Yesterday I noted that that the National Council for Adoption had not yet acknowledged NAM/NAAM. Let me refine that. How do they mention NAM/NAAM without mentioning NAM/NAM?
Here’s the answer: asking for money on Facebook, and perhaps other social media platforms. NCFA president Ryan Hanlon (he’s adopted,) ran this soft hit-up for $$$. He looks like he’d rather be writing some nerdy paper for an obscure professional journal than shilling.
Beat the Clock host Bud Collier
To be honest, hardly anyone is cut out for fundraising. Founding NCFA president Bill Pierce in his misspent youth worked as a fundraiser for (I think) the Iowa March of Dimes. Something like that. He didn’t like it he told me. I’ve been friendly with 2 other NCFA prezes, and on speaking terms with another and they didn’t like it either. Basically, it’s like the old TV Game Show Beat the Clock. Your job, in theory or fact, depends on how much $$$ you can shovel into the bank in a short amount of time while you are trying to work at the job you were hired to do.
Hanlon didn’t get a great reception. Seven out of 16 responses are vociferously negative. I will post this blog on the FB page when it goes up. Here’s the comment that set the tone:
Children don’t “thrive” because of adoption. They are stripped of basic human rights when their identities are erased and birth certificates falsified. Adoption as a legal process is never required to care for a child in crisis. Family preservation first, then guardianship. Otherwise all you are doing is raising money to support human trafficking. Adoptees can’t consent, after all, to a legal contract that governs the rest of our lives. Elevate adoptee voices instead.
As of this writing, according to Facebook, $15.00 has been raised!
____________
NCFA was founded with money from the Gladney Center and its windfall profits in 1980 from Texas Oil Depletion funds. It’s goal was 2-fold: (1) promote adoption, but more importantly (2) to fund the Gladney/adoption industry campaign to keep OBCs and other government-held adoption records sealed after the Carter-administration considered opening them by federal fiat. They did a good job of that until Bastard Nation and Helen Hill came along and M58 in Oregon unsealed the OBCs of all Oregon-born adoptees by ballot initiative. Poor Bill went into conniptions and claimed, among other things, that BN “bought the election.” Since then 22 more states have unsealed OBCs and in some of those states even more. (Kansas and Alaska never sealed). In the last few years NCFA has remained pretty silent on sealed records and dropped it from the company To Do List.
A couple of months ago. after I read a news story that sounded vaguely like NCFA might actually support access, I wrote to Hanlon and asked him about their policy on records . (I cant find the article now right off hand.) He didn’t bother to reply. TskTsk. One of Dr Pierce’s parting shots at NCFA was to never ignore Bastard Natin–we are the only ones who count.. My personal feeling is that NCFA leadership or more likely the board, saw that that Dr Pierce’s obsession with secrecy didn’t do them any good. It cost them money and besides, the times they were a changin’ I had a famous relationship with Dr Pierce and told him that at some point, NCFA would toss out his raison d’etre.and legacy. He said “fuck ’em.”
Lately we haven’t had to deal with some NCFAdroid hopping on a plane to go halfway across the country to testify against a bill. The adoption industry as a class is busy keeping itself afloat and doesn’t want to spend time mucking around much with us. The real enemy is now marginals: anti-aborts, evangelicals, politicians, assorted do-gooders and occasionally civil libertarians–none of whom have anything to do with adoption The big kahuna, though, is the extremist organization Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc, whose founder Monica Kelsey screams to the rooftops “women demand anonymity.”
Which brings me to this interesting point.
According to the latest 990s (2023) from NCFA and SHBB, NCFA is underwater and has about half the income as Mrs. Kelsey’s baby abandonment crusade. In fact, she and her husband, who is on the SHBB Inc payroll, hauled in over $180,000, which is high for Woodburn, Indiana. The couple recently purchased a plot of land where they plan to build a family compound with homes for themselves and what sounds like homes for each of their adult children. Ryan Hanlon makes $161,842 plus benefits, which by WDC standards ain’t that much. I find this very disturbing. But not disturbing enough to donate 1$0.00 to NCFA.
NCFA SHBB Inc
Assets: 2,32M $2.02M
Liabilities: $341K $270K
Revenue: $954K $206M
Expenses: $1.14K $1.17M
________
Salaries
A $161,842 + $30,754 benefits (Ryan Hanlon) $102,527 (Monica Kelsey)
$ 81,120 (Joe Kelsey)
Total: $191,596 $183,647
Cross posted to Bastard Nation
____________
(No, it will never be X!)
Stop Safe Haven Baby Boxes Now!
Poke the Bear 2025
Day 2 – 28 days to go!
