Element Fusion was recognized as a finalist at the 2009 Beacon Awards dinner last night. The Beacon Awards, presented by local business newspaper, The Journal Record, are designed to "recognize and honor the businesses that offer so much support to nonprofits throughout Oklahoma."

Element Fusion was recognized for our website giveaway program, implemented last year, which recognized the efforts of several Oklahoma-based non-profits and culminated in the donation of a website to Justin Sullivan, ALWF at the end of 2008. In addition, our donation of a website to the Oklahoma Chapter of the Make a Wish Foundation last year was also recognized.

The Beacon Awards recognizes businesses in two main categories — large businesses over 100 employees and small to mid-sized businesses under 100 employees. Out of 23 total finalists, only 7 were in the small to mid-sized business category, where Element Fusion was naturally listed. We appreciate the Journal Record including a category for smaller businesses. Though smaller businesses may have smaller contributions when compared to large corporations, we believe that there is a great deal of power in every small business contributing as they are able.

Thanks to the Journal Record for this honor and we look forward to continuing our website giveaway program in the future.

Perhaps you recall the first installment of Element Fusion's Website Giveaway, held last fall. Through a process of nominations and public voting, Justin Sullivan, A Life Worth Following was selected as the non-profit organization to receive our donation of a free website design and one year of free hosting on our CMS system.

Over the past several months we've been meeting with ALWF and working with them on creating their design and getting their content loaded onto their site through the CMS. Along the way, they've also established a presence on Facebook and on Twitter (I have to say that their Twitter name of @worthfollowing might just be one of the best Twitter names ever).

Now the wait is over and the site is launched. You can check it out at alifeworthfollowing.org. Of course, we've also posted a few images below so you can see the new home page design and what it looked like before. As you look around the site, keep in mind that while the design created by our team, the content was actually added by the leaders of ALWF themselves. By integrating their site onto our CMS, we gave them the ability to create and manage their site's content themselves, making it much easier for them to keep things current and fresh.

A Life Worth Following (visit the new site)

The old site

The partnership

Here's a pic from last year, the first time the leadership of ALWF visited the EF offices. From left to right: Travis Lovins, Internet Consultant for Element Fusion; Chris Wall, Director for Justin Sullivan, ALWF; Adrian Savedra, Coach for the ALWF Ambassadors baseball team; and Tim Wall, Product Marketing Director for Element Fusion.