Let me first say that, while we certainly have no judgement for people who choose other methods AND that we would NEVER refuse if someone read our story and contacted us to say that he or she would like to write a check to pay the whole thing off, haha, we plan and prefer to raise our funds in a blend of ways. We have already made several payments from our own finances, and we expect to continue to do that at times, although as you might imagine, we don’t really have $35,000 laying around (or, some days, even $35, haha!). We are planning to make use of applying for adoption grants, although we know this is a hit or miss sort of thing (and we can’t even apply for those until our homestudy is complete). We (ok, *I*) are fundraisers. I have always taken that role for organizations I am part of and, if I’m honest, I thoroughly enjoy the planning and sometimes even the execution ;) of fundraisers. I have a pretty good feel for what works and what doesn't and we are part of a large support network of people who always show up and show out. We have raised a total of $21,000 for Cambodia mission trips over the past four years (for multiple family members) and God provided for that, so we know He will provide for this.
However, in doing fundraising for anything, even a noble and right cause, there are risks.
We prefer to rely on the type of fundraising that consists of us working to provide a service or a product in exchange for funds. We do not intend to do donation letters or anything like that, although we will GLADLY accept donations and have an account set up at pure charity through our agency for exactly that. BUT. Because we are doing this adoption a little faster than most, our payments are going to be very close together, which is going to make it necessary to do at least one fundraiser that steps outside our preferred methods, and that fundraiser is going to be right now in order to hopefully raise the $3200 we need for our home study. For this fundraiser, we have envelopes numbered 1-130. The idea is that family and friends will take (and it doesn’t have to be physically take, it can be virtually) one or more envelopes and commit to the amount of money represented on that envelope. For example, envelopes 1, 16, and 29 would mean you are committing to a $46 donation. Because our home study is being done through a TN agency and we are using a North Carolina agency for our adoption, these funds cannot be done through pure charity. You can either paypal us the money or send check or cash. If you are willing, we would love a note from you to include in the envelope(s) of your choosing that can one day be read by our future family member. I know that many of you have given to our Cambodia trips through the years and I know that we are pressing on you again, but we also know that God is in this and He will greatly bless your contribution.
The other risk is simply to wear your crowd out with fundraising, especially since we have so recently made a mission trip to Cambodia. With that in mind, we sat down last night to create our fundraising plan and we have very intentionally created a plan that will consist of one major fundraiser each month. We also believe these fundraisers will appeal to different groups of people so that we aren’t exhausting the same crowd’s resources over and over. We think we have a list of really fun and exciting events that people will WANT to take part in, not just feel obligated to.
Finally, we started our business, For Such a Time Creations, as a source of income for all of those “For Such a Time” times… mission trips, to help sponsor Phirom in the PCL Home in Siem Reap, to support our favorite missionary, Isaac, and to be free to give to other local and non-local organizations. In addition, we give a portion of all large orders to various nonprofit and ministry groups and we offer shirts at a discounted rates to ministry groups of our choosing. Well…. it’s finally FOR SUCH A TIME for funding for something I had always hoped would come, an adoption, and it finally has. While we will still continue to support those causes we have already committed to, most of our profit from our business will go to support our adoption until it is paid in full (and then I guess to continue to feed and clothe ALL of our children after that, haha!). So any orders for us, screenprinting, vinyl, or otherwise, are directly supporting our adoption.
Tomorrow I hope to share the full fundraising plan, but I wanted to introduce our envelope fundraiser now so I wanted to include all of this information. Thanks for following along!
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