Dear AFAAD Community of Members & Supporters,
What a year 2011 has been for us!
We have been blessed to continue much of our outreach work, our educational workshops, discussions, presentations and support of films and artistic productions. We supported adoptee performer Rock Wilk’s Broke Wide Open coming to Oakland, CA. We offered a film and discussion nights for the public in the Bay Area. We continue to offer a once a month discussion group on multiple topics for adoptees and foster care alumni. We collaborated with organizations MAVIN, Adoption Mosaic and Mixed Roots Foundation. We continue our advocacy work, including collaboration with other adoptee organizations, and other ethical adoption watchdog organizations that focus on ensuring that both domestic and international adoption of children is done with family preservation at its core. For example, we signed on in solidarity against the North Korean Refugee Adoption Act / H.R. 1464/S.416 and opposed the blanket reopening of adoptions from Haiti to the Netherlands. And of course, in November 2011, we had our most powerful Annual National Gathering yet, in Seattle, WA.
In 2012, we will continue all of our annual projects. As well, we are committed to a focused strategic planning, to ensure our future as an organization, the development of our Board of Directors and our national chapter programming. We are excited to announce that Spring 2012 our local Bay Area chapter will begin a series of writing workshops for youth adoptees and foster care alumni of color with two local adoptee poets. Yay youth programming!
We hope you can see how deeply important and transformative the work we do for our community. This work is done all on a volunteer basis, as each of our Board members uses our own time and money. We are writing to ask your support to help us fulfill our holiday wishes, and to ask you to help us enter the new year on a positive note.
When you donate before December 30th – Here is where your money will go:
A One time Donation of:
$20 makes it possible for us to pay for smaller expenses like paper, stamps, and smaller mailings.
$50 makes it possible for AFAAD Board members to continue donating our homes and or renting spaces for discussion groups, workshops for member only events or for larger expenses like printer cartridges, larger mailings, and phone bills.
$100 makes it possible for us to continue offering small stipends to local guest speakers and interns for one time projects.
$500 will cover expenses for important guest speakers at our events, or allow a foster care alumni or adoptee who could not otherwise attend our Annual Gathering to come for free. A donation of this size would also allow us to begin the development of our desperately needed website overhaul.
$1000 makes it possible for continued strengthening of our national outreach, the development of our Seattle, Minnesota and Atlanta chapters, goes directly to the planning of our National Gathering, an event that is paid for partially by conferences fees and partially out of our own pockets each year.
When you give, your donation is tax-deductible, and your name will be listed HERE as a generous participant in this work that we do.
We send a special thank you MAVIN and Mixed Roots Foundation for their recent donations to our 2011 Annual Gathering in Seattle, WA.
Please give what you can! Donate online securely through our fiscal sponsor HERE.
Or you can send a check, written to “Community Initiatives” (our fiscal sponsor) with “AFAAD” in the memo line.
Please do not hesitate to call on any of us if you have questions, or want to volunteer, we have many opportunities.
Happy Holidays and as always, thank you for your support of our work!
The Entire AFAAD Volunteer Board of Directors
Lisa Marie Rollins
Ian Hagemaan
Lisa D. Walker
Karie Gaska
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