A record 2,500 Christian leaders from across the US and more than 50 countries were in Atlanta Sept. 23 – 25 to connect and share best practices in caring for the world’s most vulnerable children at the 22nd annual CAFO2026 Summit held at First Baptist Atlanta (4400 N. Peachtree Rd.). This was the largest number of participants registered to attend on-site to date.
CAFO2026 was hosted by the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO), an alliance of more than 300 non-profit organizations and a global network of churches that work together to see God’s people care effectively for vulnerable children and families. This year’s Summit theme, “Less: Fewer branches, better fruit,” invited leaders to consider how pruning away the unnecessary can create space for deeper relationships, healthier leadership and more lasting fruit in the lives of children and families.
“Throughout history, Christians have been known for their special care for children the world overlooks,” said Jedd Medefind, president of CAFO. “Today we see that ancient commitment rising afresh, from US foster care to ministry with vulnerable children and families worldwide. At CAFO2026, we explored a truth that can feel counterintuitive in a culture that constantly tells us to do more. Sometimes the path to better fruit is fewer branches.”
CAFO2026 featured more than 200 workshops focused on research and best practices, church engagement, collaboration, fundraising and leadership. Some of the mainstage speakers and artists included: Lecrae; Katherine Wolf; Kelly Kapic; Shane and Shane; Dr. Curt Thompson and CAFO President Jedd Medefind, among others.
For two decades, CAFO has united Christian leaders worldwide in shared initiatives on behalf of orphaned and vulnerable children and families, achieving far greater impact together than any one organization or church could achieve alone. See a full listing of CAFO member organizations and learn more about how to join CAFO.
A Special Thank You to CAFO2026 Sponsors
The following sponsors have invested time and resources into making this year’s CAFO Summit a success! Learn more about sponsorship opportunities here.
Signature Sponsors
Lifesong for Orphans
Lifesong for Orphans helps equip followers of Jesus to reach orphans: some to adopt, some to care, some to give. With caring partners and people like you, we support orphaned and vulnerable children through adoption financial assistance, global orphan care, foster care initiatives, and sustainable business development.
lifesong.org
Show Hope
Founded in 2003 by Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman, Show Hope is a Christ-centered nonprofit organization dedicated to caring for orphans by engaging the Church and reducing barriers to adoption. Through Adoption Aid and Medical Care grants, support and education, and advocacy and awareness efforts, Show Hope serves children and families impacted by adoption and/or foster care, both domestically and globally.
showhope.org
WinShape Homes
WinShape Homes partners with churches and families to provide Christ-centered Foster Care.
winshapehomes.org
Nathan Cadis Media
Nathan Cadis Media exists to help mission-driven organizations uncover, shape, and share the stories that make their work matter. Through narrative strategy and documentary storytelling, we help organizations translate complexity into clarity, build trust with the people they serve, and create momentum around the work they were created to do. We believe every story carries inherent dignity, and we approach our work with a commitment to truth, care, and the responsible stewardship of the people and experiences entrusted to us.
www.nathancadismedica.com
Care for Children
Care for Children’s vision is to see a world of children in families! We work with governments around the world to accelerate long-term family placement care at scale for orphans and vulnerable children.
www.careforchildren.com
Champion Sponsors
One More Child
One More Child, partnering with church, community, leadership, and ministry partners, is on mission to provide Christ-centered services to foster children, hungry children, trafficked children, single moms, struggling families, and global communities.
https://www.onemorechild.org
Lifeline Children’s Services
Lifeline Children’s Services is a gospel-driven child welfare agency that equips the Church to serve vulnerable children by mobilizing families, strengthening churches, and providing holistic care resources beginning with preborn children until a child ages out of institutional care.
lifelinechild.org
In-N-Out Burger Foundation
The mission of In-N-Out Burger Foundation® is to assist children and youth who have been victims of abuse and neglect, and to prevent others from suffering a similar fate. The Foundation was founded in 1984 by Esther Snyder and her son, Rich, with the help of Lynda Snyder. The Snyder Family’s encounters with child abuse and neglect, along with Esther’s belief that every child deserves a chance and a future, are what led to the Foundation’s passionate focus on prevention, intervention, and restoration in the lives of children and youth.
https://ino4kids.org/
Promise686
Through technology, content, and coaching, Promise686 equips churches to address the child welfare crisis. We help churches make a lasting impact for vulnerable families by providing solutions that are scalable, flexible, and relational.
promise686.org
Sustainer Sponsors
Buckner International
Buckner International is a faith-based nonprofit ministry dedicated to following the example of Jesus by serving vulnerable children, families and seniors in the United States and internationally. Founded in 1879 in Dallas, Texas, today Buckner seeks to protect children, strengthen families, transform generations and serve senior adults. Buckner offers a variety of ministries including foster care and adoption, family transition programs, community-based family preservation programs and senior living communities. Buckner also provides humanitarian aid and crisis relief to poverty-stricken children and families. Visit Buckner.org to learn more.
