Community Investment Volunteer Information

ADVOCATE -- Become a Community Investment Volunteer!

Greater Ottawa County United Way is always seeking interested community members, who live and/or work in Ottawa County, to have a voice in the funding of human service programs throughout Ottawa County. Community investment volunteers help to decide where the funds raised during the annual campaign are invested, or allocated. We continue to work within our Community Impact Model and the following Impact Areas; Education, Financial Stability, Health, Emergency Assistance and Basic Human Needs. Volunteers need to simply have an interest in helping to better their community and may choose an impact area and panel that fit their interests and time schedule.

To help you decide which impact area and panel might be best for you, click to see and/or print the 2011 Community Investment Process Tour and Meeting Dates Schedule (pdf format).

The “Emergency Assistance and Basic Human Needs”  impact area includes programs that provide resources to people in need of emergency assistance; the “Education” impact area programs help people achieve their potential; the “Financial Stability” impact area programs help people achieve financial stability; and "Health" impact area programs help people to live life in a healthy way. Last year approximately 64 volunteers from around Ottawa County volunteered during the community investment process. They decided where $1.1 million in funds would be allocated across 61 programs of 41 nonprofit agencies that serve Ottawa County.

The Community Investment Process begins with a brief volunteer training session in late January. Volunteers are assigned to panel, and each panel is assigned any where from 4 to 8 different applications for review. Each volunteer receives a 3-ring binder containing the program applications to review, along with information about United Way’s community impact model and its intended results. Panel members will have a pre-tour meeting to review all panel applications; two weeks later the panels tours their programs to learn all about the impact on the community. After the tours are complete, the panel meets (either in the morning or the evening) to discuss the program applications and make their recommendations. One member of the panel, called the panel leader, they meet with the other leaders within their impact area to finalize the panel’s recommendations, which are then represented to the United Way Board of Directors.

The volunteer time commitment averages about 20 hours over a two-month period, click to download a copy of the Panel Member's Responsibilities (pdf format). 

Ready to get started?  Click to download and complete the 2011 Community Investment Volunteer Form.doc or

Click to print a PDF version of the 2011 Community Investment Volunteer Form.