Grants for Adoption Agencies 2026: 207 Youth Funders

Directors, development staff and board members will get the most from this guide if they work at a private agency placing children from foster care, an infant or intercountry adoption program, an adoption exchange that recruits families, a post-adoption counseling program or an adoptive parent group. Many of these agencies also license foster homes, and that's fine: if adoption is a core service, you're in the right place.

Adoption source review, Grantsights, November 1, 2026: Grantsights checked the statute text of 42 U.S.C. 673 (opens in a new tab) and 42 U.S.C. 673b (opens in a new tab), the intercountry accreditation rules in 22 CFR Part 96 (opens in a new tab), and the Children's Bureau pages on Title IV-E Adoption Assistance (opens in a new tab) and Adoption Opportunities (opens in a new tab), against foundation filings that name adoption groups. Where official sources stop: no federal page says what a home study, a post-placement visit or a year of post-adoption counseling costs a private agency, so every budget below has to come from your own case data.

4 Kinds of Adoption Organizations and What Funders Back

Grantsights sorted the 39 hand-checked recipients into 4 rough groups, from national names drawing $200,000 gifts to small local groups living on checks under $5,000. Each needs a different pitch. This table is illustrative, not data: budgets and services vary widely.

A small parent association shouldn't copy the pitch of a national exchange. National groups sell scale. A county association sells what nobody else does: the 9 p.m. phone call from a parent whose 13-year-old just ran away, and a mentor who's been there.

Grants for Adoption Agencies: What 990-PF Filings Show

Grantsights analysis of 990-PF youth grants pulled November 1, 2026 found 207 foundations that made 342 grants to adoption agencies and adoptive family support groups, totaling $8,921,808. According to IRS guidance on Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab), private foundations list their grants on that return, so each gift here ties back to a filing. Private foundations matter for adoption groups, but they're rarely the biggest line: placement agencies live on state contracts and adoption fees, and parent groups live on members and individual donors.

The average comes to about $26,100 per grant, and that number misleads. According to the Grantsights youth grant data pulled November 1, 2026, the median gift was $5,000, a quarter were $1,350 or less and a quarter were $15,000 or more. Plan a first ask in the low thousands for most local funders.

Large gifts that tilt the total

Three Jockey Being Family Foundation gifts to one Maryland training group add up to $2,096,956, about 24% of the national total, according to the November 1, 2026 pull. These are the largest gifts:

The GHR purpose describes promoting domestic adoption within the countries where Holt works, as the filing words it, not adoption into the United States.

Gifts between $25,000 and $100,000

For example, the Otto Bremer Trust gave Children's Wisconsin $100,000 in 2024 for adoption and foster care services, and $75,000 to the Children's Home Society of Minnesota in 2023 for its foster care adoption program. One organization in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, received $50,000 from the Liberty Mutual Foundation in both 2023 and 2024 to find adoptive homes for teens in care. The Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation gave Raise the Future in Denver $30,000 in 2023 for transition support for adoptive youth and families, and the Kinney Family Foundation gave the Children's Home Society in St. Paul $25,000 a year from 2023 to 2025 for post-adoption services.

Adoption Agency Grants by State

Texas leads with 24 foundations, and its $1,693,375 total spreads across several agencies, including DePelchin, Partnerships for Children in Austin and Pathways Youth and Family Services. This table uses the November 1, 2026 pull, counted by the state where the recipient sits.

21 states had 3 or more foundations giving to adoption groups. National groups pull some of them up. Holt International, based in Eugene, accounts for at least $466,750 of Oregon's $547,050 in the largest gifts alone, from 5 different foundations. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption in Dublin takes at least $741,250 of Ohio's $797,185, including $150,000 from the Wilson Sheehan Foundation in 2023 to expand Wendy's Wonderful Kids in Ohio. Maryland's total is about 97% Jockey money, and Illinois is mostly the Gift of Adoption Fund. A small agency in Portland, Columbus or Baltimore shouldn't read those states as easy.

Arizona and Florida are different: their counts come from many local checks. The Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, Arizona's free preview sample, gave the Arizona Association for Foster & Adoptive Parents $70,000 in 2024 for training, mentoring, counseling and family activities, and the Rosendin Foundation added $35,000. Florida's sample, the Kingdom Charitable Trust, gave Kids in Distress $25,000 in 2025 for adoption support through its family counseling center and the Children's Home Society of Florida $20,000 for foster care and adoption.

California's adoption funders

California's 13 foundations made 20 youth grants to adoption groups worth $208,150, according to the November 1, 2026 pull. The free preview on the Grantsights youth funder list for California leads with the Chao Family Foundation, whose filings say it takes requests and list what to send, deadlines, limits and a contact. It gave Mission to Promote Adoption of Kids (MPAK) in Carson $10,000 in 2024 and $7,500 in 2023, both as sponsorships of MPAK's annual fundraising gala. That's a useful signal: some family funders find adoption groups through an event table before they ever read a proposal.