Buckner.org
Pathways for Little Feet
Pathways for Little Feet supports adoptive and foster families through interest-free adoption loans, counseling grants, and conference scholarships, helping children come home and families grow strong, connected, and supported.
pathwaysforlittlefeet.org
ACH – Alianza Cristiana para los Huérfanos
ACH -Alianza Cristiana para los Huérfanos is a Latin American movement working towards equipping local churches to love and support vulnerable children and their communities. We build relationships by sharing gospel-centered, evidence-based resources, both at live events and virtually.
https://www.achlatam.org/
FaithBridgeU
Our vision is for all foster and adoptive families to have access to high-quality clinical training with an emphasis on Christ-centered tools. FaithBridgeU is proven to help with families’ placement stability of the children in their homes and serve longer in the ministry. This training resource supports families to bring the hope, healing, and unconditional love of Jesus Christ to children. It is currently being used by foster and adoptive parents in 29 states.
https://faithbridgeu.com/
The Elemental Group
The Elemental Group helps churches and nonprofits build healthy, effective cultures. Using our core framework of Integrity, Passion, Servanthood, and Imagination, we provide strategic planning, assessments, coaching, advancement, and grant writing services.
www.elementalgroup.org
Louder Agency
Helping Nonprofits & Ministries Stand Out Online | Websites, Storytelling, Messaging, and Digital Marketing —- Tell clearer, more compelling stories— online —so the right people lean in, engage, and take action. Whether you’re launching a new site or leveling up your Meta Ads, we’ll help you turn every digital touchpoint into a movement for change. We partner with Christian teams like yours to clarify your message, shape your story, and bring it to life across high-performing websites, impact emails, and digital marketing. The result? Stronger connection, greater clarity, and momentum you can build on.
louderagency.com
Bethany Christian Services
Bethany Christian Services demonstrates the love and compassion of Jesus Christ by protecting children, empowering youth, and strengthening families through quality social services. We believe every child deserves to be safe, loved, and connected.
Bethany.org
Supporter Sponsors
Safe Families for Children
Safe Families for Children seeks to bring the church and community together to keep children safe and families together. Safe Families for Children is rooted in faith, fueled by radical hospitality, disruptive generosity, and intentional compassion, to build a network of caring and compassionate volunteers to support families facing social isolation. Our goal is to support and strengthen families, prevent child abuse and neglect, and reduce the number of children unnecessarily entering the child welfare system.
https://safe-families.org
Eagle Ranch
Pioneers in therapeutic work with children and families, Eagle Ranch serves the North Georgia and North Metro-Atlanta areas and takes a Christ-centered, whole family approach to restoring and renewing relationships and has helped thousands of families. Founded in 1985 as a residential children’s program, Eagle Ranch’s services have expanded to include stabilization counseling, a day school program, parenting resources, and other offerings to help families heal brokenness and gain tools for long-term success. The Wings Center at Eagle Ranch offers outpatient counseling, retreat experiences, and nonprofit consulting services. This facility, paired with the Ranch’s educational and outreach efforts, extends our reach to families, individuals, therapeutic professionals, and nonprofit programs across the United States and abroad.
eagleranch.org
Both Hands
Both Hands helps adoptive families and volunteer groups organize service projects for widows while raising funds for adoptions and orphan causes.
bothhands.org
Grove9
Grove9 is a strategic marketing agency helping faith-driven foster care and adoption agencies grow their reach, recruit more foster families, and increase impact through smart, mission-aligned marketing.
https://grove9.com/
Whole Child Initiative
Trauma Awareness Begins Here. Whole Child Initiative is a people-focused, proven method of caring for children in vulnerable situations. By addressing their physical, emotional, social, educational, and spiritual needs, this approach creates an environment that allows children and their support structure to thrive.
www.wholechildinitiative.org
Send Relief
Send Relief equips churches and believers to meet needs and share Christ’s hope—responding to crises, strengthening communities, and supporting vulnerable children and families through family-based care. Practical help and eternal hope—near and far.
SendRelief.org
Agape Children’s Ministry
Reconciling children to God and family through the Good News and transformative love of Christ. Agape exists to Rescue children off the streets and out of dangerous situations, Rehabilitate them with loving short-term care, and Reunite them with their families, all informed by and while actively sharing the Redeeming message of the Gospel. Though we started as an orphanage in 1993, we have been successfully reuniting children with family through our 4R model since 2010. We currently operate out of 3+ major cities in Kenya, allowing us to reunify 900+ children a year. Let’s get children home where they belong!
agapechildren.org
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family’s Wait No More program prepares hearts & homes for kids in foster care or those awaiting adoption. We inspire families & churches to get involved in the lives of these children through adoption, foster care & wrap around support.
waitnomore.org
ECFA
ECFA (The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) is a growing community of over 2700 leading churches and non profits across the U.S. committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity in areas like financial management, board governance, stewardship, and leadership.
ecfa.org
HopeConnect by 4KIDS
HopeConnect™ is a free digital parenting platform designed to empower parents and caregivers as they nurture a Biblical sense of hope and identity in children impacted by trauma. Developed through a missional collaboration of leading CAFO-affiliated ministries, HopeConnect™ is trusted by more than 700,000 parents and caregivers. HopeConnect offers the following parenting resources: Everyday Moments™ is a collection of simple, engaging, trauma-informed activities that strengthen parent-child connection while helping children experience the enduring hope found in God’s Word. Thrive™ by HopeConnect provides practical, research-informed parenting resources, including weekly actionable articles, video series, eBooks, and tip sheets. All content is developed by a multidisciplinary team of psychologists, licensed therapists, social workers, researchers, and family experts. HopeConnect™ and all of its resources are available at no cost , equipping families everywhere with accessible, faith-centered support.
