Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Celebrates 5,000th Adoption

May 4, 2016 12:05 PM ET

Years ago, a sibling group of four was placed on the caseload of a very special Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiter, and it wasn’t long before she realized they were meant for each other. Soon after, she became a Grants Manager at the Foundation, and they were able to begin the steps to become a family. During the morning of their adoption finalization, Jay said to his dad, “Hi! My name is Jay! I’m going to be your son in half an hour.” Dad replied, “You already are my son.”

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is committed to making this story a reality for all children waiting in foster care. Our work is far from done. There are more than 130,000 children in the US and Canada waiting in foster care for their forever family. There are 23,000 children in danger of aging out of the foster care system without being adopted.

So how does it work? The Foundation is a nonprofit awareness and grant making organization. The dollars the Foundation generates are used to fund grants that are given to public and private agencies, which can then hire specially-trained adoption recruiters. Those recruiters are a part of the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program and they follow the Foundation’s child-focused recruitment model. They take on smaller caseloads and get to know each child individually so they can help find the right family.

Are you interested in learning more about how the Foundation finds forever families for children in foster care? Visit our website at www.davethomasfoundation.org. We’d love to hear from you!