DTFA: Foster Care Adoption Awareness

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is driven by a single goal: finding a loving family for every child waiting in foster care to get adopted. We are America’s only national nonprofit charity dedicated solely to finding permanent homes for the more than 100,000 children in foster care.

How we work:

  • Award grants to adoption organizations that connect children with families.
  • Increase awareness across the nation about waiting children and the process to adopt.
  • Raise funds to support our awareness and education programs.
  • Provide free resources to professionals and prospective and adoptive parents.

Our Core Beliefs:

  • Every child deserves a safe, loving, and permanent family.
  • No child should linger in foster care or leave the system at age 18 without a permanent family of his or her own.
  • Every child is adoptable.

Videos from this campaign

Content from this campaign

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Thriving in a Loving Home, What Every Child Deserves and YOU Can Help
Imagine spending a year and a half not knowing if the bed you slept in one night would be the bed you sleep in the next night. That’s reality for the more than 430,000 children in foster care in North America, but the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption knows that these children can have a bright future. More than 117,000 children living in foster care need to be adopted right now.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

It’s National Adoption Night at Wendy’s!
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption thanks The Wendy’s Company for hosting National Adoption Night, tonight May 8, at their stores across the United States. This fun, inspirational night allows Wendy’s customers to learn more about foster care adoption, while enjoying a delicious fresh, never frozen meal at their local Wendy’s.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Keeping Siblings Together in Foster Care. It Matters…A LOT
This guest blog was written by Rachel Adler, a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiter in Northwest, Ohio. She works diligently to get to know each child, giving them an opportunity to let their voice be heard throughout the adoption process. It was originally shared in April 2017. We are republishing it in honor of National Siblings Day. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption works on behalf of the children who have waited the longest in foster care for a loving home. We focus on older children, sibling groups and children with special needs. Rachel shares how she fought to keep a pair of brothers together in a system that tried to pull them apart.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Reaches Major Milestone
When Dave Thomas started his Foundation 25 years ago he did so with a heart that was committed to finding families for children waiting to be adopted from foster care. His vision is always close to our hearts and today we think he would be proud as the Foundation that bears his name celebrates more than 6,500 adoptions.

Events, Media & Communications

Best Adoption Friendly Workplace Survey is Open
Does your company offer adoption benefits to its employees in the form of financial reimbursement or paid time off? If so, you are working for an adoption-friendly workplace. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption wants to recognize your company in its 2017 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplace survey that is open now.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Mrs. Arkansas Using Title to Further Awareness of Foster Care Adoption

Social Impact & Volunteering

When I First Met My Child
Families come in all shapes and sizes and not all families meet on the day a child is born. Did you know there are over 130,000 children waiting to be adopted from foster care in the U.S. and Canada? That is more than 130,000 children who just want a forever family, someone to help them with their homework and tuck them in at night.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Unadoptable is Unacceptable
At the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, we believe that “unadoptable” is unacceptable. Each year 23,000 children age out of the foster care system in the United States without being adopted into a forever family. To us, that is unacceptable.

Social Impact & Volunteering

I Am
Children in foster care face stereotypes that simply aren’t true. These children are not trouble makers, too old or unable to live with a family; they are not unadoptable. Children come into care because they have been abused or neglected. Through no fault of their own, they are removed from their homes.

Social Impact & Volunteering

I'm Just a Kid
Children of all ages have dreams and that doesn’t stop just because they enter the fostercare system. Hear the dreams of the children being helped by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters.

More from Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

  1. DTFA: Foster Care Adoption Awareness
    The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is driven by a single goal: finding a loving family for every child waiting in foster care to get adopted. We...

  2. Adoption Stories
    The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has one mission: To dramatically increase the number of children adopted from foster care. In the U.S. and...

  3. Rita's Blog
    For more than 30 years, Rita Soronen has worked on behalf of abused, neglected and vulnerable children, providing leadership for local, state and...