Hopeconnect.org
CarePortal LLC
CarePortal is a Care-Sharing technology that connects families in crisis with people who can help. Caseworkers submit vetted requests, and local churches and community members respond. Connection changes everything, and it’s closer than ever before.
careportal.org
ConnectionPlus
Connection Plus exists to keep families together and thriving. We equip parents and the professionals who support them with the tools, coaching, and guidance to navigate trauma’s hardest behaviors and restore attachment. Together, we are expanding healing in every community—creating real connection and real change.
connectionplus.care
Finally Home
Since 2008, Finally Home has been equipping foster, adoptive, and kinship families to build resilient, healthy homes where children and youth can heal. Foster and adoption agencies, social workers, and church leaders all play a vital role in helping create stable, loving families where children can thrive. But once a family says “yes,” the real work begins. Caregivers need ongoing, trauma-informed support to understand what children have experienced. Finally Home walks alongside families with practical resources to build connection, strength, and resilience every day.
Finallyhome.net
ABBA Fund
ABBA Fund provides resources to Christian couples who are adopting. They offer interest-free loans and a fundraising platform. Also – find out more about their Church partnerships and Legacy Child Funds.
www.abbafund.org
World Challenge
We seek to rescue orphans and widows from a life of abandonment, poverty, and hunger. By bringing them into loving home, with renewed health, emotional well-being, a hope for the future and most of all a new relationship with Jesus.
WorldChallenge.org
Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries
Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries exists to restore the Faith, Family, and Future of vulnerable children and families through Christian services that emphasize ministry and healing. We currently seek to accomplish this mission through three different programs- Residential Care, Foster Care, and Family Care. Connie Maxwell also has a vision of becoming a national leader in Christian minsitries of healing for vulneraeble children and families by enhancing and expanding Christ-centered services, starting with the construction of a new Healing Center that will serve as an educational resource for understanding trauma and hosue integrative trauma-informed services for our children, families, and community as a whole.
conniemaxwell.com
Mission Increase
Since 2020, Mission Increase has partnered with CAFO to inspire and equip Christians to effectively live out the Bible’s call to care for orphaned and vulnerable children. Our mission is to equip nonprofits and empower donors and churches to collectively multiply their kingdom impact, so more lives are transformed for Jesus (inspired by Ephesians 4:11-16). Our flagship program, Mi Core, is a free two-year training that teaches biblically-based fundraising and leadership principles. We also offer Mi Academy for self-paced online learning and Mi Specialized for targeted consulting services. In 27 years, we’ve served more than 10,000 nonprofit ministries and helped generate more than $3.5 billion in Kingdom capital.
www.missionincrease.org
Alliance Defending Freedom
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) exists to keep the door open for the gospel by advancing every person’s God-given right to live and speak the truth. We contend for the truth in law, policy, and the public square, and equip the alliance to do the same. ADF plays the long game. While culture may change, truth does not. That’s why we pursue strategic victories that will bring lasting change in law and culture—together with a coalition of courageous clients, allies, advocates, and supporters.
Resource Sponsors
B&H Publishing
B&H Publishing Group, an imprint of Lifeway Christian Resources, is a team that believes Every Word Matters®. We seek to provide intentional, biblical content that positively impacts the hearts and minds of people, cultivating lifelong relationships with Jesus Christ. We publish (print and digital) in the trade, church, and academic markets, as well as the CSB translation.
https://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/
Hephzibah62:4
Hephzibah62:4, a subsidiary of The Wesleyan Church, provides coaching, resources, and financial support to local churches throughout the U.S. and Canada so they can engage effectively in transforming the lives of vulnerable children in their communities.
https://hephzibah.org
Kalon Creative
Kalon Creative helps foster care and child-serving nonprofits get answers out of the data they already collect, so teams spend less time compiling spreadsheets and more time on the mission.
https://www.kaloncreative.com/
Lagoon Digital Marketing
Lagoons are calm waters where life flourishes, sheltered from harsh waves. Lagoon Digital offers ministries and non-profits that same refuge—helping you tell your story, build your tech stack, solve problems, and embrace AI safely.
https://www.lagoondigital.com/
Mission:Leadership
Mission:Leadership is a faith-based executive recruiting firm focused squarely on serving nonprofit ministries, Kingdom-oriented businesses, churches and academic institutions. Whatever your need, we know great Christian leaders throughout the US and across the globe and how to connect you to them.
http://missionleadership.org
Voop
Voop has built digital safety infrastructure to help keep foster youth safe on smartphones and in teh digital world, reducing risk and improving outcomes from care at scale.
http://voop.com
