BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 21, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESSWEEK LIFESTYLE Dave Thomas' Beef: "Nobody Thinks about It" Adoption benefits cost a company very little, says Wendy's founder, but mean so much to the new family For 10 years, Dave Thomas has been the leading corporate advocate for adoption. During that time, he has pushed for laws to speed up the adoption of children in foster care, lobbied for the federal Adoption Tax Credit that passed in 1997, and pressed fellow executives to offer employee-adoption benefits. The founder and senior chairman of fast-food giant Wendy's International carries a lot of credibility on the subject. Adopted at six-weeks old, he well understands the need for every child to be part of a family. Thomas, 67, spoke on Feb. 3 with Associate Editor Amy Dunkin from his home in Fort Lauderdale. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation: Q: Why are adoption issues so important to you? A: I was adopted myself. I know the importance of what family means. There are so many kids out there in foster care who don't have a permanent home. You lose your childhood so fast. You realize how important it is to have that home. Q: How did you get started advocating for adoption causes? A: An adoption organization was doing a campaign to show well-known personalities who were adopted and had gone on to become successes.... President Ford, who was an adoptee, heard I was adopted and told them about me. I gave them a baby picture, and they used it in the campaign. Then, in 1990, President Bush saw my picture in the ad and asked me if I would ask Corporate America to put in adoption benefits. That's when we put them in Wendy's. I started the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption in 1992. Q: How receptive are most CEOs to establishing adoption benefits? A: Nobody thinks about it. But when you talk about it, it's a no-brainer. It's very inexpensive, and when you do it, it means so much. We've gotten a lot of response, from Coca-Cola to Hasbro to Burger King. Q: About 30% of large corporations offer adoption benefits. Why aren't more of them doing it? A: It's just getting the message out. If you have the time to talk to them one-on-one, it helps. Awareness is so important. The more you talk about it, the more people get interested and want to do it. Q: What is the reluctance? A: I don't know if there is a reluctance. It's probably not knowing. I think anyone who has maternity benefits can see it's the right thing to offer adoption benefits. They go hand-in-hand. Q: What do you say when executives point out that maternity leave is disability leave, and adoptive mothers don't have a disability? A: It's the wrong argument. During maternity leave, a birth mother bonds with her child. That is not a perk or a benefit, that is a main component. Adoptive parents have that same critical need to bond with their children. Q: Are adoption benefits common in the public sector? A: We've had some success. South Carolina put in adoption benefits.... Kentucky just put them in, Ohio...a lot of cities and states have adoption packages. Indiana did something, West Virginia is really big on adoption. We're working on Florida. Q: What can employees do to get their companies to offer adoption support? A: They can go talk to their bosses and ask them to put it in. It's amazing what happens when people start talking. For example, the Postal Service has an executive meeting once a year. At the one last October in Orlando there were 800 people. They were talking about the new adoption stamp coming out in May of this year. One of the speakers asked anyone in the audience who had been touched by adoption to come on the stage. Three hundred people came up. Everyone was really fired up. Q: What's on the new stamp? A: It looks like a child's painting of geometric figures in primary colors surrounded by four sayings: "Creating a world, adopting a child, shaping a life, building a home." It captures the essence of what adoption means. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Commentary: Adopting? You Deserve Benefits, Too TABLE: Help with Adoption Issues ONLINE ORIGINAL: Dave Thomas' Beef: "Nobody Thinks about It" INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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