Madonna House a finalist for new website in nonprofit competition

Madonna House is in the running for a valuable new website from a Springfield company, but its fate rests in the public's hands.Online voting begins Monday in the LRS Web Solutions Big Website Makeover Contest for nonprofit organizations in central Illinois. The grand prize: a new website worth $10,000.

That's money Madonna House, a homeless women's shelter, could use toward programming rather than IT needs.

"Winning a new $10,000 website will allow us to use dollars we would normally allocate to our website for other programs at Madonna House and provide additional services to Quincy," Executive Director Barb Hicks said.

The charity provides shelter, food and clothing to homeless women with children or who are pregnant, as well as self-sufficiency services for them and for people who are at risk of homelessness.Madonna House announced last week it had been named as one of 10 finalists in the contest, which took nominations throughout September.Three other Quincy nonprofits -- Cornerstone Foundation for Families, Friends of the Castle and Jackson-Lincoln Swimming Complex -- were nominated for the contest.A full list of finalists has not been announced yet, but Tom McAllister, sales manager for LRS, who said he personally notified Madonna House it had advanced in the contest, said only Madonna House was selected as a finalist from Quincy.

The contest was open to any not-for-profit organization located in and serving a 26-county area in central Illinois, including Adams and Brown counties.Second prize in the contest is a social media package, including Facebook and Twitter pages, valued at $500. Third prize is an online photo gallery valued at $250.The grand-prize winner must receive the most onli! ne votes at lrs.com by midnight Oct. 30.