TRANSITION FAQs & UPdates

November 2023 updates:

As of November, 2023, Families with Children from China’s Orphanage Assistance program is now an organization distinct from Chinese Adoptee Alliance. FCC Orphanage Assistance (FCCOrphanAid.org) will continue its work in partnership with Jiangxi China Orphan Aid (chinaorphanaid.org), a 501(c)(3) organization of China adoptive parents.

As CAA is transitioning to an organization with a focus on adoptees, FCC Orphanage Assistance and Jiangxi China Orphan Aid have found a fitting match in each other: both emerged from the desire of adoptive parents to assist children remaining in China’s orphanages, and both have a long history of working with the Amity Foundation to support children in China.

CAA wishes FCC Orphanage Assistance the best of luck as it moves forward in this new chapter.

Please read FCC Orphanage Assistance's full letter to donors and wider community here.

August 2023 updates:

Beginning August 1st, we are introducing new membership levels. After review of previous FCCNY membership plans, which have been in place for over fifteen years, we recognized the need to make adjustments to maintain the financial health of our organization so we can continue to offer valuable programming and events for you.

We crafted a new membership plans system with the below factors in mind:

Simplicity: We reduced the number of membership plans from seven to four.
Programming flexibility: We offer a plan for virtual events only, for those who cannot easily attend in-person events.
Demographic tailoring: We offer two plans for individual adults, one bundle plan for families, and one plan for youth.

Full Individual Membership (Ages 21+) - $35/year

Free access to the Weekly Digest email
Free access to regular in-person meet-ups and discussions
Free access to regular virtual events
Discounted access to special in-person events
Discounted access to special virtual events

Virtual Individual Membership (Ages 21+) - $18/year

Free access to the Weekly Digest email
Free access to regular virtual events
Discounted access to special virtual events
Note: Members with this plan may pay non-member fees to attend in-person events!

Family Membership - $60/year

Covers up to 2 adults and 2 children (under 18)
Additional children can be covered under a separate Youth Membership
Access to all of the same perks as a Full Individual Membership. Children are restricted to events meant for those under 18.

Youth Membership (Ages Under 21) - $10/year

Access to all of the same perks as a Full Individual Membership, but restricted to events meant for those under 21.
Individuals under 18 can opt into a Family Membership! To do so, the parent/guardian would need to sign up for the Family Membership.

What happens to your membership if you're a current CAA Member?

We understand this is a big change! Therefore we will be honoring a 1-year grace period from now through July 31st, 2024 for all current CAA Members who hold Young Adult Adoptee, Family, Subscriber, Sustaining, or Reduced Rate memberships. This means your current membership will remain active until the end of July in 2024, at no additional cost. Then, on August 1st, 2024 and onward, you may rejoin as a CAA Member through one of our new membership plans above.

CAA Members who hold Lifetime or Benefactor memberships, which were multi-year subscription plans, will receive a separate notice from us regarding a tailored grace period plan:

Lifetime Members will retain their active Lifetime membership until they have reached 10 years of membership. Lifetime Members who have already held their membership for 10+ years will have an additional 1-year grace period of active membership.
Benefactor Members will retain their active Benefactor membership for the remainder of their 3-year subscription period.

If you are having difficulties changing your membership, check here for step-by-step instructions!

June 2023 updates:

We have a new logo!

We are excited to announce our collaboration with Mia Casesa, a Chinese adoptee and graphic artist, to design a logo that represents our community. We are thankful for Mia and her incredible work! We also want to acknowledge and thank those who also submitted designs in our logo contest.

The logo design is a Chinese double coin knot. We hope this double coin knot will remind you of our name CAA. We wished to have a logo that symbolizes our community and conveys our relationship to Chinese culture. A reference to the red string of fate, a symbol often used within the Chinese adoptee community and adapted from Chinese mythology, this knot design represents the close ties and connections that our CAA community members and all members of the adoption constellation share and weave together throughout our lives.

October 2022 updates:

What is FCCNY's new name?

Chinese Adoptee Alliance! This decision was made after a thorough review of community survey responses which were collected during August 2022. We want to highlight that we serve not only the New York community, but the greater Chinese adoptee community, as well as the global community of adoptees. We strongly believe the name “Chinese Adoptee Alliance” embodies our core mission to connect, support, empower, educate, and advocate.

Does Chinese Adoptee Alliance have an acronym?

We can go by CAA, pronounced "C double A" so as to differentiate ourselves a little from other C-A-A organizations.

Does Chinese Adoptee Alliance have a new logo?

No, but we're looking for creatives and designers to help contribute ideas and designs!

