Untangling the Web

We need your help on an unprecedented study – and it will only take 15-20 minutes of your time. The Internet and social media are forever changing adoption – and our lives – yet we know little about their impact on the millions of us who are affected. So the Adoption Institute is launching a new study seeking relevant information from adopted persons, adoptive parents, birth/first parents and child welfare professionals. Please complete a survey – and spread the word to colleagues and friends, in emails to your contacts, on Facebook and Twitter, in newsletters and blogs, and any other way you can think of. In an effort to improve policy and practice, we are charting new territory – and we need your input to do so. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s important; just click here to get started. This research follows up on the Institute’s 2012 report Untangling the Web.

Today's Headlines Show the Need for the Donaldson Adoption Institute

To understand just how important the work of the Donaldson Adoption Institute truly is, look no further than today’s headlines:

Putin Signs Law Barring U.S. Adoptions
Internet Adoption in Need of Greater Regulation

Thanks to the support of compassionate and engaged people like you, the Institute is able to play a unique role in improving the lives of all the parties to adoption, especially children who need families. There are few better examples today than two of our current projects: developing best-practice standards to address the decline in intercountry adoptions and providing cutting-edge research and resources relating to the Internet’s historic impact on adoption.

Whether the beneficiaries are children in foster care in our country or in orphanages abroad, whether the issues relate to first/birth parents or adoptive parents or adopted persons, whether the question is about professional practices or better laws and policies, whether the people using our work are legislators or teachers or journalists, the Adoption Institute is there. Just Google either of the headlines above and you’ll see that we are making a real difference by being a voice of reason, a source of vital information and, most important, by working for systemic change that genuinely improves millions of lives.

As 2012 comes to a close, please consider making a tax-deductible, year-end contribution to the Adoption Institute by Dec. 31 so that we can keep our work going at this important time in adoption history.

Thank you and, on behalf of us all at the Institute, I wish you a happy and healthy New Year.


Sincerely,

Adam Pertman
Executive Director

Groundbreaking report on Internet's Historic Impact on Adoption

Press release and PDF of the Adoption Institute’s new report, "Untangling the Web: The Internet’s Transformative Impact on Adoption," are now available for downloading. To read all this on our website, click here. Also, the following are links to some of the media coverage it is receiving (also including CNN, NPR and the Wall Street Journal):

NY Times | USA Today | Christian Science Monitor | Associated Press (on Huffington Post)

I’ve also written my own piece for Huffington Post, which should be up later today or early tomorrow, and am scheduled to be on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” at 3 p.m. next Wednesday, 12/19.

Adam Pertman, Executive Director
Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
120 East 38th St, New York, NY 10016
212-925-4089/ 617-332-8944
617-763-0134 (direct cell)
www.adoptioninstitute.org