OCDF Grants and Scholarships

As part of OCDF's ongoing commitment to support adoptive families, OCDF provides a number of grants each year for local and regional support groups to provide workshops, seminars, and Chinese cultural programs for all adoptive families.

Application Deadline for annual grants is April 1st each year
Only complete application documents will be reviewed. Applicants will receive notification of awards by June 1st each year.

To apply - Prepare a 3-5 page proposal including the following information:

  1. Project Sponsor - Organization and non-profit status
  2. Project Contact Persons
  3. Scope of Project (Total Project and portion for which funds are being requested). Please include: Purpose of the Project, Clientele Served, Timeline of Key Events, Follow-up Activities, Budget for the Project (Total Project and portion for which funds are being requested).
  4. Promotional Activities

Send 3 copies to: OCDF, PO Box 1243, Bloomington, IL 61702-1243

Due to IRS regulations, only organizations with 501c3 status are eligible for consideration. OCDF does not provide support for staffing/personnel, facility rent/use, and food as we believe in the volunteer nature of the adoption community and try to encourage groups to be resourceful. We also like to see cost-sharing - an organization's efforts to obtain funds from various sources whether they be entry fees, donations from restuarants, fundraising, etc. This helps to show that the organization is using many resources within the community to have the program and therefore indicate sustainability for the long term. Therefore budgets, when presented to any funding agency such as OCDF, should separate out costs in detail - such as separate food from art supplies and also show where the funds received from entry fees or dues will be applied to the budget.

Congratulations to our Grant Recipients:

FCC - Dutchess/Ulster for their Culture Camp
FCC - Indianapolis for their Lion Dance Project
FCC - Indianapolis for their Girl Scout Troup - made up completely of adoptees from China!
FCC - Washington (Seattle) for their annual Heritage Day
FCC - Southern New Jersey for their annual Cultural Heritage Camp
Asian Connection of Western New York for their Chinese Language Program
FCC - Charlotte for their Chinese culture project
Little Treasures School in Boulder, CO for their cultural heritage program
Two FCC chapters in northern NY State - Syracuse and Rochester

Questions? Contact: jane@ocdf.org or call 309-829-8202 and ask for Jane or Lynn.

Educational Scholarships

Educational scholarships are now available from OCDF in 2010 (for post-secondary education) for adopted Chinese children of single mothers.

The purpose of the “Chinese Daughters Scholarship” is to provide annually a combined need-based + merit-based scholarship to an adoptee from China who was raised by a single mother from adoption through college. One scholarship will be given each year for as long as the funds allow. Scholarships will be in the amount of a $500.00 check to be used specifically toward books and supplies needed within the recipient’s major in the first year of university, college, community college, or vocational-technical school.

Eligibility Requirements:

  1. Applicant must be a high school senior attending public school.
  2. Applicant must have a high school GPA of 3.0 or above (on a 4.0 scale) or equivalent of 4.0 (on a 5.0 scale).
  3. Applicant must be adopted from the People’s Republic of China by a single parent at the time of adoption and raised by/living with the same parent at the time of application to college. An adoptee raised in a two-parent family is not eligible to apply for this scholarship. An adoptee attending boarding school, sports training school, or other specialty school is not eligible to apply for this scholarship.
  4. Applicant has applied for and was accepted by either a 4-year university/college or a 2-year community college or a trade/technical certification program.
Download the Scholarship application form with complete details on the program in PDF or MS Word DOC format.

Funds for this Foundation program are gathered through the proceeds from the books: New American Families: Chinese Daughters and their Single Mothers and Finding Happiness: Single Mothers Share their China Adoption Stories. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of either book, contact OCDFPublications@ocdf.org or call 309-829-8202 (toll free: 1-866-460-OCDF).

Updated 3.05.2010