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“Each year we choose a not-for-profit organization in need of Web-related services for the Astek Web Grant.”
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GIVING BACK
While Astek regularly provides discounted rates to not-for-profit projects, in 2006 we began more officially paying forward the success our clients have shared with us to our local and global communities. Each year the Astek Web Grant is given to an especially worthwhile or in-need not-for-profit organization or artistic effort, which receives a full-scale website design, implementation, and/or hosting.
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2011 Promethean Theatre Ensemble - Chicago, IL
Our 2011 Web Grant recipient is Promethean Theatre Ensemble, a local theatre company which collaborates to create theatre that fuses simplicity of design with intelligent, passionate storytelling. Andy has been involved with Promethean since 2007, taking the reins as Board President in 2009. We collaborated with VinDesign and Linda Cassady to design and develop a new website for Promethean which emphasizes upcoming productions & events, enables easy photo & video-sharing, integrates with social media for easy sharing, keeps audiences updated with the latest developments, and makes ticket buying simple as ever.
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2010 We The People Media / Residents' Journal - Chicago, IL
We The People Media is a not-for-profit organization that trains low-income people to produce their own media and challenge stereotypes of poor families. They asked Astek to help them design a better Web platform for their national-award-winning publication, Residents' Journal. Astek updated the website design and converted the current content to a new Wordpress database. After training the staff to update and edit the site through Wordpress, we launched the new site, which has since received many accolades. We The People Media's Residents' Journal is now an online publication that reaches even more people throughout Chicago and the world.
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2009 137 Films, The Atom Smashers - Chicago, IL
137 Films creates documentary films out of the stories found in the world of
science and strives to entertain, educate, and inform by exploring how
science's search for answers impacts our cultural, political, and
personal lives. Andy joined the 137 Films Board of Directors in 2007. The Atom Smashers premiered on PBS as part of the Independent Lens series, but needed a custom-tailored website to promote the film in other channels. Astek worked with 137 to build this website, which successfully broadened the reach of the film. 137 is currently working on a film about cold fusion called, The Believers.
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2008 Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP) - Chicago, IL
CHRP is an example of an organization that had focused so much on its core mission of tap and other body rhythm dance performances that it lacked a solid brand to tie them together and inform people what organization was responsible for these great performances. Astek worked closely with Vin Design to create a new brand statement, logo, color scheme, and website. To save ongoing maintenance costs, CHRP uses Webany, Astek’s content management system, to manage all web site content as needed. Read more about Astek's work with CHRP.
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2007 Sand and Sorrow Documentary - Darfur, Sudan
For our inaugural effort, Astek partnered with designer Becky Rule to create the pro bono website, SandAndSorrow.org, for the documentary of the same name from Peabody-winning director Paul Freedman about the crisis in Darfur, which was narrated by George Clooney. The site met with much success and provided the level of artistry and professional demeanor needed for this extraordinary effort in globally relevant film-making, helping it land a distribution deal with HBO, which continues to make this important message available worldwide.
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Ongoing
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Each year Astek donates a portion of our profits to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a highly efficient
international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. MSF operates independently of any political, military, or religious agendas and provides aid in more than 60
countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need.
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Since 2006 Astek proudly continues our Platinum sponsorship of CoreNet Global Chicago Chapter, a commercial real estate professional association. |
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