Overnight Website Challenge gives people ‘faith & hope that there’s still good in society’
When Todd Hinz, a board member of Friends of Fort Snelling, first heard about the Overnight Website Challenge he immediately thought about what a golden opportunity this could be for his organization.
“Offers like this don’t come along every day, so I knew we had to hop on it as soon as I read about the contest in MinnPost.org,” Hinz said. So even though there was a little trepidation on the Friends’ part, because Hinz was so new to the board, they still jumped into the Challenge headfirst.
Hinz said he thought their chances for being selected as one of the twelve nonprofits who get a website in 24 hours was slim to none. “We figured there would be a lot of great organizations with wonderful causes applying, but our attitude was ‘what do we have to lose?’”
“The original site was a great effort by one of our volunteers and it helped immeasurably to get a presence on the web,” he said. But the original site lacked a cohesive design and many features people expect to find on modern websites, RSS feeds, online registration, and an activities list.
So with those needs in mind, Hinz and the Friends of Fort Snelling were hooked up with Team Inetium on the day of the webchallenge who created a new website for the Friends.
After:
The entire organization is very proud of and excited by the new site, Hinz said, and he’s been pleasantly surprised by Team Inetium’s dedication.
“Even after the contest was over, our team went above and beyond the call of duty to finish details on the site and train us on how to use it,” he said. “They also built us a back-end database to keep track of membership details and donations.”
Hinz chalks up the whole experience as a success. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It was a blast! The contest is a unique way to build a website and have a great time doing it.
“Seriously, what a cool way to not only help nonprofits in need, but give web designers the opportunity to give back to the community,” Hinz said. “This whole project gives a lot of people faith and hope that there is still good in society.”
