[lhprecmom]

Hi everyone we have been thinking about having a fundraiser and am in need of suggestions. We have some ideas rolling around, just curious to know what other people have come up with.

We were thinking of doing the pot-luck dinner thing. Any other ideas would be great because really i have never done this and was curious on what others where doing.

Does anyone think you shouldnt throw a fundraiser for yourself. Does it seem rude to ask for money to help with adoption?

Thanks for your thoughts and opinions.

[drmalcolm]

Laurie, I am PM'ing you something I found online. I have no personal experience, but I know a few people on this forum have had success, so I am sure they will give you first-hand experience.

Best of luck!
Christina

[Momof2boysinOH]

Laurie,


I'm sorry I don't have any experience with Pot Luck. We've tried to do several things, some successful and others not as successful.

I signed up to be an affiliate for several products. You can search online and become an affiliate for things such as the Silver Jewelry Club, Kodak, and Amazon. You invite your friends and family to visit the sites using a special link and when they buy something you get a percentage of the sale.

The other thing we did was auction off items that we no longer use. We sold my dh's 2 guitars for $200 because he doesn't have time to play them anymore and they were collecting dust in the basement. We sold some of our collectibles like Lenox vases and figurines for $425. They just weren't practical to keep with toddlers around! I currently have my wedding gown for sale at a consignment store. I'm 5'9" and big-boned...there's no way our daughter is going to want that dress one day. I will be looking in my basement for more things to sell at auction or consignment.

One fundraiser I've heard about and haven't tried is selling photo ID cards at daycare centers and pre-schools. You send a flyer out to the school advertising the child safety ID cards. If parents show an interest in purchasing the cards, you go in and take pictures of children to put on ID cards with their vital information. I believe the cards sell for $9 and you keep $2 of that. I've thought about doing it but I don't think I can count on my boys behaving while I take the pictures.

Other ideas are selling stuff on E-Bay, selling adoption-related stickers/t-shirts/bears/hats/jewelry on your own web site, Avon, and Tupperware.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[prechrswife]

Some friends of ours had a huge yard sale and had some good success with that. She posts here some, so hopefully she'll see this and tell more about what they did. I know they collected items from friends and family, in addition to what they had to sell.

[TaraL]

It appeared to be alot of work but I have an online friend who is actually in China now (probably being handed her daughter as we speak) who put together a fundraising cookbook. I am not sure where she ordered them from but it was a company that for fundraising items. She compiled all types of recipes from friends, family and even local resturaunts offered recipes. It is so nice. She also had pages in the back of the book for advertising for business that gave money toward the book. Then she sent everything to this fundraising company and paid them some sort of fee to print them all up. She sold them for $10 (I think) to everyone she knows plus she went to flee markets, fairs, craftshows etc. to sell them. I thought it was a really good idea but it did take alot of work.

If anyone would want any info about it I can get some specifics right from the cookbook but get you all the info when they are back from China and settled alittle.

[chinagirl2006]

We had a garage sale last year - friends & family donated items to it & we had a great turn out. Then we refinanced our home to get the rest of the money needed.

I've heard from friends who know of others that have adopted, that they sent out letters to everyone asking for donations. We didn't try that...I wasn't sure if I was comfortable with that.

[KarenInCa]

Laurie-
I have mixed feelings about fund raisers. I know that it is expensive. DH and I used the money we were going to use to purchase a house (which we do not own yet), and borrowed $5,000 from my 401K for our adoption. So, we know that it can be a struggle to adopt a child. Money is very tight for us right now. We still have to buy our plane tickets and I am hoping to take 3 months off work to be able to stay home with our daughter longer than 6 weeks.

Garage sales or working overtime, or starting a home business are all wonderful ways to gain extra money for an adoption, especially now that the wait time is so long. The ONE (and only) thing I appreciated with our long wait was that it gave us 3-4 extra months to build up the funds than we had originally anticipated to save more money.

A potluck is not something I have ever seen for adoption. It weighs more on the side of giving something back. I like the idea, if you can get enough people to participate. Do you belong to a religous congregation? If you do, that would be a wonderful way for people to help out if they want to, without the guilt.

The most successful ways that we've obtained extra money is working overtime, lots of overtime, even when I don't feel like working at all. We took out money from my 401k, we went through our budget and stopped some monthly recurring charges for entertainment that we really didn't need, which we can start again later, if we choose to, but for now it saves us money. We also moved all of our credit card debt to one new credit card a year ago, with zero balance transfer for 12 months, and we paid it off without paying any interest.

[Jen4]

Hi

We had a yard sale fundraiser last October. And it was a great success. We advertised in the paper as an adoption fundraiser and we asked anyone we knew to donate items. We had soo much stuff. The other thing we did was have a bake sale during the yard sale. Sweets always bring people around. People were so generous and some just out right donated money to us. We ended up making close to $1200 from the whole fundraiser. Hope that helps!!!

Dusty(prechrswife) and her DH were some of the people who donated to the yardsale!!! Thanks again!!!

[lhprecmom]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I am still not certain about the whole situation, just thought i could do something to help us out more. I still feel funny asking for help, but its not everyday you go to china and get a child either. Thanks.

[jasonsmom]

I've been selling stuff I don't use anymore on Ebay and DH has been taking all the OT he can get (as a teacher, that's not an option for me). I'm personally not comfortable asking people to give me money even if they are family or close friends. We took out a home equity line of credit to help out.

Paula

[jasonsmom]

I've been selling stuff I don't use anymore on Ebay and DH has been taking all the OT he can get (as a teacher, that's not an option for me). I'm personally not comfortable asking people to give me money even if they are family or close friends. We took out a home equity line of credit to help out.

Paula

[sohoca]

Like Karen, I have mixed feelings on this issue. On the one hand, I don't want to do anything to "obligate" family, friends, neighbours and co-workers. Adoption is expensive, but dh makes a good salary and (if we hadn't wasted so much time, energy and money on IF) we should be able to cover the expenses involved. Also, I'm just uncomfortable with opening up to people about (a) our plans to adopt and (b) that we don't have the savings to cover the expenses. (We won't touch our retirement savings or add to our mortgage to finance an adoption. I want to stay at home with our child(ren) and don't want to put us in a position of needing two incomes.)

On the other, we have been giving, giving, giving for years to family and friends - buying gifts for their children, providing free babysitting, donating to their favourite charities, helping them move, etc. With the exception of my parents, we really haven't been on the receiving end.

Still, I don't expect these same people to happily turn around and help us out financially. Instead, I'm looking at selling off "excess" possessions, saving money out of our budget and finding way to earn money providing goods/services. Of course, I haven't put this to the test yet, so I might have to re-consider.