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A Year of Forging New Paths
There’s not much we can say about 2020 that you haven’t already heard. The pandemic and its effects reached every door — including our own.
But one thing we can say with certainty: you, our Gladney Family, prepared us for what we didn’t know was coming. As we move toward brighter days ahead, you sustain us for what’s next.
Gladney’s commitment to forge new paths in adoption became more critical than ever last year. We adapted our daily operations. We supported families through difficult conversations about racism. It was a year of listening, learning, and making connections — often in new and innovative ways. In the midst of it all, several of 2020’s brightest moments showed that Gladney’s mission never faltered.
Below, we invite you to discover the accomplishments, the people, and the services that defined 2020 for Gladney.
Mission
Creating Bright Futures Through Adoption
vision
The Gladney WHy
TEXAS
- Fort Worth (Headquarters)
- Amarillo
- Austin
- Dallas
- Houston
- Lubbock
- Midland
Florida
- Brandon
New York
- New York
Oklahoma
- Oklahoma City
A Message from Gladney President & CEO, Mark Melson, and Gladney Center Board Chairman, Mark McLeland
Gladney President & CEO
Mark Melson
Hear from Our Team
Moving Forward Together
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We Impacted the lives of 267 children.
Children Adopted through Our Domestic Infant Adoption Program
Through Our Waiting Child Programs
- 71 children adopted from state foster care
- 17 children adopted from international orphanages and foster homes
- 13 from Taiwan
- 3 from China*
- 1 from Colombia
- 8 children placed with foster-to-adopt families
- 5 teenagers in state foster care admitted to the Gladney Home Program
- 3 private adoptions (older children and medically fragile infants)
- 80 children available for adoption in Taiwan assessed and advocated for through our Superkids Program
- 6 children with special needs in an orphanage in Ethiopia provided with nurturing caregivers, medical care, and nutrition
*Due to COVID-19, adoptive families from the U.S. were not able to travel to China for placement with their children, beginning in March 2020.
1,059
expectant mothers inquired about adoption services.
Expectant Mothers Chose to Be Admitted to Gladney’s Adoption Program
- 27 average age of expectant mother clients
- 46% of expectant mother clients have other children
We provided guidance and resources through 7,119 post adoption connections with 2,107 adoptive parents, birth parents, adult adoptees.
12,000+ teenagers, parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, and other professionals across the U.S. were provided with adoption education through:
260 outreach connections
AdoptED program reached 94 high schools
19 Gladney University trainings
180+ volunteers donated 24,500 hours of service,
including our Transitional Care families, who provided 579 days of care for 27 babies, and our Superkids Program volunteers, who advocated to find adoptive families for waiting children in Taiwan.
Hear from Our Team
You sustain us
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Family is, and always will be, essential. Meet just some of the people who experienced these essential connections last year.
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The Gladney Home | Aliya’s Story
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Our family’s second adoption placement took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time of uncertainty, it was easy to feel overwhelmed. We weren’t even sure if we would both be able to be in the hospital.
J surprised everyone by coming about three weeks early. We got a call that they needed one of us there right away, so we decided I would fly out right away to be with him in the hospital.
While traveling alone to meet our next child, I was a mixture of nerves, excitement, and frustration that my husband and I couldn’t both go together. But he reminded me, ‘Wherever you are, I am. We are one. We are a team.’ The moment they wheeled J into my room, all of the anxiety and nerves melted away. I knew I was right where I needed to be.
Before we took placement of our children, we knew on an intellectual level that you don’t need to be biologically related to bond with a child, but it wasn’t until after we met each of our children that we felt the true meaning of that concept. The connection we felt with them appeared instantaneously, even though we had not been building a bond with them for nine months. They needed us as much as we needed them. Each of our sons filled a void in our family that we never really knew was there.
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As the first Gladney family to travel to Taiwan during COVID-19, we are thankful for the clear communication we received from Gladney throughout the whole process. We had easy access to Mary, our Gladney caseworker, as well as Gongzhan, the Vice President & Executive Director of Gladney’s Asia programs. Gladney checked in frequently, making sure we were making it through each step of the travel process until we arrived at our destination.
