START Collaborative
Impact Story
Over the past two Foundation Matters installments, we shared how Otsego Career Access Network and the Otsego Housing Task Force became High Impact Partners through OCF’s new grantmaking framework. Today, we’re excited to introduce our third partner—one born directly from lived experience in moments when our community needed support the most. When a disaster strikes, the ultimate effect on local residents often comes down to one question: how well was the community prepared to respond? Otsego county learned this just a few years ago when the back-to-back disasters of the COVID-19 pandemic and the May 20, 2022 tornado left the area reeling.
Dana Bensinger, Executive Director of the Otsego Community Foundation (OCF), remembers this time well. When the tornado hit, “we didn’t have a plan,” she says. “We were reacting… flying the plane as we were building it.” Though OCF and the community came together to respond, including by establishing the Tornado Response Fund which raised $1.6 million for emergency relief, intermediate response, and long-term recovery, it was clear that there was work to be done to not just provide vital resources for residents during a disaster, but to make sure they could easily access them as well, particularly for the area’s most vulnerable populations.
Kim Akin, Executive Director of the Otsego County United Way (OCUW), knew the value of being prepared for a disaster (“It’s a disaster to me when a family can’t afford to feed their children, or can’t afford to fix their car and they’re going to lose their job,” she says), and after the tornado “we didn’t want to be in a position again where we were not able to effectively respond to a disaster.” Fortunately, there was an obvious lesson in the aftermath of the storm.
“We noticed that we got a lot more done by collaborating, seeing who had what resources and who was able to help in what capacity,” Kim says. Wanting to better prepare the community for the next emergency, OCF and OCUW secured funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and provided their own matching funds to kickstart a solution: the START (services, tools, assistance, resources, talents) Collaborative, which would be managed by OCUW.
They had three main goals for START:
1. To ensure no duplication of services
2. To promote efficiency
3. To connect all local sectors that are offering human services (e.g., nonprofits, schools, hospitals, government entities, businesses)
Their first step was hiring a START Navigator, someone who could effectively bring the right community partners together on a regular basis and work directly with vulnerable residents who need assistance. According to Kim, this is a vital piece of emergency preparedness, as “40% of our county is in the Alice (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) population.” And while there are lots of great organizations providing assistance in the area, it isn’t always obvious where someone should go for the support they need. The key, they realized, was creating coordination.
That’s where START came in, bringing together nearly 40 organizations to clarify their roles in emergency planning and keep every partner informed. That opened capacity for everyone, as there was no more duplicating of services or confusion around who was working on what.
In early 2024, START conducted a resident survey to collect input on the community’s needs, while monthly meetings between the partners were reinvigorated by START’s leadership to provide insights into upcoming plans and unexpected, real-time challenges. “Now,” Kim says, “we know where to send people for the resources they need.” This was a huge improvement, she says, because “if you’ve not had to navigate those services, you don’t know how hard it can be.” It felt like things were moving in the right direction, and in March 2025 when a historic ice storm hit northern Michigan, “we saw the fruits of our labor,” Kim says.
The storm hit 12 counties in the area, including Otsego, and START was prepared to make a difference. “We were able to spring into action within a day,” Dana says. “We had processes in place and we had very clear roles about who was doing what.” That response was not only incredibly effective and an enormous improvement over the community’s tornado response, it was also unique. Says Dana, “We were receiving daily calls from surrounding counties seeking advice on how to respond to the disaster,” and START received public recognition from the region for their collaborative, seamless response.
Although you never wish a disaster on your community, Dana says “it’s a pretty special feeling when your community is in despair and you are working alongside people to make a difference.”
START’s work is far from over. When the tornado struck, OCF was in the midst of the Way Forward campaign, a fundraising effort to enhance their grantmaking abilities. Thanks to the success of that campaign, OCF now had a framework for awarding multi-year grants to partners that could address local needs and leverage funds from outside the community. OCF saw that START hit each of these marks and – after providing their initial seed grant – has “made a financial commitment for the next three years to help sustain and grow the program,” Dana says. OCUW has also committed funds for the next three years, and the next phase is focused on making it easier than ever for residents to find and access community services and resources.
“We’re really making a powerful impact on the community becoming more connected and resilient,” Kim says. “No one has to navigate these challenges alone, whether it’s the providers, the clients, or the donors. I think that it’s really moving the needle.”
One major accomplishment of the START Collaborative is the creation of Find It Otsego a website that brings critical community resources together in one easy‑to‑use place, helping residents and service providers connect more effectively. Explore this exciting new resource by clicking on the graphic below. Additionally, the OCUW just announced Beth Pittiglio will be serving as the START Coordinator.
“One of the first things Dana told me,” Kim says, “is ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’” With START in place, Otsego county is now better positioned than ever to move forward together.
Finding support shouldn’t be complicated. Find It Otsego brings critical community resources together in one easy‑to‑use place, helping residents and service providers connect more effectively. Learn more about this new platform by clicking the button below.