Affording Adoption

How you can use Amazon to earn $1,000+ for your adoption fund

07.18.2012 by juliegumm@yahoo.com //

NOTE: Please read the update post here for important information about the restrictions of the affiliate program.

I mentioned the Amazon Affiliates fundraising idea in “Adopt Without Debt” almost as a side note. I knew a couple people who had done it and made a few hundred dollars. And money is money, right?

But now I’m telling you, this idea REALLY works! Stacy and Rodney have gone gangbusters with this idea and already made $1,400 for their adoption fund. Their friends and family have used their Amazon affiliate link to purchase over $20k worth of merchandise.

I have a quick link in my Safari bookmark bar that says “Amazon-Kennedy”. Every time I need something on Amazon I use the link. I don’t want to know how much of that $20k I’m responsible for personally 🙂

This is a NO-BRAINER! After you have it set up all you need to do is advertise it and remind people. Here’s a couple ideas:

Post it on your Facebook profile and then post to FB at least once a week. (Once Stacy posted some of the unusual stuff people had purchased – they can’t see who purchased it. That was kind of fun.)
Tweet it, of course
Put it in the sidebar of your blog
Send an email to friends and family with the link. Encourage them to add it as a quick link in their browser.
Stacy sent her Christmas cards out before Thanksgiving with some cute cards with their link. GENIUS!

So that you don’t have ANY excuses, I’m even going to walk you through the set up process.

1. Go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

2. Click the “Join Now for Free” button.

3. Sign in to your regular Amazon.com account. If you don’t have one click “I’m a new customer.”

4. Verify your account information – mainly where payment should be sent.

5. Tell Amazon about your website. This form is pretty self-explanatory and don’t worry. Most of the answers are just for their research purposes. (You can click on the images below to enlarge if you have questions.)

If you don’t have a blog, don’t worry. I tested it with just putting my Facebook unique URL in the “name of your website” link and it worked fine.

6. Next you’ll get a page with your unique Amazon ID. It’ll look weird like “httpwwwfa0f8d-XX”. Click the “Specify Payment Information” button.

7. Fill out the form. Tax Name is just going to be your name as it appears on your taxes. Tax ID Number is your social security number. Yes, this counts as income and you will need to report it on your taxes. Under “Organization” select Individual. Then select your payment method. Direct deposit makes the most sense as they don’t charge you a fee. If you select that it will expand and you will need your bank account information.

Congrats, now you’ll get to your Amazon Associates “dashboard”. There’s all kinds of information on how to link to specific products and embed stuff into posts. It’s great if you want to dig in to it (and if you frequently mention books I would). But for now you don’t need to bother with it.

8. Go back to Amazon.com. Now you’ll notice the “affiliates” grey bar at the top of your browser window.

9. Click the “Link to this page” (while you’re on the home page). You’ll get this pop-up box. Note the text I highlighted below in between the quote marks. Copy just that portion. That is your affiliate link. Of course that’s super long and not very user-friendly but hang on.

1o. Next we’re going to get a shortened URL. There’s a number of services you can use – bit.ly etc. TinyURL is an easy one. Go to TinyURL.com and paste that link into the box that says “Enter a long URL to make tiny” then click the “make tiny” button.

You’ll get something like this

Copy the tiny url and use it in Tweets, FB, etc. Paste it into a text document on your desktop or something for easy reference.

For printing business cards: Vistaprint.com offers 250 free business cards you could use to make up some cards to hand out to friends.

What other “affiliate” programs are you using to raise funds for your adoption?

What adoption grants am I eligible for?

07.13.2012 by juliegumm@yahoo.com //

As we discussed yesterday, there are three types of adoption grants. But how do you figure out which ones to apply for? Because there’s 60 plus adoption grants available.

I’m going to point you to my favorite resource on adoption grants. Cherri Walrod is an adoptive mother and founder of Resources4Adoption.com and I’ve dubbed her the Adoption Grant Guru.

She spends HUNDREDS of hours meticulously researching adoption grants – finding new ones AND monitoring existing ones. She has gathered all this information and created a Grants & Loans chart. It allows you an easy way to access grants that you are eligible for.

Which sources ARE accepting applications?
Which sources are on hold?
Which sources are outdated or no longer active?
I am single, which grants should I apply for?
Which states have adoption grants available to their residents?
Are there any grants for other religious affiliations beside Christian?
Does anyone offer grants for domestic or private adoptions?

Visit her site and you can see a sample chart. The full chart can be purchased for $20 – money well spent when it will save you HOURS of research.

Understanding the 3 Types of Adoption Grants

07.12.2012 by juliegumm@yahoo.com //

Adoption grants are basically “free” money for your adoption. But free doesn’t mean they come without work. You just THOUGHT you were done with all that adoption paperwork.

The first key is to understand the types of grants that are available to adoptive families: direct, fundraising and matching.

Direct grants are the most desired, but also the most difficult to get. Direct grant organizations, like Show Hope, review applicants and award money outright. The money is never paid directly to families, but is paid to your adoption agency or attorney.

Of course these grants are very sought after and have limited funding based on their own fundraising. Other examples include Gift of Adoption and A Child Waits.

Fundraising grants give you an account with a non-profit grant organization to which people can donate. This provides your friends and family with the added benefit of a tax deduction when they give to your adoption fund.

These are the easiest grants to qualify for since the grant organization is not giving you money out of their pocket. I tell every adoptive family that they need to apply for these types of grants. It’s a no-brainer.

I guarantee at least a few people are going to want to donate toward your adoption, why not give them the tax break as well?

It is common for fundraising grant organizations to charge a small administrative. Ten percent seems to be the norm. Like direct grants, the money goes to your agency, not you.

Examples include Lifesong for Orphans and His Kids Too!

Matching grants are basically a combination of direct and fundraising. The grant organization allows you to fundraise and provide the tax benefit to your donors. Then they match a certain dollar amount of donations received.

They will often provide you with sample fundraising letters, or you can find some on other parents blogs. Lifesong for Orphans is one matching grant organization.

You may dread the thought of more paperwork. Or like me, you might think that your family makes too much money to qualify.

Sadly, I wish I had spent more time and applied for more grants. I was quite lackadaisical about it. We did have a fundraising grant and I applied for one direct grant which we did not receive.

The beauty of the application process is that most organizations want the same information. So gather it up, grab a cup of coffee and your computer and you can apply for multiple grants without too much additional work.

What grants have you applied for? What money have you received?