Today I’m bringing you something a little different for #NationalAdoptionMonth. There are a lot of people, processes, and policies integral to the adoption of a child, raising a child, and supporting that person’s desire to search for their birth family. I’m bringing you a few stories from across the adoption continuum. The first is that of the Gift Of Adoption Fund (https://giftofadoption.org/donate/), a volunteer-driven non-profit organization that raises funds to provide adoption assistance grants to complete the adoption of vulnerable children. Gift of Adoption’s CEO Pam Devereux shares a little of her own story of being personally driven to helping others, the mission of the organization, and how she hopes many more of us will consider donating to charities that support adoption because, ultimately, the welfare of all children is on all of us.
The post 032 – Intervew With The Gift Of Adoption Fund appeared first on Who Am I...Really? Podcast.
Pam (00:00):
Adoption is sort of like a one day sort of thing, but then the family is forever and so hearing about the ripple effect of that to me is what warms my heart and it just makes me feel grateful for what we're able to do.
Voices (00:23):
Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
Damon (00:30):
This is Who Am I Really, a podcast about adoptees that have located and connected with their biological family members? I'm Damon Davis and today I'm bringing you something a little different. Normally Who Am I Really shares stories of adoptees trying to connect with their birth families, but in talking to so many adoptees, it has become clear to me that there are a lot of people, processes and policies integral to the adoption of a child, raising a child and supporting that person's desire to search for their birth family. There are birth parents, foster parents and adoptive parents. There are social workers, search angels, policymakers in court systems and advocacy groups all contributing their piece to the adoption community. For National Adoption Month, I'm bringing you a few stories from across the adoption continuum. Don't worry. I still have reunion stories planned, but I wanted to share some other perspectives too. The first is that of a volunteer driven nonprofit organization that raises funds to provide adoption assistance grants to complete the adoption of vulnerable children. The organization is called The Gift of Adoption Fund and my guest today is Pam Devereaux, CEO of The Gift of Adoption. You may hear me refer to it as GOA. You can find them online at giftofadoption.org. Pam shares a little of her own story of being personally driven to help others. The mission of Gift of Adoption and how she hopes many more of us will consider donating to charities that support adoption because ultimately the welfare of all children is on all of us.
Damon (02:13):
I asked Pam a little bit about herself because I really wanted to know what kind of person becomes CEO of a charitable organization that helps fund adoptions. She's from Chicago and she studied business at the University of Illinois. Pam told me she always felt the urge to help others and wanted to join the Peace Corps when she was younger. She graduated college, got a job in banking instead then achieved her master's degree and wondered what the next move for her should be. At her next job in the insurance industry, she developed the skills and responsibilities for her business unit that would mold her for the next move into philanthropy. In the 1990s Pam joined the Make A Wish Foundation.
Pam (02:52):
I guess I really thought, um, in college that I would end up helping out, you know, maybe going the Peace Corps or something like that. I think I always had a heart for doing something bigger for others. Make A Wish was really growing in brand and organizational structure. And so some of the background I had from Zurich Insurance helped in Make A Wish and at Make A Wish, I was there almost about eight years. We really grew the organization and the Illinois chapter was one of the largest chapters around the nation and just a great exposure to great leaders and great board membership and governance. And again, sort of that idea of taking an idea that was growing and kind of putting a structure behind it. I followed a board chair to Ernest and Young, so I got a chance to move back into the for profit sector, was part of Ernest and Young for awhile. And at that time I adopted my daughter. I was a single person at the time and adopted my daughter from China. She was about one when she came home. And sort of the confluence of all of those things had me meeting the Founder of Gift Adoption, Gene Wyka, he and his wife Lucy cofounded Gift of Adoption. And really at that time, just the culmination of all things, kind of that idea from a business perspective of taking, taking an idea and moving it into an operation and kind of that startup thing is really attractive to me. So when I met the founder, I joined the national board and then shortly after that a year or so in, they were looking for new leadership for The Gift of Adoption. And so I, I raised my hand, I sort of had my hand raised for me. Uh, yeah. So then I became part of The Gift of Adoption team.
Damon (04:29):
That's amazing. What did the founder say to you when you first met that sort of attracted you to the organization?
Pam (04:37):
You know what, what I love about Gene is he's a visionary, uh, but he's also super, super practical. And so what I loved about Gift of Adoption was it's clarity of purpose. You know, I love one focus. I think really being an expert and excellent and then, and the leader in the one thing you do is something that's very attractive to me. So Gift of Adoption at that time and still is the largest, um, organization providing adoption assistance grants on a nondiscriminatory basis. So what he said was that this is an idea that can grow. And he also really to me, talked about how this idea complimented the existing structures that were already in place for adoption. You know, there's so many phenomenal things happening from legislators and advocacy groups and all the agencies that have been around some for a hundred, a hundred plus years. But ultimately, you know, for me common sense is adoption is at some level of financial transaction. I mean it really does take funds to get it done.
Damon (05:39):
Right.
Pam (05:40):
And to me the idea that that would be an impediment was really troublesome and I thought it's something we definitely could tackle. And so I just again love the simplicity and clarity and just really that complimentary mission that I think can make a nonprofit excellent.
Damon (