Elsewhere in the state, the People-People-People Foundation gave Pact, An Adoption Alliance in Emeryville $50,000 in 2024, and the Jenkins Family Charitable Institute gave Kidsave in Culver City $25,000 in 2023 and $20,000 in 2024 to help older children get adopted. MPAK drew gifts from 4 foundations in 2 years, a reminder that one strong local event can build a funder circle.

Why the Youth List for Adoption Agencies

Youth is where adoption money sits. In a wider November 1, 2026 search, gifts to adoption groups that carried a cause tag were filed under youth far more often than any other cause, so the youth list is the right place to start. Nobody hand-checked that broader search, so read it as a pointer rather than a tally.

Median youth gifts in these 6 states sit between $5,000 (Arizona, Florida and Ohio) and $10,000 (California), according to Grantsights analysis of 990-PF youth filings pulled October 29, 2026, so the $5,000 adoption median is no outlier. Between 22% and 36% of youth funders in these states say they take requests, so contact those first. A single state's youth list is $29, $99 covers every cause in every state for a year, and either one can be refunded within 30 days.

Federal Adoption Money: Where It Actually Goes

According to the federal adoption assistance program page from the Children's Bureau, Title IV-E Adoption Assistance had a FY 2024 budget of $4.7 billion, and none of it is a grant a private agency applies for. Federal adoption dollars move through states, tribes and families.

Title IV-E Adoption Assistance

According to the Children's Bureau (opens in a new tab), the program is an open-ended entitlement that pays federal match at 50% to 83% for adoption assistance payments, 50% for administration and 75% for training. Under 42 U.S.C. 673(a), the state must sign adoption assistance agreements with parents who adopt children with special needs, and it may make the payments "directly through the State agency or through another public or nonprofit private agency." The monthly payment can't exceed what the child would have received in a foster family home. Nonrecurring adoption expenses, defined in the statute as reasonable fees, court costs and attorney fees tied to the legal adoption, are paid as well.

Incentive payments to states

Under 42 U.S.C. 673b(d), a state earns $5,000 for each foster child adoption above the number its base rate predicts, $7,500 for each adoption or guardianship of a child aged 9 to 13 above base, $10,000 for each one at 14 or older, and $4,000 for each extra foster child guardianship. The law says states must spend the money on services under parts B or E, "including post-adoption services," and use it to supplement, not replace, other funds. The Children's Bureau publishes each state's incentive earning history (opens in a new tab) through FY 2024. Ask your state child welfare agency how it spends its award; post-adoption contracts often come from it.

Adoption Opportunities

The Adoption Opportunities (opens in a new tab) program funds projects that remove barriers to adoption, with stated priorities including post-legal adoption services, minority family recruitment and adoption of older children. In 2026, the Children's Bureau posted 3 notices under it, and Grantsights checked each one against the federal notice records on November 1, 2026:

All 3 are closed. According to Grants.gov search results (opens in a new tab) on November 1, 2026, no Children's Bureau notice was posted or forecast. The complex-needs notice named private adoption agencies and faith-based groups as partners of particular interest, while the lead had to be researchers inside or closely tied to a child welfare agency. That's the realistic role for most private agencies: partner, not prime. If you want to apply directly in a future year, register early using the SAM.gov registration guide.

What the Children's Bureau Doesn't Tell You About Funding an Adoption Agency

The federal pages explain each program, but 5 things matter more to a private agency's budget, and the program pages leave them out.

1. The subsidy isn't your revenue. Adoption assistance goes to the family. Your agency gets paid for its own work only under a state or county contract, so price your contract rate against your real cost per placement.
2. Post-adoption work is the gap. Incentive money can fund post-adoption services, but nothing in 673b requires a state to spend it that way. That's why foundations such as the Kinney Family Foundation and the Jockey Being Family Foundation step in.
3. Intercountry agencies carry fixed costs. Under 22 CFR 96.12 (opens in a new tab), only accredited agencies, approved persons and their supervised providers may provide adoption services in an intercountry case. Section 96.33 requires independent audits every 4 years, cash or assets to cover 2 months of operating costs and professional liability insurance of at least $1,000,000. Funders who see those lines in a budget understand the overhead.
4. Donors can't steer placements. Section 96.33(g) requires an accredited agency that accepts charitable gifts to keep safeguards so donations don't influence placement decisions in any way. Put that policy in your grant file; it answers a question careful funders will ask.
5. Families have their own federal help. The IRS adoption credit page (opens in a new tab) says qualified expenses for tax year 2026 are limited to $17,670 per child, up to $5,120 of the credit is refundable, and the full credit phases out between $265,080 and $305,080 of modified adjusted gross income. For tax year 2025 only, unused carryforwards from 2020 to 2024 may be refundable up to $5,000 per child. A fee-assistance fund should account for that before asking a foundation to cover the same cost.

Here's the plain version: for most private adoption groups, foundation money pays for what contracts won't, such as post-adoption therapy, older-youth recruitment and parent support. Build your private fundraising around those gaps.

