How do I start a group to raise money/awareness to help this cause?

Dear Katherine, The first thing that I suggest you consider is that, in order to spend more time doing what you most want to do, "DON'T RE-INVENT THE WHEEL". In other words, see if there's any existing LOCAL non-profit organization, already serving children, with alcoholic or drug addicted parents, which you can help. Why? Because, to start your own non-profit organization will take you several hundred dollars, a lot of time (up to 2 yrs), plenty of paperwork (which you need to keep track of, and submit annually a report to the IRS), and you'll need to have a constitution & bylaws, put together a board of directors, purchase minimal insurance, and we haven't even gotten to what you'll be doing when you're not working on "red tape". Life is short, but if you want to go this route, I'll suggest a how-to guide that So, to fundraise & help the kids, you'll need to EITHER incorporate a non-profit organization (because people can only get tax credit for their charitable donations if they give their money to an IRS-approved non-profit "501c3" (the IRS term) organization, OR fundraise & work for an existing non-profit organization. To see if there is any such existing organization anywhere near you, which is already incorporated, set-up, insured and staffed, you can begin by going to the website of the... 1) National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) http://www.nacoa.org/ 1-888-55-4COAS Based in Maryland, their phone is answered 9-5, Eastern time. Please understand that while NACoA took its name to focus on parental alcoholism, it has expanded its mission to also work on parental drug addiction, Click in "Affiliates" in the horizontal menu bar at top. You'll see a variety of services provided by organizations across the country. Are any near you? If yes, check them out and see if you can maybe start as a volunteer with them, to learn more, and see if you can enjoy helping the kids through that organization. None near you? Then write or phone NACoA, explain what you want to do, and see if you can work as an individual member of NACoA, fundraising and increasing awareness in your area. If you might want to just start & run a support group for kids, ask NACoA if they know of any model support group you could learn to start, be trained to run, or enlist or pay a professional counselor to start and run. There are issues here they need to be considered, e.g., how do you obtain needed parental permission forms from parents for the children to participate in a support group or program? 2) Are you yourself an Adult Child of an alcoholic or a drug addicted parent? If yes, have you ever been involved in a 12-step support group? If yes, both Al-Anon and Nar-Anon need adult volunteers who have "been there" to go through training to help run ("sponsor") local... Alateen groups http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/for-alateen or Nar-Ateen and Nar-Atot groups http://naranonfl.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/S-330-12-01-13-SponsoringaNarateenGroup.pdf 3) If you do indeed want to assume responsibility for going through the steps of starting your own non-profit organization/incorporation to raise money, there's one "how-to" guide, titled "How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation" published by Nolo Press, that you might want to consider getting. It comes with a CD that gives all the contacts in every state (except for California, which has it's own separate guide book that they sell). The book has templates for all the needed forms, and includes general samples of the required documents you need to have, e.g., constitution ("articles of incorporation" I think it may also be called), bylaws, etc.). The cost of this Nolo guide is around $38 plus postage for the hardcopy with the CD. Here's where you can order it: http://www.nolo.com/products/how-to-form-a-nonprofit-corporation-NNP.html Nolo also provides some articles regarding how to, and why, start a non-profit at: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/nonprofit-corporation I hope these contacts and information may be helpful to you in pursuing your dream to make life better for the kids in need.