After our 15-day quarantine came to an end, we experienced so much of Taiwan’s culture, heritage, and beauty. Our experiences during that week made the extended trip, due to COVID-19 regulations, worth it. We came away from that week much more knowledgeable about our son’s birth country, and for that, we are thankful.
Through Gladney’s Facebook groups, post adoption support, and the Chinese New Year celebration, we’ve been able to stay connected to Gladney since our adoption. It’s important to us to remain in community with those who walked the two-year journey with us to bring home our precious child. We’re so thankful for the impact Gladney has had on our family.
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My husband is a first responder, and I also have an essential job, so our time together as a family has been after work and on the weekends. We cook, bake, take long walks through our neighborhood, attend virtual church, have movie nights, and play outside together. We have learned more about each other through this time than we could have ever imagined or planned for. It has been amazing to see the world through Eli’s eyes. He is doing and experiencing so many things for the first time, and it has made us step back and reflect on the little things in life.
Eli is caring, active, and loving. We feel proud of him and how well he has adjusted to us, his school, our family, and our friends. It feels like he has always been with us. We hope he feels loved as a child and into adulthood. We want to give him all the tools he needs to succeed in life and have a bright future ahead. We hope he knows we are here for him forever on his life journey.
From a 2020 Gladney Senior
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Hear from Our Team
I feel so grateful to be part of Gladney's amazing team!
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the amount raised through special events in Fiscal Year 2020 (including $556,552 from The 2019 Gladney Cup)
Prior to the pandemic, we held three special events in 2020:
Night at the Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas
70 Moms and 86 Sons
10th Annual Dancing Hearts: A Date Night with Daddy in San Antonio, Texas
117 Dads and 145 Daughters
23rd Annual Dining and Dancing with Daddy in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
163 Dads and 207 Daughters
The traditions of our Gladney Night at Six Flags and National Adoption Month events are built on the joy of hugging old friends and making new ones.
With those things being more challenging to guarantee in 2020, Gladney paused in-person events.
Instead, we pivoted to hold an online storytelling campaign during National Adoption Month in November. Adoption Rocks Your Home was a virtual celebration of how adoption rocks a home to its core — in the biggest and best ways possible. In a year full of change, it highlighted the foundation that family connections build in our lives.
With multiple virtual events, branded merchandise, and interactive features, Adoption Rocks Your Home allowed us to innovate adoption advocacy in a new and more accessible way.
Hear from Our Team
What “Stay at Home” Looked Like for the Gladney Home
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As with many caregivers in 2020, our staff had to transition to add ‘teacher’ to their duties. Many of the girls residing in the Gladney Home (our group foster care program for pre-teen and teen girls) struggle in school, so ensuring each girl has been able to get her educational needs met has been an ongoing challenge. Though we faced many changes, I am proud of how each of the girls has adapted.
Learning how to be flexible and re-prioritize in the moment has always been important in this role; however, this year has highlighted the importance and necessity of this even more.
Allowing myself to laugh, be playful, and act silly with the girls, even when there are a lot of heavy things happening in the world around us, was so valuable. It led to some fun memories. Our team also got to be part of important milestones, including:
- Watching multiple youth participate in equine therapy through Wings of Hope, a local community partner.
- Adding weekly tutoring and academic advising through Achieve Advisors, a local community partner. This has allowed many of the girls to catch up to their grade levels academically and learn new skills.
- Helping two young ladies take the SAT exam and apply for colleges.
- Participating in a Zoom court hearing to watch the adoption finalization for a girl who was part of the Gladney Home program!
