Our second list for the month of April includes all of the adoption and foster care agencies from the MinistryWatch 1000 database.
Photo by Guillaume de Germain / Unsplash
While these agencies may conduct other activities, we include them in this category if their primary mission and activities involve adoption and foster care. This is the first time we have published a list of the adoption and foster care agencies in the MinistryWatch database, so we have no comparison rankings to include.
The 42 ministries are listed in order of total revenue from largest to smallest. The sum of revenue for all of the ministries is nearly $540 million. Of the adoption and foster care ministries in the database, 13 received government grant money totaling about $41 million.
The largest ministry is Olive Crest with $80 million in total revenue. It has grown substantially from 2019 when its revenue totaled about $64 million.
Olive Crest gets high ratings from MinistryWatch: 4 out of 5 stars for financial efficiency, 97 out of 100 donor confidence score, and an A transparency grade.
Olive Crest received nearly $27 million — about one-third of its revenue — in government grants, according to its most recent IRS Form 990.
Lifesong for Orphans is second on the list with $39 million in total revenue, half the total revenue of Olive Crest. The ministry, serving in 15 countries around the world, has grown from a revenue of $22 million in 2019. Its assets have also risen from $26 million in 2019 to $62 million in 2023.
Lifesong receives high marks from MinistryWatch: a 4-star financial efficiency rating, an A transparency grade, and a donor confidence score of 100. It did not report receiving any government grants on its latest Form 990.
Rounding out the top five are Buckner International, Sunrise Children’s Services, and Holt International Children’s Services.
The smallest ministry on this list is As Our Own, a ministry that focuses its services on vulnerable children in India. It has a total revenue of about $2.7 million. According to its financials, As Our Own has operated with a deficit the last couple of years.