[angela96]

My husband and I will be applying for adoption soon, but can't afford to any further until we raise the money. We will pretty much have to raise every penny for this adoption.

Does anyone have any fundraising ideas they used to get the money they needed quickly? We already have some ideas, but I'd like to hear from those who have experience with what works and what doesn't. Thank you so much!

[KarenInCa]

We struggled with the same thing for both adoptions. We make good money, and live simple lives, but we live in California so money doesn't go far here.
I work in a call center, and one of my co-workers goes to Costco every month, and supplies the office with snacks that she displays on a bookshelf. Her purpose is to raise money for the office, and once a month or so, we have an office lunch of some kind, paid for with the proceeds from the snack bar. She makes the prices of the goodies high enough to build an office profit but same cost or lower than the local store, or vending machine. She even has redbull available. She made a sign with the prices, and co-workers purchase the items on the honor system, putting money into a large jar.
I wish I would have come up with that idea first for our currently awaited adoption, but I also know that I would have had a difficult time trusting people to not take without paying...but everyone seems surprisingly honest.

Other than that, I've heard of people selling things on eBay, and making items for sell on eBay as well.

You can have a garage sale.

You can borrow from your 401K if you have one, and set it up for monthly payments back. When you pay it back, you are paying yourself interest. With the expected 3 year wait these days, you could conceivably pay it back before you get a referral. That's what we did for both adoptions.

Also, if you have any medical expenses yearly, you can sign up for the medical spending account from your employer (during benefits enrollment time). Then pay your out of pocket expenses as you normally do, and at the end of the year, submit the receipts. Basically, that gives you tax free money at the end of the year that you were not counting into the monthly budget, and you can put that money into a savings account at the end of the year. You have to be careful though, to not over extend that amount, because whatever you don't spend, you will not get back. But I've had a good estimate, and infact have spent MORE on medical expenses than put into the account. Everything from bandades to reading glasses to prescription glasses to office visit co pays to prescriptions to tylenol can be expensed. These are things that you would spend money on anyway, why not get it tax free and have that account waiting at the end of the year?

Lastly, even though we had to come up with the money before the adoption, both myself and DH have really good adoption reimbursement programs offered by our employers. My employer offers $5,000 reimbursement and DHs employer offers $3,000 reimbursement. I was surprised to hear that a lot of companies do not offer this, and both DHs and mine do. However, I would have NEVER known of either unless I had asked, because it's not something that is widely advertised by either company.