When Jeff Vinik bought the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2010, he wanted to connect with his new community. Born in New Jersey, he had lived most of his adult life in Massachusetts, not Florida, and as an owner, Mr. Vinik said he believed that helping the local community was not just the right thing to do but would also be helpful to his team.

Mr. Vinik pledged to give $10 million to local charities, but instead of picking the recipients, he asked fans to help him. To do that, he set up the Lightning Community Hero program. Three times a year, fans nominate hundreds of local good Samaritans. A committee of community leaders then selects a hero for each of the National Hockey League team’s 41 home regular season games. Each hero decides which group or groups should receive a $50,000 donation from the team, is invited to a game to meet Mr. Vinik and is honored with a video tribute on the scoreboard.

“We knew we wanted to make an impact in the community, and now,” Mr. Vinik said. “Our formula is to invest in the area and team and community with money and hearts and put a culture together.”

Over the last four seasons, the program has chosen 180 heroes, and $9.1 million has been given to 350 nonprofit organizations, including soup kitchens, groups that help veterans and fallen police officers, and educational organizations.