What Adoption Projects Foundations Pay For

Grantsights checked the purposes on the largest gifts in the November 1, 2026 pull against what adoption agencies usually propose, and 7 project types stood out.

1. Adoption-competency training for clinicians. The Jockey Being Family Foundation's 3 gifts to the Center for Adoption Support and Education paid for its Training for Adoption Competency.
2. Child-focused recruitment. The Wilson Sheehan Foundation's $150,000 in 2023 went to expanding Wendy's Wonderful Kids in Ohio.
3. Therapy after placement. The Van Ameringen Foundation's $100,000 a year backed You Gotta Believe's adoption-competent therapy in Brooklyn, and the Dyson Foundation gave the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York $25,000 in 2023 for similar work.
4. Help with adoption costs. The Din Foundation and the WT Morgan III Family Foundation fund the Gift of Adoption Fund, which the filings say provides the money needed to complete adoptions of children in U.S. foster care.
5. Older-child adoption. The Jenkins Family Charitable Institute's gifts to Kidsave named older children directly.
6. Special needs adoption. A Utah group supporting adoptions of children with Down syndrome received $25,000 from the Jim and Carol Laub Family Foundation in 2025.
7. Housing for adoptive families. The Liberty Mutual Foundation gave the Treehouse Foundation $50,000 in both 2023 and 2024 for an intergenerational community in Boston for adoptive and foster families.

The lesson: tie each request to one stage of the adoption, before, during or after placement, and show the count of children or families that stage reaches.

Common Mistakes in Adoption Agency Grant Requests

These 6 mistakes come up often, and each can cost a $5,000 first gift.

• Treating foundation money like a fee subsidy. A common mistake is asking a funder to cover what a family's tax credit or the state's subsidy already covers. Funders want the gap, not a duplicate.
• Hiding the foster care side. If your agency also licenses foster homes, say so. Many funders in this pull filed gifts as "foster care and adoption," and splitting them only confuses the story. For the foster side, compare grants for foster care programs.
• Asking big funders first. A red flag is a $500,000 ask to a funder whose largest adoption gift was $25,000. Read past gifts with how to read a 990-PF before you ask.
• Counting placements only. Agencies often underestimate how much funders care about what happens after finalization. Report disruptions avoided, families still in services after a year and youth adopted at 14 or older.
• Using a child's story without consent. Never use a waiting child's name or photo in a grant request without your state's photolisting rules and the right consents.
• Skipping relatives. If a placement is with grandparents or an aunt, kinship funders may fit better, and grants for kinship care programs covers them.

Related Guides for Child Welfare and Family Support Groups

The 207 foundations behind the $8,921,808 in this pull also give to other child welfare groups. Agencies that recruit volunteers for court cases should compare notes with grants for CASA programs, and a post-adoption program that runs parent drop-in hours will find overlapping funders in grants for family resource centers.

Agencies that place children with disabilities should read grants for Down syndrome organizations, since one Utah group in this pull exists to support adoptions of children with Down syndrome. A program pairing adopted teens with adult mentors fits grants for mentoring programs. To search open federal and state child welfare notices, use the Grantsights grant database. Agencies that hand each new adoptive family a bundle of books can team up with a local Imagination Library affiliate, covered in grants for book distribution programs.

FAQ: Common Questions

How many foundations give grants to adoption agencies? 207 in the Grantsights search of 990-PF youth grants pulled November 1, 2026.

How big is a typical foundation grant to an adoption agency? The median was $5,000, with the middle half between $1,350 and $15,000.

Can a private adoption agency get Title IV-E adoption money? Only through a state or county contract, since the program pays states and families.

Is the federal Adoption Opportunities program open right now? No. All 3 FY 2026 notices closed in August 2026.

Do families get federal help with adoption costs? Yes. The 2026 credit covers up to $17,670 per child, and up to $5,120 is refundable.

Does this guide cover foster care and kinship programs? Only where they overlap with adoption; both have their own guides.

Sources

• 42 U.S.C. 673, adoption and guardianship assistance program (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• 42 U.S.C. 673b, adoption and legal guardianship incentive payments (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• 22 CFR Part 96, intercountry adoption accreditation of agencies and approval of persons (opens in a new tab)
• Children's Bureau: Title IV-E Adoption Assistance (opens in a new tab)
• Children's Bureau: Adoption Opportunities (opens in a new tab)
• Children's Bureau: Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Awards history (opens in a new tab)
• Grants.gov: Technology Enhanced Adoptive Family Recruiting and Matching (HHS-2026-ACF-ACYF-CO-0040) (opens in a new tab)
• Grants.gov: Collaborative Approaches to Adoption for Children with Complex Needs (HHS-2026-ACF-ACYF-CO-0055) (opens in a new tab)
• Grants.gov: A Network for Connection, Healing, and Ongoing Resources (HHS-2026-ACF-ACYF-CO-0041) (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: Adoption credit (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: About Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)