s privacy. If families are interested in children on the site, further more in-depth information is available on the child by contacting that child’s program coordinator. For children whose photos are not posted on the site, photos may be available for a specific child by contacting that child’s program coordinator as well. Donations can be made on behalf of the adoption expenses of waiting children on the site. The site has been instrumental in getting hundreds of waiting children from around the globe matched with loving adoptive families. Additionally, over six hundred families have funded their adoptions on this site, and these families have raised over one million dollars since its inception. Lastly, birthmothers can view the profiles of waiting adoptive parents hoping to be matched with a U.S. birthmother. Birthmothers have selected hundreds of the families on this site who tell their “Dear Birthmother” story on AdoptionBridge.
Adoption can be a means to build families, and depending on the type of adoption, it can be very expensive. AdoptionBridge offers adoptive families a crowdfunding option to assist them in raising funds towards their adoption goals. Whether families are adopting domestically, through an intercountry adoption process, through Nightlight’s Snowflakes program or families are hoping to adopt a child from foster care through Nightlight’s Anchored in Hope program, AdoptionBridge is a great added resource to families’ fundraising options and allows family and friends to not only be a financial support but also an emotional support as well.
For families who need additional help with funding and grant ideas, Nightlight has an in house Financial Resource Specialist who is dedicated to assisting adoptive families with available grants, funding ideas and adoption loans, including a low interest adoption loan from America's Christian Credit Union.
For additional information about any of Nightlight Christian Adoptions’ programs please visit our website. For additional information about AdoptionBridge please visit the website.