We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heather Mellott a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Heather , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

When starting Adoption Finder, it was a risk. We had little to no funding, but had a mission and vision we were following. I was given the inspiration one day while working at my desk. I had a vision a women with her husband crying because they couldn’t get pregnant – it was another negative pregnancy test. Then I saw a woman who was crying because of a positive pregnancy test and she was scared. Then I saw it looked like an ultrasound of a baby being torn apart from Abortion. It made me cry with empathy from all three of the situations. I knew then that I needed to do something. I started doing market research on the Adoption industry, foster care, and women in need of support facing unplanned pregnancy. So we formed our organization. I found this the need for adoption reform nation in the industry is very apparent. There are many for profit agencies out there that take advantage of hopeful adopting parents. I also found out how expensive private adoption can be for these families. There are also very little regulations protecting adopting parents from potential scammers. And this is one thing we are working hard to change. We are trying to partner with lawyers and agencies all over the US to incentivize more affordable adoption for hopeful, adoptive parents. We also have seen a huge need in the foster care system. Especially during Covid as a CASA volunteer it was very clear. How much support is needed for kids in the system. Learning more about women with unplanned pregnancy we found that most women who have lack of support from the father/ family feel like they have no other choice but abortion. So that is why we have created the Pregnancy Care Program to help women in need with baby supplies maternity items postpartum care, items additional local resources, job & resume support, and more. We believe removing these barriers by meeting the tangible needs of these women so they can make life affirming choices. In our journey, as a Nonprofit Organization, it has been risky in times of lack of support specifically Covid. Because we are donor and grant funded, we rely solely on the generosity of individuals/businesses and the approval of grants we apply for. We have also been met with backlash because of what we are doing to make a positive generational impact on thousands of families, women, and children.

Heather , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Heather. I started Adoption Finder in June 2019. I am a mother, wife, and advocate for foster youth, adoption, and the pro-life generation. We started our nonprofit organization to help assist adopting families, foster youth, and women with unexpected pregnancies. We help people all over the USA with support, education, resources, and supplies for success. We have an online shop that helps us support our programs and services. We are also donor and grant funded so we rely heavily on generous individuals, businesses and grants to support our work and what we’re doing.
We are very proud of the work, that we’ve been able to do helping reduce the cost of adoption for hopeful adopting families, supplying women in crisis with tangible needs and resources to prepare for their babies and supplying foster youth with care boxes of supplies. We are also proud of all the connections and work. We’ve been able to do with our volunteers and little funding.
We would love additional support from readers in those interested in what we are doing.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Treat your volunteers and staff well and make sure they know they are appreciated. Don’t push hard for overtime because in 20 years the only people who remember you working late are your kids. Push for families to spent time together.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being helpful, loving, kind, and genuinely caring for those that we are supporting. We really invest in the quality of our work to help adopting families, women with unplanned, pregnancy, foster youth, and others who come in contact with our organization.

Contact Info:

• Website: adoptionfinder.org
• Instagram: Instagram.com/adoptionfinder
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdoptionFinder
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/adoption-finder/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/theaforg
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@adoptionfinder

Image Credits
Heather mellott