Our grants

The money we raise helps us award grants to adoption agencies and organizations that share our dedication. Current grants total more than $7 million and are given to organizations all across the country.

Grantees are determined by staff and board of the Foundation. Though we can’t fund all requests, we will acknowledge the receipt of all submissions and notify applicants of the Foundation’s determination. The Foundation does not fund private adoptions, step-parent adoptions, international adoptions or grants to individuals. The Foundation does not fund research or capital building projects. For information and more resources, visit our resources page.

Wendy’s Wonderful Kids grants

Thank you for your interest in the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and Wendy’s Wonderful Kids. To be eligible for a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids grant, your agency may be public or private, must qualify under regulations of the United States Internal Revenue Service, and must have access to children in foster care and their case files. If this applies to you, please complete a Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption agency profile and submit it to angela_marshall@davethomasfoundation.org.

If we already have a profile in our system and/or your agency’s service area expands, we will contact you for more information. If you do not meet the requirement for a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids grant, your organization or institution may want to consider a general grant request, detailed below.

General grants

Thank you for your interest in the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. If your organization or institution is interested in submitting a grant request, you are invited to share information about your organization. To do this, submit no more than two pages describing your organization and proposed project, emphasizing the way your program addresses the need to move children out of foster care and into permanent adoptive homes. Since we award grants throughout the year, there are no submission deadlines.

Please do not submit bound proposals, video tapes, computer disks or other materials. In general, we do not provide funding for individuals, operational phases of established programs, capital requests (which includes the construction, purchase, renovation, and/or furnishing of facilities), equipment, conferences and workshops, films, television and/or radio programs, endowments, development campaigns, or research/studies unless they are an integral part of a larger program budget being considered for funding.

As you might expect, we receive more requests each year than we are able to fund with our limited resources. We are not able to fund requests that do not fit our funding guidelines and/or focus on moving children into adoptive homes and in support of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption programming goals and objectives. We will notify you in writing within 30 days after submitting your materials.

  • General grantees click to expand

    Adopt America Network, Toledo, Ohio: $50,000 to subsidize home studies for families of limited means to adopt foster children with special needs.

    Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, Washington, D.C.: $75,000 to support the Foster Youth Internship Program, providing former foster youth as summer interns to members of Congress.

    National Center for Adoption Law and Policy, Columbus, Ohio: $40,000 to support legal education and outreach promoting best practices in foster care and adoption.

    North American Council on Adoptable Children, Minneapolis, Minnesota: $75,000 to support the Adoption Subsidy Resource Center and advocacy for families who adopt from foster care.

    Center for Adoption Support and Education, Montgomery County, Maryland: $75,000 to support curriculum development and field testing of post-graduate training for adoption competency for mental health professionals.

    Hide General grantees