Here is our open call for logos, deadline November 3, 2022: bit.ly/caa-logo

UPDATE: Scroll up to read about our CAA logo!

Will the website stay the same?

This will be a work in progress, and will mostly be behind the scenes.
Eventually, fccny.org will redirect to chineseadopteealliance.org
Changes to website copy will be a work in progress as we update our web pages.
At the moment there are no immediate plans to change the platform, but any plans or changes that would affect users would be announced.

Will your emails be the same?

For now they will be, but we will also transition those over to chineseadopteealliance.org in the future as well.

Will Chinese Adoptee Alliance be considered a tax-exempt organization?

Yes, we are in the process of legally changing our organization's name, which includes updating the IRS of our name change.

July 2022 updates:

What does the organization's transition entail?

As of June 30, 2022, eight adoptive parent board members rotated off the Board of Directors to make way for Chinese adoptee board members and allow for the board to be managed primarily by Chinese adoptees. This new board’s efforts will be directed by and centered around adoptees. While this transition will bring an adoptee-centered approach to the fore, we will have continued involvement of interested adoptive parents, and we will also develop some programs that include or are tailored for adoptive parents, families, and supporting communities.

We have been moving towards this new phase for a few years, in response to the shifting demographics and needs of our Chinese adoption community. Last year, we elected adoptees Lisa Gibson as President and Anna Cohen as Vice President, and added six adoptees to the Board of Directors. We also updated our Mission Statement to reflect this adoptee-centered approach.

This transformation of our organization will be an ongoing process, but we are excited that the transition in board leadership is our first big step forward!

Please feel free to reach out to hi@chineseadopteealliance.org if you have any questions that are not answered here!

Thank you to everyone who filled out the brief that closed on August 20, 2022 to help inform the decision-making process for the organization name change, along with other aspects of the transition.

Why is the transition happening?

Since the founding of FCCNY in the 1990s, the Chinese adoptive community has shifted dramatically. In addition to supporting families with young adoptees, we now provide support and community for adoptees who are beginning their careers, starting families of their own, and exploring their own agency and voice. We have recognized the need to adapt with this changing community at a structural level. We believe that becoming a more adoptee-centered organization will better reflect and serve our community.

What were some of the previous changes involved in this transition?

Previous changes include the creation of the Adoptee Board (2017), the election of adoptees as President and Vice President (2021), the election of additional adoptees as board members (2021), the revision of our Mission Statement that can be seen below (2021), and the departure of adoptive parent board members (2022).

What are some of the future changes involved in this transition?

Future changes will include changing the organization name and logo, voting an adoptee onto the board as Treasurer, revising our by-laws, and creating a new board member application and onboarding process.

Why change the organization name?

The new board’s efforts will be directed by and centered around adoptees, and so the name should indicate this focus. We also would like to expand our service beyond the region of New York, and a name change will help facilitate this expansion. Additionally, we have received feedback from the community that “Families with Children from China” can be interpreted as infantilizing toward adoptees, many of whom are now adults 18+; we would like our name to move away from such language.

Does this transition only apply to the NY chapter of FCC?

Yes, this transition only applies to FCCNY. FCCNY was the first organization for families that adopted children from China, but there has never been an official national organization, and each 'chapter’ that came after us was established and led entirely independently.

With our name change, we will discontinue the use of “NY” or any other regional title.

Through the use of online platforms, we have been able to extend our community and reach. We hope to continue expanding and providing for our community on a global scale. We are proud to continue to lead the way in our community toward adoptee leadership and programming.

Will my membership status be affected?

No, you will not see any changes to your membership during this transitional period. Any future potential changes to membership will be announced separately.

Will regular programming be affected?

During this immediate transitional period, in-person and online programming will be limited as we focus on making important organizational changes. Once completed, the organization will take a primarily adoptee-centered approach to programming, and will be directed by and centered around adoptees themselves. We will continue to support and develop some programs that include, or are tailored for, adoptive parents and families as well. We encourage the involvement of interested adoptive parents in helping with programming tailored to adoptive parents and families.

Will adoptive parents still be involved?

Adoptive parents are encouraged to remain involved by supporting the organization and engaging in the community in several ways: joining or renewing membership, donating to our organization, attending events open to adoptive parents, and informing adoptees and supporters in their lives about our organization and offerings.

How can I get involved in the transition or show my support?

We are always excited to have new members of our community get involved! We welcome members to reach out to the board with any programming or event ideas, or to voice feelings and opinions about the transition by reaching out to hi@chineseadopteealliance.org

We welcome you to join in our enthusiasm and support for this new, historic transformation of our organization, and ask for your continued support through new or renewed membership during this period and beyond!