In August of 2012 Council Road Baptist Church submitted paperwork along with a $20,000 check to establish the Karis Adoption Fund. Written into the founding documents was verbiage that made clear our intention for the fund to be something that impacted families beyond the scope of the membership of our own church. In the first two years of its existence the Karis Adoption Fund has received $149,245.02 in donations. Every penny will go to help families change orphans to sons and daughters through adoption.
Our current balance after distributions and commitments is $96,696.84. This means that the fund has nearly $100,000 left to give to families who are adopting. God’s grace is amazing indeed!
Most often families who receive assistance from the Karis Adoption Fund do so by means of a matching grant. This means that the adopting family must give of their own monies, and/or raise monies to get matching dollars up to the amount of the award. In other words, Karis dollars are given as family dollars are raised. Some of the advantages of this type of award are as follows:
- Matching grants tend to net up to three times the amount of the award due to donors motivated by matching dollars (each dollar they give gets doubled by the matching grant up to the amount of the award).
- Matching grants give a financial vehicle that enables them to go to their social networks of family and friends – inviting their prayerful and financial participation in the adoption.
Matching grants are not the only way that the Karis Adoption Fund has helped. The fund has on more limited occasions and according to the unique realities of the applicants, offered the following types of assistance:
- Direct grants – these funds are simply given and not based on raised dollars.
- No Interest loans – these funds are also simply given and must be repaid.
Beyond financial statements and award options lies the underlying purpose of the fund: To glorify our Heavenly Father, who, at great cost to Himself, adopted spiritual orphans and made them sons and daughters. The Karis Adoption Fund exists to reflect through human adoption the grace of what God has done for us spiritually in Christ. Real families are being impacted. Children once labeled orphan now are labeled son or daughter. If a picture is worth a thousand words then I’ll let the following pictures – pictures of some of the families helped – tell the rest of the story.
