Editor's note: A check presentation ceremony will be held at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, March 12, at Frazier Hearth, room 119, Hendricks Hall, 1408 University St. UO students, Wells Fargo and the founder of the grant recipient organization will be available for interviews.
EUGENE, Ore. -- (March 11, 2009) - A new password-protected website will soon make it easier for families to find foster children available for adoption and submit their application, thanks to a Lane County nonprofit agency, a group of University of Oregon students, and Wells Fargo.
The students in a UO philanthropy class have chosen "A Family for Every Child" (AFFEC) to receive a $5,000 grant funded by Wells Fargo.
AFFEC is dedicated to finding loving, permanent families for every waiting Oregon foster child. The nonprofit group finds homes for Oregon children in foster care, assists potential adoptive families, families after they have adopted foster children, and works to improve the process through which eligible children are made available for adoption.
"We will use these funds to create a secure website that will display bulletins of children who are available for adoption. It will also enable prospective adoptive parents to upload their home studies for viewing by caseworkers," said Andrea Rippee, AFFEC board president.
"Currently there is not a protected website for Oregon children such as what we are planning to invest in," Rippee said. "When families turn in home studies, there is no way to save them in case they are not selected for the children they express interest in. They have to resubmit each time. This new site will eliminate that chore."
AFFEC plans to have the website launched within the next few months.
The Freshman Seminar in American Philanthropy class teaches students the process donors use to distribute charitable funds to non-profit agencies. This year students evaluated requests from 28 Lane County nonprofit agencies before narrowing the field to five finalists and choosing AFFEC as the sole grant recipient.
Wells Fargo has been funding the program since its inception in 2002 and has donated a total of $35,000 to community organizations in Lane County through this initiative.
"Helping our customers and communities succeed financially is Wells Fargo's major goal as a company," said Dave Frosaker of Eugene, Wells Fargo's senior regional trust manager. "Partnering with this class helps us identify worthy nonprofits in Lane County that, with our financial support, will provide the most benefit to this area."
About Wells Fargo & Company
Founded in 1852, Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through more than 11,000 stores, over 12,000 ATMs and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. has the highest credit rating currently given to U.S. banks by Moody's Investors Service, "Aa1," and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, "AA+."
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of the 62 leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.
Contacts: Julie Brown, UO, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu; Tom Unger, Wells Fargo, 503-886-2051, ungert@wellsfargo.com
Link: A Family for Every Child, http://www.afamilyforeverychild.org/
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