Hey friends,

As I may have said before, my wife is a Counselor (Bachelor's in Psychology, Master's in Counseling.) Since she graduated in 2007, she has been working with substance abuse addicts (1 year in a Federal Prison, and nearly 2 years in a private, clinical setting.) She is tiring of working with exclusively addicts, as, she is really not able to help them deal with their core, root issues (the clinic mainly works to help alleviate the symptoms of withdrawal with Methadone.)

The reason we moved to this area from Nashville, Tennessee was that she was offered an internship/practicum in this area. She is actually from here, and her "2nd mom," who inspired her to become a Counselor, started a non-profit Christian Counseling center in this area in 2002. My wife did her internship there, and then, has been working in her jobs since then.

This counseling center is pretty neat - everyone that counsels has at least a Master's level in Psychology/Counseling, with at least one Doctorate on staff as well. They have attained a pretty noteworthy status - they have become the local county "Family Services Center," and, is also a go-to for many of the problem youth and people in this area. It has become pretty active in the community. They hope to grow to develop even further, with pastoral respite care services (restorative services for burned out Pastors and Christian Leaders,) a pallative care unit ( a "camp" for dying kids to come to, so, that they and their families can be properly guided through the process of "letting go" while the kid is still here,) a Christian in-house detox and drug treatment facility, after-school programs and a Saturday day-camp, and, they also want to add a Psychiatrist to the mix as well.

However, these programs cost money. None of the staff members have ever taken a salary, and, they work entirely by donations. (They used to work via a sliding scale, but, now just work through donations.) The Lord has been very gracious to this organization, as they have been donated much land, some of which is already being used, and, there is more that hasn't even been touched yet.

My wife really wants to go to work there, as, it would not only be her dream, but, it would help her to fulfill the next stage of her career (she could receive the proper supervision and training there to become a LPC.) I haven't vocalized this much, but, I believe that the door may open one day for my wife and I to run the facility, if and when the founder retires. (I may be starting to work on my psychology and counseling degrees very soon, as referenced in another post.)

I had written a $5 million grant back in 2007 that I tried to get into the hands of various agencies, but, nothing ever happened with it. I even wrote, personally, the President and Founder of Chick-fil-A (I used to be a General Manager of a particular location for them,) but, again, to no avail.

At the very minimum, I'd love to get some agency to donate a sum of money to pay my wife to work there, however, I'd really like to cover the entire organization. Everyone who is associated with this agency has so selflessly donated of their time and money that I'd love to see them compensated from this point onward. The founder and CEO, to this day, still works a full time professor position at a University, and, is in fact, the assistant head of the Psychology Department.

Any methods that have ever been successful to generate donations for a tax-exempt (and therefore, tax deductible) organization?

Thanks.