What We Do
We fund what comes after adoption.
Three grants, one purpose: making the support adoptees actually need - travel, healing, community - affordable for the people who need it.
Pillar One · $2,500 Grants
Origin Journeys
Going back - to a birth country, a first family, an orphanage, a city, a language - is consistently one of the most transformative experiences in an adoptee’s life. Nearly 90% of adoptees who make the trip recommend it to others, and research names birth-country travel and birth-family contact as the strongest drivers of secure adoptee identity.
It is also expensive. International airfare, lodging, translators, in-country guides, time away from work - the cost routinely reaches thousands of dollars, and it lands on adoptees at exactly the moments they may be doing their hardest identity work.
Origin Journey grants put $2,500 toward that trip, so the deciding factor is readiness - not money.
What Origin Journey grants cover
- Travel to your country of birth - first trips and return trips
- Reunion travel to meet birth family or caregivers
- Heritage visits: orphanages, foster communities, regions of origin
- Core trip costs: airfare, lodging, translation, in-country support
- Travel with loved ones who support your journey
Pillar Two · $1,000 Grants
Healing & Wholeness
Adoption-competent therapy is rare, rarely covered by insurance, and badly needed. Adult intercountry adoptees face significantly elevated risk of depression, suicidality, and substance use compared with non-adopted peers - and generic mental-health care too often asks adoptees to educate their own therapists.
Healing & Wholeness grants put $1,000 toward care with practitioners who already understand adoption - before a journey, after one, or at any point in between. You don't need to have traveled, or want to. Healing stands on its own.
What Healing & Wholeness grants cover
- Therapy with adoption-competent clinicians
- Mental-health care related to adoption, identity, and loss
- Pre-travel preparation and post-travel integration support
- Identity-focused counseling and adoptee support groups
Pillar Three · $500 Grants
Growth & Learning
Identity grows in community. An adoptee conference, a language class in your first language, a cultural program in your heritage tradition - these are where "I thought it was just me" becomes "there are thousands of us."
Growth & Learning grants put $500 toward the rooms, programs, and skills that connect adoptees to each other and to their cultures of origin.
What Growth & Learning grants cover
- Adoptee conferences and gatherings - registration and travel
- Trainings and workshops on adoptee identity and wellbeing
- Language courses in your language of origin
- Cultural and heritage programs
Eligibility
Who these grants are for
You're likely eligible if…
You're likely eligible if you're an adult intercountry adoptee, or someone traveling in support of an adoptee's journey, such as a partner, parent, child, or friend. A grant can go to the adoptee, to a companion traveling with them, or both. Cost is a real barrier.
What we can't fund
- Anything related to facilitating or arranging an adoption
- General travel unrelated to origin, heritage, or reunion
- Costs already fully covered by insurance or another funder
- Organizational or program funding (grants go to individuals)
- Birthplace travel arranged through adoption agencies or government adoption bodies
We’re a U.S.-founded foundation with a global mission. Intercountry adoptees anywhere in the world are welcome to apply - and because we’re just beginning, our earliest grants may move fastest where a U.S.-based payment is possible, even as we build the capacity to serve adoptees everywhere.
Not sure whether you qualify? Apply anyway, or ask us - the application is short, and a human reads every one. There is no penalty for asking.