$35.1M in expenses

Wendy's wonderful kids:wendy's wonderful kids, a signature program of the foundation, is making a difference for thousands of children across the nation - one child at a time. The dave thomas foundation for adoption awards grants to public and private agencies to hire adoption professionals who implement an evidence-based, child-focused recruitment strategy targeted exclusively on moving america's longest-waiting children from foster care into adoptive families. See schedule o for additional narrative on wendy's wonderful kids.research released in 2011 from a five-year rigorous evaluation of wendy's wonderful kids child-focused recruitment model showed that children served by the program are up to three times more likely to get adopted. Wendy's wonderful kids recruiters work with children and youth at greatest risk of aging out of foster care without an adoptive family. The recruiters have smaller caseloads, to ensure they have the time and resources to give each child the attention that child deserves and employ an aggressive evidence-based practice model focused on finding the best home for a child.the dave thomas foundation for adoption supports 529 wendy's wonderful kids recruiters working for children in the u.s. More than 15,529 children have been adopted as a result of wendy's wonderful kids, and another 1,043 are in their pre-adoptive placements simply waiting for a final court hearing.

$7.1M in expenses

Adoption awareness & advocacy:the foundation is committed to nationally communicating the urgency of foster care adoption and to encouraging everyone to become an ambassador for waiting children. Year-round awareness efforts include daily social media communications; marketing programs dispelling myths and misperceptions surrounding the issue of foster care adoption and the children waiting to be adopted; the development and distribution of free educational resources; the production of national television announcements; see schedule o for additional narrative on program grants & awareness.media engagement and thought leader speaking and keynote opportunities; and participation in a number of events across the united states. Additionally, since 2002, the foundation has commissioned several groundbreaking studies to measure americans' perceptions of foster care adoption.in addition to funding wendy's wonderful kids grants, resources generated by the foundation help to award strategic national grants to adoption agencies and organizations that share the foundation's mission. These grants provide critical foster care adoption services and support, promote best practices in foster care adoption, and assist with educational materials and strategies for parents and child welfare professionals.organizations were funded under the national grants program, including the alliance for children's rights, american bar association fund for justice and education, congressional coalition on adoption institute, center for the rights of abused children, child welfare league of america, justchoice, family to family support network, fostering change for children, fostering media connections, generations untied, kent state university foundation, national adoption association, national council for adoption, second nurture, think of us, treehouse foundation, university of connecticut, and voice for adoption.

$1.2M in expenses

Post adoption:robust post-adoption services are critical for many families who adopt from foster care and other venues. The dave thomas foundation for adoption has developed a free resource booklet, "a step-by-step guide to post-adoption" for distribution that defines the types of resources available for parents after an adoption is finalized, how to select and locate providers, and what to do if resources do not exist in their communities. It also includes recommendations of other national non-profit organizations that can help. See schedule o for additional narrative on program grants & awareness.in addition, the foundation has funded the center for adoption support and education (burtonsville, MD) to support the continued expansion of a training for adoption-competent mental health providers; has funded families rising to provide advocacy and legislation around adoption tax credits and subsidies to support families post-adoption; has funded adoptee mentoring society to support a mentoring program for adoptees and; funded adopt america network, adoptive and foster family coalition of new york, aid to adoption of special kids, lund family center, caring for kids, children's network of southwest florida, lutheran family services of nebraska, adoption rhode island, bethany christan services of georgia, raise the future, and standford sierra youth and families to provide post-adoption supports to WWK families.

$439K in expenses

Other programs:adoption-friendly workplace:expenses $384,677 including grants of $0 revenue $0in 1990, president george h.w. Bush asked dave thomas, founder of wendy's, to be the spokesperson for a new adoption initiative. Dave, an adoptee and adoption advocate, enthusiastically accepted the challenge and began to speak out publicly, asking people to consider foster care adoption and encouraging other business leaders to offer adoption as a part of their employee benefit plans. Adoption-friendly workplace was developed to keep dave thomas' work in motion. This signature program offers free toolkits and expert guidance to employers across the nation. The goal is to provide companies with the tools and support needed to set up and provide their employees adoption benefits, including financial reimbursement and paid leave. The foundation compiles and publishes an annual list of the nation's 100 best adoption-friendly workplaces list and highlights the forward-thinking employers that have adoption benefits in place.national adoption month and day:expenses $54,572 including grants of $0 revenue $0november is national adoption awareness month, a time to celebrate and raise awareness about foster care adoption. The foundation joins this important conversation by implementing a month-long strategic effort that focuses on outreach and education, resource distribution, and media coverage to increase awareness of foster care adoption across the country.national adoption day is held each year on the saturday before thanksgiving. On this day during national adoption awareness month, courts and community organizations across the country make it a priority to finalize pending foster care adoptions, while celebrating all families who adopt. The foundation is honored to be a lead founding and funding partner of this effort.