Application: Part 1

The first step to apply for a grant fund through a partner of ABBA Fund or by participating in the Christian Family Adoption Assistance Grant is by completing this online application. For participation approval, we ask families to agree with the statements below:

We will prayerfully consider all applications for partner grants or participation in the Christian Family Adoption Assistance Fund – but each family is asked to understand that our accepting their application is not a guarantee of receiving any kind of assistance.

Each interest-free loan application is structured to be assessed in the following areas: Heart for Adoption, Spiritual Wellness of Family, Educational and Parenting Values and Financial Stewardship. If approved, you will be contacted via email by our Family Relations team with next step instructions.

ABBA Fund does not provide an explanation of approvals or denials. Please complete the application as thoroughly as possible to prevent delays in processing.

As part of your completed application, the following documents are required:

• Copy of your completed Home Study (if available). If your home study is not available or if you are wanting to fundraise for your home study, then please attach an explanation of your adoption plan and any details on steps you have taken to get a home study done.
• A reference letter from your Pastor - a link is provided after Part 1 of application is submitted.

• Copy of your completed Home Study
• Copy of your current driver’s license for you and your spouse
• Copy of most recent pay check stub for you and your spouse (if working)
• Copy of most recent Federal Tax Return (first two pages only)
• A Credit Report Card for you and your spouse from Creditkarma.com (a free service that does not impact your credit score), or from a similar service which includes a recent credit score and verification of total reportable debt, attached to the application
• A good quality photo of your family, your child(ren) you are adopting and/or a photo of all together (or explanation of your preference to not provide a photo for personal or agency reasons)
• Three references received by ABBA Fund prior to review of your application if not already on file. References should include your Pastor, an employer/co-worker and church accountability partner/leader - a link will be provided for you to send to your references once you submit your application

Please review the Adoption Resources area of ABBA Fund’s website (under the Adoption Journey section).

1. what books, articles, organizations or people have most influenced your adoption journey,
2. what type of adoption community (other adoptive families) are you plugged in to, either locally or online, and
3. what have you done to prepare to live “the adopted life” and the many challenges that often come with raising an adopted
   child

Please be as detailed and thorough as possible when completing the application. NOTE: Include scripture where appropriate to support your statements. Both husband and wife must complete each item.

Please read ABBA Fund’s Statement on Authority of Scripture & Beliefs and Faith in Appendix B of this application or on our website. By initialing above, you are confirming that you share our beliefs and biblical values. ABBA Fund is a community of adoptive families who are committed to raising their children in a Christian faith environment consistent with these beliefs. If you worship in a faith community that does not align with our beliefs, please do not sign in this area.

Please Note that ABBA Fund does not award interest-free loans on top of interest-bearing financing (credit cards, home equity loans/lines of credit, traditional loans, etc.)

We hereby consent for ABBA Fund to contact our adoption agency and any other person or institution named in this application, and we
authorize such person and institutions to verify information for ABBA Fund about our adoption. We also understand and agree that:

1. ABBA Fund contacting any of individuals in no way indicates approval of our application,
2. whether or not financial assistance is provided is at the total discretion of the ministry and its representatives, and
3. ABBA Fund is not obligated to provide any assistance to us through grants or loans.

Please initial here to give ABBA Fund permission to use your family’s story and any pictures you share for us to share with our support base to help raise funds for our various assistance funds and to report back to donors about the impact of their gifts.

Our heart is to help reduce the financial burden for your family to adopt and we are honored to have the potential blessing of serving you and being part of your adoption journey – but please understand that our first responsibility is to protect the charitable status and financial integrity of ABBA Fund for the hundreds of families we serve through adoption assistance funding. Let’s walk through what you need to know about how the Christian Family Adoption Grant fund works in order to be a catalyst for charitable gifts that are tax-deductible for generous donors.

ABBA Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry and is a member is good standing with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). In order to protect our federal charitable status with the IRS and our membership with ECFA, ABBA Fund manages each of its grant and loan funds by strict standards outlined in this document. These guidelines explained in this document are part of the procedures ABBA Fund has in place to adhere to IRS regulations and protect the charitable integrity of a donor's gift. IRS regulations require that donations are made to the organization which is the approved charitable entity (ABBA Fund) and not the individual (family). As evidence of that, ABBA Fund maintains full control and administration of all donated funds, you will find this information fully disclosed on all donation forms, receipts and related materials -- and it is the responsibility of each participating family to help communicate this clarification to donors requesting to support their adoption.

Any repeated requests or demands by a family participating in one of our funds in a way that is in violation of these standards is grounds to immediately cancel their participation and forfeit any benefits from charitable contributions which they have helped raise for the fund, which are given with the understanding of ABBA Fund’s full administration and control of all donated funds.

Donors are permitted to state a preference of how their contribution is used and request that it support a particular family that has been approved by ABBA Fund to participate in the ABBA Fund – but the gift must be given in support of ABBA Fund’s charitable mission to assist Christian families to adopt. ABBA Fund will fully consider that request, while the ultimate authority regarding the disposition of the funds is at the discretion of ABBA Fund as the charitable organization. (NOTE: Donors should not write the name of the family they are requesting to support anywhere on a check sent into ABBA Fund. Doing so would eliminate that gift’s charitable nature because in an IRS audit situation it shows the intent of the donor to give to an individual instead of the charitable organization. Any request to support a particular family’s adoption should be done by using the online form, including a contribution form with the check, or simply enclosing a personal note stating the preference.)

