National Adoption Day!

11/21/2015

With today being National Adoption Day, a cause very near and dear to my heart, I thought I'd take a minute to share about the big Orphan Care Benefit Event we organized & held at our church a few weeks ago.

Fundraising for an Adoption can seem really daunting, exhausting and make you a bit self-conscious if I can be so honest. And yet, it's a privilege to so many to take part in adoption in that way; helping support others who are actually adopting. People have ASKED to be involved in our adoption, and want to give towards it! So with the help of some really close friends, we came up with this event packed with entertainment, education and FUN all the while benefitting not only our adoption, but a future family's as well.

It was an evening of education & inspiration on the topic of Adoption & Orphan Care in general, with a full meal, Silent Auction and Professional photos for families. All proceeds went towards the last needs of our family's adoption funds and the establishment of an Adoption Grant that our church will be able to give to the next family that pursues adoption.

SO: if you are adopting yourself, or know of a family who is, this is an easily reproducible event that you can do too! It's fun for the whole family, and not only raises much-needed funds for adoption, but also educates and inspires others who may not have yet been introduced to the Orphan Care/Adoption world. Here's how it all came together...

The Informational Flyer & Event Program...

We used these as invitations, promotional flyers and information for accompany our official Donation Request for our Silent Auction vendors. The flyers were printed double-sided and folded. (Click on the gallery to enlarge)

The Meal...

You can't see the set-up too well, but we had friends and family cook 1-2 dishes each, for a total of 10 dishes and a complete holiday-inspired meal. They served it from catering trays, with a table along the back wall of drinks & dessert. Every dish had a beautiful hand-lettered chalkboard easel identifying it and the quality was top-notch. (TIP: Serving is a good idea to ration portions--we had no idea how many people to expect, and that way we didn't run out of food. We had to set up an extra table in a hurry, by the way. It was a PACKED house!!

We also offered the recipes of each dish in a beautifully printed booklet, with the idea that guests could taste the various dishes and then have the recipe ready for their own Holiday meals coming up! (TIP: We had these for sale separately, and way undercharged for the *gourmet* meal that was served. Next time, we'll charge a little more per plate, and have the recipe booklets included for those who would like it.)

The Silent Auction...

We had ~25-30 donated items from businesses around our community, and set it up like a traditional silent auction. Bid sheets for each item with minimum starts and $2 incremental bids. This was open until the last 1/2 hour of the event, at which time we collected all the bid sheets and found the winners who were still mingling, picture-taking and nibbling on dessert. With a cashier still on duty, check out was quick and simple, and we didn't have any leftover items to hunt down winners afterwards!

The Professional Photo-Opp...

My Graphic Designer for Hemmed In is also a professional photographer, so we thought--let's set up a fun photo-op for families to get their holiday photos taken! At $15 for one or $30 for three, this was a slam dunk, home run, super popular item of the evening. And so easy!! She just emailed them their high resolution digital file a week later and they can do with it what they want (like ordering Christmas cards early for once!!)

The Orphan Care / Adoption Presentation...

This was really the heart of the entire evening. We wanted to clearly share God's heart for the Fatherless, as He is the author of Adoption. And we wanted to make known His call to His people to "Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." (Isaiah 1:17)
Our Emcee for the evening did a wonderful job communicating our desire to build a community of people who answer that call, and to be a support to families pursuing Orphan Care in any of its myriad opportunities. We also had a family share their recent adoption story, and showed this 8-minute video to start the program off in a powerful way...