$25,846,062
Value of the endowment as of August 31, 2020
$3,499,034
Total amount contributed by donors in FY 2020
* Including Paycheck Protection Program grant; not including special events
$687,427
Total special event net revenue in FY 2020
*Including $556,552 from The 2019 Gladney Cup
2,743
Total # of gifts in FY 2020
2,050
Total # of donors in FY 2020
$11,612,100*
Total
*Including support from Endowment
Revenues
37% Adoption Programs – $4,340,789
- 30% Domestic Infant Adoption Program – $3,504,557
- 5% Adoption from Foster Care Program – $551,777
- 2% International Adoption Program – $284,455
36% Development Revenue – $4,186,461
*Including Paycheck Protection Program grant and net revenue from special events
22% Support from Endowment – $2,609,906
3% Adoption.com Website Advertising Revenue – $300,549
1% Gladney Home Residential Foster Care Program – $165,818
<1% Other – $8,577
Expenses
43% Adoption Programs – $4,484,102
- 29% Domestic Infant Adoption Program – $3,060,982
- 8% Adoption from Foster Care Program – $823,803
- 6% International Adoption Program – $599,311
19% Communication/Outreach – $1,939,116
18% Administration – $1,831,670
8% Fundraising – $780,713
7% Gladney Home Residential Foster Care Program – $770,623
5% Post Adoption & Client Services – $573,161
$10,379,385
Total
$41,439,041
Total
Assets
63% Investments – $25,846,062
26% Property & Equipment – $10,924,645
9% Intangible Assets – $3,839,154
1% Beneficial Interest in Trust – $478,901
1% Other
- Accounts Receivable – $127,672
- Prepaid Expenses – $107,864
- Cash – $104,559
- Inventory – $9,884
- Contributions Receivable – $300
Liabilities
78% Note Payable – $4,500,000
20% Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses – $1,130,264
1% Line of Credit – $75,000
1% Other Liabilities – $37,904
$5,743,168
Total
Financial Contributions
Contributions by Program
67% Unrestricted
15% Education and Outreach
5% Domestic Infant Adoption Program
4% Adoption from Foster Care Program
4% Gladney Home Residential Foster Care Program
3% Post Adoption Services
1% Campus Improvements
1% International Adoption Program and Humanitarian Aid
69% Individuals
21% Government
*Including Paycheck Protection Program grant
8% Foundations/Trusts
2% Corporations
Contributions by Constituency
Thank you
Whatever difficulties you faced this past year, please know we are so grateful for you thinking of and supporting Gladney. We are encouraged and inspired when we see people wanting to help, especially during a challenging time.
Hear from Our Team
Education Goes Virtual
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Gladney Center Board of Directors
Outgoing Members:
- Marshall Bush
- Barbara W. Penshorn
- Tammy L. Miller
- Paige McCoy Smith
Incoming Members:
- Fernando Beltran
- Jeremy Tilley
- John Thrailkill
- James Tyler
- Mark L. McLeland, Chairman
- Laura L. Wheat, Chairman-Elect
- Alfred C. Dezzi, Past Chairman
- Mark Melson, President
- Kenneth H. Heitner, Secretary
- James H. Unger, Treasurer
- Gregory A. Castanias
- John Covington
- Mary Beth Dudley
- Carolyn Hood
- Robin Kochel
- Adrian B. Liddiard
- Kathleen M. Marsal
- Roger L. Metz
- Stephanie Perdue
- Stacey J. Reynolds
- Anne Reysa
- Ashley F. Stern
Gladney Fund Board of Directors
- Stephen Maresco, Chairman
- Frank R. Knapp, Past Chairman
- Kevin S. McCarthy, Secretary
- Daniel P. Connally, Treasurer
- Andrew M. Alexander
- Cullen L. Thomason
- Barry C. Twomey
Executive Team
Outgoing Member:
- Jaye Helm, Senior Vice President, Finance
Incoming Member:
- Raymond Best, Senior Vice President, Finance
- Mark Melson, President, Chief Executive Officer
- Heidi Bruegel Cox, Executive Vice President, General Counsel
- Heather Beasley, Vice President, Human Resources
- Nathan Gwilliam, Vice President; Executive Director, Adoption.com
- Jennifer Lanter, Vice President, Communications
- Lisa Schuessler, Vice President, Donor Relations
This year, we’re moving forward with new determination. We hope you continue to sustain our mission by turning your compassion into action. Below, discover new ways you can support Gladney in 2021:
