No matter which kind of adoption you are looking into, chances are you will need extra funds. Foster-to-adopt is free, and in fact they may give you a stipend in some states, but adding a child to the family always creates a financial hit. Other kinds of adoption - private domestic adoption or international - are often very expensive.

I have written a bit about this in my Russian Adoption blog, but I think it's worth writing about here as well. The money thing comes up over and over on the adoption bulletin boards and listservs, not matter where people are planning to adopt from. This post is about raising funds for your adoption. The next post will be about ways to be more thrifty in order to save money for your adoption.

Basic fundraising ideas:

1. Petition friends and family for help. You might feel uncomfortable asking people you know and love for money, but look at it this way: ask them to think about giving you in cash what they might spend on a shower gift. How much would that be? $5? $25? $100?

2. Have a yardsale or sell stuff on e-bay. Again, ask friends and family to donate. I once held a fundraised yardsale to build a playground in my town and it raised $1000. A group of us moms got rid of all our extra stuff and had a fun day - you could do something similar. If you have a yardsale or sell stuff on ebay let people know you are doing it to raise money for your adoption - I've heard that lots of times people make flat-out donations or tell you to keep the change.

3. Get a 2nd job or increase your hours at work. This is what I did when we were adopting our son. I was lucky because the school where I worked needed an emergency English teacher and I needed an emergency job. My mom stepped in and helped with some of the childcare for my older son and my husband rearranged his schedule temporarily. I was able to make a good chunk of money just upping my work hours for 4 months. Even if you only made $250 extra dollars a month at the end of the year you'll be $3000 closer to whatever $ you need for your adoption.

4. Flip a house. I know that sounds a little ambitious and may be out of your reach depending on what area of the country you live in, but if you can get a very good deal on a house or a peice of property in need of TLC and if you're handy with a paintbrush and tools...you can make a nice chunk of money this way. My husband and I have done this twice and we plan on doing it again.

5. Start a little business on the side. I guess this goes along with adding extra hours at work, but I thought it'd be worth mentioning. Ideas that come to mind are petsitting, babysitting or after school care(if you're already a stay-at-home parent), selling make-up or kitchen stuff or baskets, selling handmade arts and crafts, etc.

6. Look for adoption grants as well as state organizations who give grants to individuals. On this thread on the adoption.com forums (go to post #4), the poster says that she looked through grants offerings in her state and found ones that gave grants to individuals. She then wrote to every grant-giving organization that would give grants to individuals and one of her three adoptions was completely financed that way. Post #9 also talks about using grants for adoption and gives some helpful tips.

7. Have a raffle to raise money. Owlhaven just posted about a quilt that's being raffled off to raise money to adopt a child from Ethiopia. It's a gorgeous quilt and a great idea!

Next post...saving money that you already have.