ABBA Fund is grateful for each donation given to the Chosen Family Adoption Grant Fund, and broad participation in the fund makes it more likely that each approved family will receive the grant and loans funds intended to reduce the financial burden of their adoption. Our intent is to fund qualified adoption expenses for each family participant with at least the total amount they helped raise for the Chosen Family Adoption Grant Fund.

Families cannot make a charitable contribution toward their own fund, either directly or through a private foundation or donor advised fund which they oversee. To maintain the charitable integrity of any support a family may receive from the grant fund, we encourage participating families to seek contributions from a broad and diverse public group.

Your participation in the ABBA Fund is in no way to be construed as setting up a “personal account” with ABBA Fund, which is not
permitted by IRS guidelines. Contributions you help raise for the grant fund do not create an account from which you can draw down funds as needed. Nor is there any agreement – even unspoken – guaranteeing a family that it will personally receive all of the funds it helps raise for ABBA Fund’s work. Your participation is part of a group of adoptive families for which ABBA Fund is attempting to reduce the financial burden of adoption so that orphans can be cared for in loving, nurturing Christian family environments. ABBA Fund will assist each participating family with creating and hosting an online profile to share their story and track the funds you help raise as part of the Christian Family Adoption Grant Fund, but the distribution of those funds is under the total administration and control of ABBA Fund as the charitable recipient of the gifts.

The grants disbursed from ABBA Fund rarely go directly to the participating family -- instead the disbursements go to third-party service providers (your adoption agency, lawyer, travel agent, etc.).

As mentioned earlier, the grants (and loans) disbursed from ABBA Fund rarely go directly to the participating family. Instead the disbursements from ABBA Fund go to third-party service providers (your adoption agency, lawyer, travel agent, etc.). It is ABBA Fund’s policy not to provide funds (grants or loans) that are primarily for the benefit of the family versus relieving the financial burden of adoption.

• Acceptable expenses for grant and loan disbursements:
• Adoption Agency fees
• Social Worker fee for a home study and home visits
• Legal fees for lawyer services and law firm expenses
• Orphanage donations (preferably handled by your agency liaison)
• Travel costs for parents and the adopted child to enter the country and return home (preferably to a travel agent)
• Major medical costs within the year after the child legally becomes part of the family (surgeries, treatment for major illnesses, an initial medical evaluation to determine needed care for the child … this opportunity is not meant be multiple grants for things like wellness care, but larger grants paid directly to medical providers for remaining major medical expenses after insurance has paid its share)

• Expenses that are not acceptable for grant and loan disbursements:
• Personal mileage reimbursement
• Personal meal expenses
• Sight-seeing travel or personal trips not required as part of the adoption
• Travel expenses related to other family members not required to be there for the adoption (except in rare circumstances)
• Personal home modifications or improvements to accommodate an adopted child

PLEASE NOTE: The disbursement of grant funds from ABBA Fund is meant to be for large expenses and not a continual list of smaller checks to a variety of different entities. In cases of excessive requests for disbursements of a grant or loan, a 20% administrative fee may be assessed at ABBA Fund’s discretion on the disbursements to cover the labor and processing associated with the multiple disbursements. Any direct costs related to wire transfers, overnight or rush delivery fees, etc. are also deducted from the grant or added to the loan amount.

ABBA Fund will not grant or loan funds beyond the determined need for a family’s adoption expenses. Any change in the estimated adoption expense in the family’s application should be updated and documented with ABBA Fund. Any funds that a family helps raise over and above their family’s personal adoption needs should be done so with no expectation of those funds being granted toward their adoption and will become part of the general ABBA Fund pool of resources. A family that helps raise a significant amount of funds beyond their adoption needs can request an assessment from ABBA Fund for converting the funds raised into a Legacy Child Fund which would allow the participating family to be part of supporting additional adoptive families with interest-free loans.

Any family participant in the grant fund that terminates their adoption pursuit can no longer participate in the grant fund, and all funds they helped raise for the ABBA Fund become part of the general pool to assist other families in need. Charitably contributed gifts cannot be returned to donors, and will be used for the purpose for which they were given – to assist Christian families to adopt. If a family suspends their adoption pursuit (for instance, after an adoption where the birth parents changed their mind), but intends to pursue again in the future, ABBA Fund asks that they remain in continued contact with the ministry and they can remain an active participant in the grant fund community.

While ABBA Fund works to minimize administrative fees, please know that there are fees tied to bank card contributions and support of these online fundraising pages that are unavoidable. To that end, a nominal 5% fee will be deducted from all donations to the Christian Family Adoption Grant Fund to cover those costs when the contribution is received. ABBA Fund maintains the right to waive these fees in special circumstances and partnerships at its discretion. Any need to increase these fees will be communicated to all participating families prior to the increase taking affect and with the option for the family to no longer participate.

Grant funds received by a family reduce the amount of adoption expenses that can be claimed as part of the Federal Adoption Tax Credit. Loans – including ABBA Fund’s interest-free loans for approved families – do not reduce the amount of adoption expenses that can be claimed as part of the Adoption Tax Credit. A combination of grants and interest-free loans is the best way to maximize the impact of the Adoption Tax Credit on overall adoption costs. Families should confer with their personal accountant or tax advisor to ensure they are getting the full value of the Adoption Tax Credit.

Please read ABBA Fund’s Statement on Authority of Scripture & Beliefs and Faith in Appendix B. By initialing above, you are confirming that you share our beliefs and biblical values. ABBA Fund is a community of adoptive families who are committed to raising their children in a Christian faith environment consistent with our beliefs, values and faith. If you worship in a faith community that does not align with our beliefs, please do not sign in this area. We would encourage you to explore the other types of resource assistance, including some provided in our Adoption Resources section of our website.