UPDATE: The pro-bono contest has ended. All links in this post have been removed.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been teasing everyone on Facebook with a “mystery” project that I said is going to be BIG.
Well, the time has come to reveal it: We’re going to give a website away.
Well actually, we’re giving away more than just a website – we’re going to pretty much take a non-profit in the area under our wing and help them use the power of the Internet to get to the next level.
Why are we doing this?
In a nutshell, it feels good to give back, and we’re due.
Don’t get me wrong.. we do regularly make small donations to different causes, usually anonymously, and I’ve been known to swing a hammer for Habitat for Humanity once in a while, but it’s been a while since we did something big for a non-profit in the community.
How big is big? Well, the last time we did something I would consider “big” was when we partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Lakeland and Mulberry to start a program called “Computers for kids.” We went out and convinced some local companies to donate used computers to the Boys & Girls Club. For our part, MosierData removed all the data from the systems and completely refurbished them for free. We were able to get local companies to donate nearly 20 computers, and even got Microsoft to donate licensing for Windows. It was a great success, and I will never forget the way the kid’s faces lit up when they were given a computer to take home.
Then and now..
Since then we’ve stopped messing around with computers and operating systems (even for Friends and family!) and focused exclusively on our web work. That focus has paid off – we grew about 20% in 2011 and so far this year we’re on track to do even better.
That’s why this time, I want what we do to make an even bigger impact.
The problem is – We don’t really have a non-profit to support at this time. So we’re making a call out. For clarity, we’re looking for an actual 501(c)3. Sorry, you won’t qualify if you’re a for-profit company that simply isn’t making a profit (although we’ve been there and feel your pain).
We’ve named this effort our 2012 Pro-Bono outreach, and full details are available here: https://mosierdata.com/pro-bono/
We’re including almost every service we offer – valued at around $6,400 in total.
If you visit the link and look what is included, you can’t help but be impressed. When we were researching this, a lot of the giveaways we found had a lot of exclusions like stock photos or content writing – we’re including all of that and more.
In fact, the only thing we are not including (but will help you procure if needed) are your domain name, web hosting and email newsletter service. And no, we’re not going to force you to use (or even try and sell you) our services for any of those either.
I know the one question everyone has is “How will you choose the winner?” That’s simple, we’re going to review the consideration packages that are submitted (see the official contest page for explanation of what that is) and the non-profit that inspires us the most, that we feel is the best candidate, will win. We’ll make that decision on June 8th.
So the bottom line is this.. If you know an organization that could use a complete transformation online, send them this link. If you are the leader of such an organization, I invite you to register here and put your best foot forward. And to all of you who enter, GOOD LUCK!