11 Minnesota Non-Profits Picked for Free Overnight Website Makeover

Sierra Bravo's F1 Overnight Website Challenge Coming March 1-2

MINNEAPOLIS, February 18, 2008 —

WHAT:

Eleven Minnesota non-profits will lose sleep while gaining a free professionally-designed and fully-developed website to further their mission at Sierra Bravo’s F1 Overnight Website Challenge presented by VISI, an event matching talented volunteer web pros with these non-profits:

WHO:

The Non-Profits

WHEN:

8:30 a.m. Saturday, March 1 to 1:00 p.m. Sunday, March 2 The 24-hour countdown starts when non-profits and web development teams meet to begin creating a new website, unburdened by budget constraints or long production timelines.

WHERE:

University of Minnesota Continuing Education and Conference Center St. Paul Campus, 1890 Buford Avenue

We reviewed applications and existing websites of 33 non-profits — and made some hard choices in selecting 11,” said Minnesota Council of Non-Profits” Communication Director Christine Durand, one of four selection judges. “After seeing where they’re all starting from I look forward to seeing them move their mission forward on the web.”

Other selection judges:

Robert Stephens, Founder, Geek Squad
Jan Finken, President, IQ Marketing
Patty Henderson, Interactive Director, Colle+McVoy

These same judges will judge the overnight website competition and award bragging rights to the winning team for its extraordinary online makeover. “These non-profits will get nearly 200 hours of professional web development services for the price of a good night’s sleep,” said Luke Bucklin, President of Sierra Bravo.

Non-profits and volunteer web pros will meet up Thursday evening at a pre-event gathering hosted by supporting sponsor New Horizons of Minnesota to discuss how non-profits can best utilize the time and talents of their dedicated team of eight volunteers.

New Horizons of Minnesota will donate free computer training to each participating non-profits. Presenting sponsor VISI will provide each of the participating non-profits one year of web hosting. In-kind sponsors include: Adobe, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chipotle, Peace Coffee, Red Bull.

Sierra Bravo Corporation is a custom software and web development company focused on helping organizations strengthen their business through technical solutions. Based in Bloomington, Minn., Sierra Bravo created the F1 Overnight Website Challenge to connect the nonprofit community with volunteer web professionals to help organizations work smarter on the web.

About VISI

VISI is Minnesota’s largest Internet hosting and connectivity provider and is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. VISI offers customized services in four key areas — Web hosting, colocation, connectivity and consulting. For more information, visit www.visi.com.

Media Contacts

Luke Bucklin
President
Office: (952) 948-1211 x 1011
Cell: (612) 282-1043
Email:

Mark Hurlburt
Director of Marketing
Office: (952) 948-1211 x 1018
Email:

Sierra Bravo has been a tremendous help with our tough programming projects. They supplemented our internal programming staff to help us meet tight project deadlines. We are often tasked with new and difficult projects, and Sierra Bravo is able to help us exceed client expectations.

Lori Homsher
Sheeran Direct Marketing, Vice President of IT

Case Study

Metro Meals on Wheels goes to F1 Overnight Website Challenge

Team Pollywog Stew has the makings of a perennial favorite at the F1 Challenge. Their first recipient has the makings to move their mission forward on the web. Read the whole case study.