Dot.Org awards

by Mary Turck, 3/27/08 • What do wolves and fluorescent lights have in common? Ask the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, which awarded four Dot.Org awards at the March 27 Nonprofit Technology and Communications Conference, Message+Medium+Mission. (Full disclosoure: the TC Daily Planet was one of the winners of last year's inaugural Dot.Org awards.) All of the links are live, so click and visit the winners, listed below: International Wolf Center – the Complete Pack award, for its "sheer volume of Web tools, uses, and fun ways to engage online." The award says, "There is a whole section for kids, with games to teach about wolves, fun facts, along with a place for educators to find tools for the classroom. There is also a place where you can watch a live Webcam and see the wolves in their habitat. They have a robust wolf store to purchase all kinds of International Wolf Center gear, and tons of information about wolves and their habitat." KFAI – Wisdom of Volunteers award, for a website with content that is volunteer-generated and volunteer-posted, and news programming that is done by volunteers. Minnesota Energy Challenge – Bright Idea award, for a highly interactive website that "asks users to sign up, take a pledge on how much energy they can save. Users can be individuals or businesses." MCN's awards narrative continues, "Once they have signed up, they can team up – by neighborhood, by businesses, by any type of group, and the site tracks which team is saving the most energy, the average energy saved per user in the team, etc. The is a great use of the Web to link various people around the issue." New Tactics – The Think Global, Act Global award goes to the Center for Victims of Torture for a website that shares information about human rights, The award says that the New Tactics Web site "uses the Web in a fabulous way to cross all barriers and boundaries ... Some significant sections of the site are translated into multiple languages, the site contains groups, forums, directories and user-generated information to bring people together on this issue." Among the criteria for the Dot.Org awards: • accepting donations and selling things on the website • involve your board and volunteers with the website • inviting people to interact on-line • building community through your website by providing ways for people to connect with one another. This year's semi-finalists include: Are you Okay with that? from Clearway Minnesota Caring Bridge Free Arts Minnesota.org Minnesota Fringe Festival Learn More MN Minnesota Citizens for the Arts Minnesota 2020 Nonprofits Assistance Fund Planned Parenthood Advocate Rneighbors Scleroderma Network TV by Girls Wilderness Inquiry Windustry