ABOUT US
THE FUND
The Ohio Valley Jaycees Charitable Fund is a donor-advised charitable fund administered by the Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley (CFOV), a grantmaking public charity dedicated to improving the lives of people in the Upper Ohio Valley.
Every spring, the fund’s board of advisors solicits and reviews grant applications from local charitable organizations and selects a grantee to be recommended to the CFOV for distribution. To be eligible for consideration, applicants must provide services in one or all of the following areas: Ohio and Marshall Counties in West Virginia and Belmont County in Ohio.
Grantees must be recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Service Code Section 501(c)(3) or classified as public charities under Code Section 509(a). Qualified charities include charitable, religious and educational organizations, school districts, public libraries and other government-affiliated organizations.
THE OHIO VALLEY JAYCEES
Founded in 1981, the Ohio Valley Jaycees were an official local member organization of Junior Chamber International (JCI), a global leadership development and community service organization for young people. With roots dating to 1915, JCI has over 200,000 members in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Affiliated with The United States Junior Chamber, and the West Virginia Jaycees, the group was consistently recognized as one of the largest and most successful chapters in the state of West Virginia, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honors from the national organization.
Throughout its 40-year history, the Ohio Valley Jaycees made a profoundly positive impact on the local community by raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthy charitable causes, logging countless volunteer hours, and helping to develop the leadership, management, and communication skills of its many members.
In 2021, after suffering from several years of declining membership, and the deleterious societal effects of the COVID pandemic, the remaining Jaycee members voted to disband the chapter. An advisory board of alumni, consisting primarily of past presidents, was then formed to determine how to proceed and the best way to distribute any assets.
The board elected to sell the meeting hall and its contents and establish a charitable fund to continue the chapter’s storied legacy of leadership and service.
Former Ohio Valley Jaycees Building
THE JAYCEE CREED
We Believe:
That faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life;
That the brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations;
That economic justice can best be won by free men through free enterprise;
That government should be of laws rather than of men;
That earth’s great treasure lies in human personality;
And that service to humanity is the best work of life.
