My Adoption Agencies

Since a large majority of people that choose to adopt a baby will do so through an agency, it is obviously an important priority for the agency to have a constant flow of birthmothers entering their programs. For nonprofit adoption agencies, their mission is to reach out to women who find themselves pregnant and unable to raise the child. Therefore, in addition to connecting adoptive families with children, the agency exists to serve the needs of women in the community. For profit adoption agencies will be trying to find the birthmothers in order to raise revenues and provide financial payments to the owners and directors.

Adoption agencies will generally have a recruitment budget and staff that have the sole job of finding birthmothers and “selling” them on the agency’s programs and services. However, there are many ways in which agencies can locate birthmothers and each has some advantages and disadvantage that must be considered. These can include:

• Yellowpage or Newspaper Advertising - this type of ad was once one of the most common ways that agencies reached out to pregnant women as the women would open the phone book or look in classified when they needed adoption services. However, it is becoming much less common as more people are turning to the internet when they need assistance. Depending on the publication and length, each ad will generally run a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. Generally, the return on investment for an agency will be fairly low.
• Company website – adoption agencies will generally have their own organization website to promote their services and in some advanced cases, will even offer profiles of the families that are working with them that hope to adopt. This is becoming one of the most common ways to attract birthmothers who need services. In order to be easily found, the agency will need to maximize their site for search engine optimization purposes.
• Internet Advertising - in addition to an organization website, agencies wishing to attract the most birthmothers possible will also often purchase advertising in a local telephone directory and even more commonly, on an adoption or parenting website or through a program like Google Ads. This link exchange will allow the agency to gain exposure from any birthmother who goes to a site to explore the idea of adoption. These listings will often be offered by state or by searchable criteria that a birthmother can enter to find the best program for her needs.
• Networking with Local Professionals and Organizations – this is a very common way that agencies will find birthmothers. This can include networking with local:

• priests/pastors at churches
• doctors
• lawyers
• social workers, psychologists, counselors
• pregnancy and women’s health clinics
• hospitals
• any other professional group that may come in contact with women that are pregnant and considering adoption.

The agency can provide their brochures and lists of services that can be handed out whenever the professional is talking with a woman considering adoption. This is often for only the cost of printing of brochures/marketing materials and staff time to network regularly with these professionals and groups in order to keep the agency at the top of the resource list. Often the agency will even ask these professionals to sit on the agency’s board of directors in order to create stronger community awareness of the agency and their services.

• Professional Associations – in addition to networking in the local community, agencies will sometimes be a part of a larger association or licensing board that may be a source of advertising and contacts with birthmothers that are searching for adoption resources. In the case of an association, there may be multiple adoption agencies that are working together and that offer referrals to a particular agency when a birthmother needs services depending on the circumstances or type of adoption that she is seeking. For example, some agencies may work with birthmothers from certain ethnic backgrounds or ages, while others may offer different types of adoptions from each other (open instead of semi-open, etc). While some agencies may feel this is not a viable option due to competition, others will decide the “risk” of losing out to another agency is worth the increased exposure that may be found.

As you can see there are many options for locating birthmothers that agencies can choose to utilize depending on their mission, their budget, staff time and connections that exist in their local communities. The agency will need to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each option and determine which will bring the best results to them.