Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

Wendy’s Wonderful Kids

Wendy’s Wonderful Kids is making a difference for thousands of children—one child at a time. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption awards grants to public and private adoption agencies to hire adoption professionals who implement proactive, child-focused recruitment programs targeted exclusively on moving America’s longest-waiting children from foster care into adoptive families.

Recently released research from a five-year evaluation of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids shows that children referred to the program are up to three times more likely to get adopted. Read the full research results.

Our recruiters

These professionals, known as Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters, work on caseloads of children the system has forgotten, ensuring they have the time and resources to give each child as much attention as he or she deserves. These recruiters employ aggressive practices and proven tactics focused on finding the best home for a child through the starting points of familiar circles of family, friends and neighbors, and then reaching out to the communities in which they live.

Wendy’s Wonderful Kids has 169 recruiters working for children throughout the U.S. and Canada. The program has helped more than 3,500 children get adopted by their forever families.

Our grantees

Visit our grants page to find out if your organization could be a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids grantee, or sign up for email alerts about Wendy’s Wonderful Kids expansion and child-focused recruitment curriculum development.