Your Step-by-Step Guide to Spreading Cheer through Soldiers’ Angels Adopt-A-Family

The holidays can be a joyful yet challenging time—especially for Military and Veteran families living on tight budgets. Through Adopt-A-Family, caring individuals, groups, and businesses can make a real difference by ensuring these families experience a warm, festive, and stress-free holiday season.

If you’ve chosen to “adopt” a family this year, thank you! Your kindness is giving back to those who have already given so much.

What It Means to Adopt a Family

By joining the Adopt-A-Family Program, you’ll have the opportunity to log in and select a Military or Veteran family to support this holiday season. Each family has been carefully vetted for both military service and financial need.

Your commitment includes:

• Gifts for every child (ages 18 (still in high school) and younger) valued at $50–$75 per child
• A grocery gift card valued at $75–$125 to help with their holiday meal

Step-by-Step

Step 1: Register as an Angel Volunteer

If you’re new to Soldiers’ Angels, begin by completing the Volunteer registration form.

Once approved, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to log in, view available families, and make your selection.

Step 2: Select Your Family

Once your registration is approved, log in to your Angel volunteer account to begin browsing available opportunities.

Before you start, filter your volunteer opportunities to show only the “Adopt-A-Family” program. This ensures you’re viewing the correct listings for holiday family adoptions rather than other Soldiers’ Angels initiatives.

You can then search for families based on location, family size, service branch, or zip code to find one that best fits your ability to give. Families are added regularly throughout the season, so check back often if your preferred size or area isn’t yet available.

• Individuals: May adopt up to three families.
• Businesses or Groups: May adopt multiple families*—*as long as they can fully support each one.

Step 3: Reach Out Within 48 Hours

After adopting your family, you’ll receive their contact information (email and phone number).
You must reach out within 48 business hours to introduce yourself as their Soldiers’ Angels Adopt-A-Family volunteer. This helps reassure the family and allows you to:

• Confirm the wish list and ages of the children
• Clarify delivery or shipping preferences
• Ask any questions before shopping

Tip: Be friendly but professional. Avoid sharing personal addresses or meeting at private homes—always choose a neutral, public meeting spot if you’re delivering gifts in person.

Step 4: Shop & Wrap

Purchase new, age-appropriate gifts that reflect each child’s wish list. All gifts must be wrapped, unless the family specifically requests otherwise. Be sure to include the grocery gift card for the family’s holiday meal, and consider adding a short holiday note to make your package extra cheerful.

Step 5: Deliver or Ship

Whether you’re meeting at a neutral location (like a grocery store or restaurant parking lot) or shipping the gifts, the key is ensuring they arrive before the holidays. We ask that all gifts be shipped or delivered by December 15th. Always get a tracking number for shipped items, as you must enter this information when reporting, and the tracking numbers are shared with your adopted family, as well as keeping it for your tax records.

If you cannot reach your family, contact the Soldiers’ Angels Adopt-A-Family team at [email protected]

Step 6: Report Your Support

By December 31, 2025, log in to your Angel volunteer dashboard to report your support. This is very important, so please do not forget and make sure to include shipping in your total costs.

FAQ Highlights

Here are a few key reminders from the official Adopt-A-Family FAQs:

• Do not give cash or gift cards to children. Always purchase the actual gifts listed on their wish lists.
• Do not meet at private homes. For safety, meet at neutral public locations.
• Cannot fulfill your commitment? Contact [email protected] immediately so the team can reassign the family.

For the full FAQ list, visit here.

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