Deb Holtorf
Senior portfolio manager Private Wealth Management
U.S. Bank
Nonprofit served:Gift of Adoption Fund
Service: Board member
For families looking to adopt, the desire to help a child in need can be thwarted by the costly process.
The idea that a child would go without a family because of the cost of adoption – which averages about $35,000 – doesn’t sit well with Deb Holtorf.
Credit: Dan Profio
“A lot of parents at some point or other have had the situation happen where we momentarily lose our kids in a department store,” Holtorf said. “We get panicked. The child gets panicked. I just think about that emotion when that happens, and the child’s emotions. And then I think about kids who are lost all the time – not just for 10 minutes but for a good portion of their life –and may not have parents looking for them. I can’t see in my mind how that is fair. I can’t fathom a life without parents.”
Holtorf, senior portfolio manager in Private Wealth Management for U.S. Bank, saw adoption’s financial burden firsthand when her sister adopted a baby boy years ago.
Around that same time, Holtorf’s friends, also adoptive parents, began forming a foundation aimed at providing grants to ease that burden – providing the last few thousand dollars needed to cover initial adoption costs.
The Gift of Adoption Fund was officially launched in 1996 in Grafton and expanded nationally five years later.
Inspired by its mission, Holtorf has served on the board of the Wisconsin chapter since 2001, helping raise awareness and funds for the cause.
“For families that we help at Gift of Adoption, they can certainly afford to raise a child, but have trouble to come up with that $30,000 to $40,000 upfront,” she said. “Most people can’t do that. So we really help out in that way. Our goal is to make as many adoptions happen as we can, so that the kids can have the best life that they can.”
Since its founding, the volunteer-led organization has distributed more than $6 million in grants to assist the international and domestic adoption process for 2,100 children, 243 of which involved Wisconsin families. Holtorf has also helped the Wisconsin chapter grow to raise more than $100,000 annually.
“What I love about being on the board is I can see the impact quickly and in such a positive way,” Holtorf said. “For me, it’s the immediacy of the work that we do, the difference we can make.”
In September, Holtorf was recognized with the 2017 Angels in Adoption award from the U.S. Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute in Washington, D.C.
