I would like to put a plug in here for foster adoption. Adoption from foster care can be very, very low in cost. A fraction of what other types of adoption can be. But more on that a different day. Even as an adoption advocate, I can only handle so much at a time:)
Also, I would say, consider your priorities. If it's important to you, you will find a way. I don't write this flippantly. We are a low middle class family, mostly single income. This adoption is surely being boosted by our last two, because of the adoption tax credit, but we could have put that tax return into other areas, other needs. We have chosen to sacrifice and face a slimmer margin, because we believe a soul hangs in the balance. A's, as it so happens.
BUT, there is no way we could have scrimped and saved the thousands and thousands it will take to bring her home. We needed to reach out to our community. We have shared our burdens with the Lord, our family, our church and our community. We have seen incredible generosity pour forth.
"I don't always think of myself as rich, and I'm guessing you may not think of yourself as rich either. But the reality is, if you and I have running water, shelter over our heads, clothes to wear, food to eat, and some means of transportation (even if it's public transportation), then we are in the top 15 percent of the world's people for wealth." from Radical, by David Platt
Sometimes, you need a channel by which people feel comfortable or inspired to give. Today, I'm highlighting the Ice Cream Social.
Here's what we did, if you have some suggestions, please feel free to mention them in the comments.
1. Plan a date, find a space.
We used our church building. They allowed us to rent the space free of charge. Wonderful blessing!
2. Invites! It wouldn't be a bad idea to mail our post-card type invitations. I'm just not convinced that e-invites, facebook events, etc are the way to go. We announced, announced, announced, through social media, email and in our church bulletin. Our total guests, including about 10-15 volunteers, was only 90 people. However, these precious 90 people happened to be very generous, as we were able to raise about $2100!!!
3. Find volunteers. You will need help. A friend of mine sent out an email sign-up sheet. We had volunteers for scooping ice cream, keeping things re-stocked, keeping things tidy, sitting at the donation table, keeping an eye on the silent auction items, selling raffle tickets and for clean up. One thing that we didn't do, that I wish we would have, is to have a brief meeting with volunteers, just to run through how you envision the evening going. If possible, do it at the venue.
4. Make a list of everything that needs to happen or needs to be collected before the event. Decide when you're going to do what. When you're going to set up tables, when you're going to pick up supplies etc. We chose to have toppings at our Ice Cream Social, whip cream, sprinkles, chocolate etc. We also had coffee. We started about 1.5 weeks before the day and that seemed to work well. Don't plan too much the day of, or you'll be stressed and exhausted by go time.
5. Find Ice Cream!!! For this, you'll need to plan ahead if you want anything special. There's nothing wrong with swinging by the local grocery store and loading up there. We wanted something homemade, and were able to find a local distributor, but it was about 3 x or more the price. Very good, quite expensive!! We ordered 7.5 gallons and that was more than enough.
6. These are optional items, but we chose to do a silent auction/raffle concurrently with our social. This brought it approximately $100 extra and was quite a bit of work, gathering items and setting everything up. Not sure if we would do that again. We also prepared a little presentation, including a slide show, which was fun and very well-received. Doing these little extras helped, but were not necessary.
7. Pray and ask others to pray. Our event was not super well attended, but as I said, those who came were obviously passionate about supporting our adoption and put their money where their hearts are.
~extra little tid-bits~
~we made sure (suggested by a smart friend) that those waiting in line/coming in would go right by the silent auction tables
~we didn't charge a fee to get in, we just kept a donation box for those who came in to give what they felt, there were hundred dollars bills, and very large checks in the box at the end of the night, and like I said, we raised $2100!!!
~if possible, try to find enough volunteers so that you won't need to do anything after set-up, you'll want to go around and chat with your guests, and you will have different folks coming up asking questions and what-not
So far, in our third adoption adventure, we have been blessed with over $10,000 in gifts and fundraisers. Two garage sales, hosted by others for us, brought it around $4,000 total. I plan to write another entry in this series on putting on a successful adoption fundraiser garage sale, as we have participated in and put on three now, over the course of our last three adoptions. a huge and heartfelt thanks/shoutout to our dear church family and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law for all the work and inconvenience of putting on these garage sales for our A.
