HOW YOU CAN HELP / DONATE NOW

YOU CAN HELP! Hundreds of children and teens in state foster care are waiting for adoption.  Whether you can give a permanent home to a waiting child now or not, you CAN always help MARE make a lifetime of difference for a child.  We rely on your kind donations to fund our operations to recruit an adoptive family for every waiting child.

You can make a gift in any of the following ways:

Give online now
Use your credit card or debit card to donate now using our secure PayPal donation form. Don't have a PayPal account?  You can use your credit card or bank account (where available). Look for the link marked “Continue”.

Give by mail
Write a check made payable to MARE and send it to:

Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE)
45 Franklin Street, 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1301

Give a gift in memory or in honor of an individual
No matter how you decide to give to MARE, you can make your gift in honor or in memory of someone special. A card will be sent from MARE to the recipient. If you mail in your donation, please include a note with the NAME of the person you are recognizing, whether the gift is IN HONOR or IN MEMORY of that person, and the NAME & COMPLETE ADDRESS of the person who should receive the card that tells them of your donation in their honor (or memory). We will also send you a letter of thanks, confirming the donation, and to whom the card was sent, for your tax records.

If you make the donation on line, please click the Add special instructions for this gift button, and provide the following information in the box - I’m making this gift “In honor (or in memory) of the NAME of the person you are recognizing, and “send card to NAME & COMPLETE ADDRESS” of the person who should receive the card that tells them of your donation in their honor (or memory).

Matching Gift Program
If your company has a matching gift program, you can increase the size of your gift to MARE! Check with your Human Resource Department to learn more about the matching gift program available to you. We will gladly fill out any paperwork you need.

Get a MARE Credit Card
Every time you use your MARE Credit Card, we’ll receive a reward of 1% of your total purchase.

Spread the Word
Become a Fan of MARE's Facebook Page, and invite your Facebook friends to become fans, too.

Tell everyone you know about MARE and about the need for families to consider adopting a child from foster care.

• Put up a poster: Click here to see the MARE Poster. You can print this on legal-size paper, and hang it where you work or play.
• Hand out MARE Bookmarks. Click here to see our MARE information bookmark. You can print this (double sided) with it cut it into 4 bookmarks.

Recruit your Company’s support for MARE
Does your business:

• host “Denim Days” where employees make a $5 donation to a designated charity for permission to wear jeans one day at work?  
• recognize a “charity of the month” and hold bake sales or other fundraisers for that charity?
• have space to display 1 or more Heart Gallery portraits of waiting children?
• offer a grant program for charities supported by employees?
• do other things to help their community?

Then tell your Company’s Community Relations staff (or the right contact person) about your interest in helping MARE help children who need families.  Contact Janice Halpern at MARE (617-542-3678 x113, janiceh@mareinc.org) to discuss ways your company can help.

Create a Personal Fundraising Page for MARE  
You can raise funds for MARE, and help children in foster care find loving families.  Just visit our FirstGiving page at http://www.firstgiving.com/mare and click Get Started!  You can invite donations to commemorate any special occasion (birthday, adoption anniversary, Father’s Day, etc.) or to ask friends to sponsor you in a walk or run.

Give products or services on our WISH LIST
You can also donate products, merchandise, gift cards or services that can help support MARE’s work to find permanent families for children in foster care. Here’s a list of just some of the items we could use:

• LCD PowerPoint projector (to connect to laptop)
• Laptop (with wireless internet access)
• Blank writeable DVDs
• Television & DVD burner/player – to make copies of Wednesday’s Child and Univision segments for the children and interested families
• Parking space in Downtown Boston

Shop for MARE
Use GoodShop or iSearchiGive.com to shop at your favorite online business – Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Macy’s, Expedia and more. The stores donate a percentage of your purchase price to MARE and it costs you nothing extra.

Search for MARE
Use GoodSearch or iGive.com as your main search engine for web searches. GoodSearch’s Yahoo based search engine and iGive.com give MARE a penny for every search.