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Veteran Mental Health • Connection • Resilience • Purpose

Built on Discipline.
United by Purpose.

Animus Invictus is a veteran mental health foundation committed to building connection, expanding access to support, reducing stigma, and helping veterans and their families move forward with strength.

Support the Mission Discover Our Purpose
No veteran should carry the battle alone.
ConnectionCreating a dependable network of peers, professionals, families, and community partners.
AccessHelping veterans find trusted mental health resources and evidence-informed care.
ResilienceBuilding tools and relationships that support lasting strength beyond service.
PurposeTurning shared experience into meaningful service, advocacy, and action.
About Animus Invictus

The Spirit Cannot Be Defeated

Our name reflects an unconquered spirit—the determination to continue, reconnect, and rebuild even when the path forward is difficult.

Our mission

Restore Hope. Strengthen Families. Save Lives.

We exist to help close the distance between veterans who need support and the people, programs, and communities prepared to provide it.

Through education, fundraising, outreach, strategic partnerships, and resource connection, Animus Invictus works to make support easier to find and asking for help easier to accept.

  • Reduce stigma surrounding trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and suicide.
  • Connect veterans and families with reputable support resources.
  • Fund and promote programs that create measurable community impact.
  • Build a culture rooted in discipline, belonging, resilience, and purpose.
You Are Not Alone. You Are Never Forgotten. We Are In This Together.
Strength Through Community

Connection Changes Everything

Veterans are stronger when trusted people, families, professionals, and communities stand beside them. Animus Invictus exists to help create those connections and make meaningful support easier to find.

Brotherhood • Belonging • Purpose

No One Moves Forward Alone.

Military service creates bonds built through shared responsibility, trust, and sacrifice. Those same principles can remain powerful after service—through peer connection, mentorship, family support, and community.

Our goal is to strengthen the network around veterans and help build a culture where reaching out, staying connected, and supporting one another are recognized as signs of strength.

Stand With Veterans
How we serve

Mission-Driven Action

Our work is designed to meet veterans and families where they are and help move them toward trusted support, stronger relationships, and renewed purpose.

01

Resource Navigation

Clear, accessible pathways to counseling, crisis support, peer programs, family services, and community organizations.

02

Community Outreach

Events, education, partnerships, and conversations that reduce isolation and normalize seeking support.

03

Program Support

Fundraising and collaboration for organizations providing meaningful, direct mental health services to veterans.

Our founders

Friendship Forged Into Purpose

Bill Ferguson and Donald Fachko have been friends since middle school. Their paths have moved through psychology, coaching, military service, transportation, infrastructure, safety, and community leadership—but they have remained united by a shared commitment to healthy living, meaningful service, and leaving a positive impact on the people around them.

Two Paths. One Shared Mission.

Animus Invictus grew from a lifelong friendship and the belief that strength is built through discipline, relationships, personal responsibility, and service to others. Bill and Donald bring different professional experiences to the foundation, but the same conviction: people thrive when they have purpose, trusted support, and a community that refuses to leave them behind.

Bill R. Ferguson, PhD Clinical Psychologist • Soccer Coach • Co-Founder
Psychology, coaching, and human performance

Dr. Bill R. Ferguson

Bill is a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder of Ferguson Psychology in Auburn, Alabama. He earned his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from Auburn University and completed an APA-accredited predoctoral internship at Mississippi State Hospital.

Before opening Ferguson Psychology in 2020, Bill served the East Alabama community through Auburn Psychology Group. His clinical work spans children, adolescents, college students, adults, couples, and families, with experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, post-traumatic stress, behavioral concerns, adjustment difficulties, relationship challenges, and performance-related stress.

His work is grounded in evidence-based care, including cognitive behavioral approaches, while remaining individualized to each person and family. Bill's years as a soccer coach complement his clinical background by reinforcing the importance of preparation, trust, accountability, resilience, team culture, and steady leadership under pressure.

As a co-founder of Animus Invictus, Bill helps shape a mission that treats mental health not as weakness, but as an essential part of living a strong, connected, and impactful life.

Auburn EducationB.A., M.S., and Ph.D. from Auburn University
Clinical TrainingAPA-accredited internship at Mississippi State Hospital
PracticeFounder and clinical psychologist at Ferguson Psychology
Leadership LensPsychology, soccer coaching, resilience, and team culture
Donald Fachko U.S. Marine • Railroad Safety Professional • Co-Founder
Service, safety, and operational leadership

Donald Fachko

Donald brings a career defined by military service, public safety, infrastructure leadership, technical problem-solving, and responsibility for the people and systems entrusted to him.

He served in the United States Marine Corps as a motor transportation mechanic and later as a Motor Transportation Chief assigned to Kilo Battery 2/14 as Inspector and Instructor Staff. His Marine service included maintaining mission-critical vehicle fleets, training and developing Marines, supporting unit readiness, overseeing hazardous-material compliance, and helping coordinate substance-abuse awareness and prevention efforts.

Following his active-duty service, Donald built a broad technical and leadership career. He worked as an engineering technician supporting military vehicle shelter integration, as an assistant project manager in commercial mechanical construction, at Nucor Steel, and for more than a decade with CSX—ultimately serving as a Roadmaster responsible for track safety, personnel, capital projects, community concerns, training, fleet management, and compliance with federal track-safety standards.

Donald now serves as a Railroad Safety Inspector with the Federal Railroad Administration in Birmingham. His experience reflects the values he brings to Animus Invictus: service before self, disciplined execution, safety, accountability, mentorship, and a deep respect for the challenges faced by veterans and their families.

2003–2007
U.S. Marine Corps SergeantMotor transportation maintenance, readiness, technical training, and leadership.
2007–2010
Engineering and Project ManagementMilitary integration projects and commercial mechanical construction in Huntsville.
2010–2011
USMC Motor Transportation ChiefInspector and Instructor Staff, fleet readiness, training, compliance, and prevention programs.
2011–2022
CSX RoadmasterTrack maintenance, safety compliance, capital projects, personnel, operations, and community coordination.
2020–2022
Nucor SteelIndustrial experience in Decatur, Alabama.
2022–Present
Federal Railroad AdministrationRailroad Safety Inspector serving from Birmingham, Alabama.
Strength is not the absence of struggle. It is the decision to keep moving with purpose.
Animus Alliance

Wear the Mission

Animus Alliance is the separate for-profit apparel company carrying the Animus identity into performance-focused clothing and merchandise. The brand is built around discipline, resilience, connection, and purpose.

Shop Athletic Apparel

Shirts. Shorts. Headwear.

Performance-inspired apparel for people who believe in the Animus mindset. Select the collection to visit Animus Alliance.

Shop Animus Alliance →
Transparency

Two Organizations. One Shared Purpose.

Animus Invictus Mission is the nonprofit organization. Animus Alliance is a separate for-profit apparel company.

Purchases from Animus Alliance are not charitable donations and are not tax-deductible. Any stated percentage or amount contributed by Animus Alliance to Animus Invictus Mission should reflect the company's actual commitment.

Need support now?

You Are Not Alone

In an emergency, call 911. Veterans and service members in crisis can call 988 and press 1, text 838255, or use the Veterans Crisis Line chat.

Veterans Crisis Line

Animus Invictus does not replace emergency or clinical services.