These are the ideas that led to the creation of 48in48.
Centered around a 48-hour hackathon-style events: 48in48 connects local nonprofits and skilled marketing and technology professionals. At the end of these 48 hours, 48 local nonprofits have new, professional, websites.
The nonprofits get not only a website, but also, a fresh marketing strategy. Before the main event, each nonprofit takes part in 6-10 weeks of marketing, branding, and impact training.
Nonprofits continue to focus on what they do best: serving the local community. With a boost from skilled professionals, these nonprofits increase their impact and reach via professional websites and marketing plans.
Our organization is national, but our impact is local. In each city, local community leaders take part in our organizing committee, and local volunteers take part in developing the website and marketing strategy.
The History Behind the Event
Inaugural Event: We gave $1,200,000 of value to nonprofits over 48 hours.
Our inaugural event was held in October of 2015 at General Assembly in Ponce City Market, Atlanta, GA. 48 customized websites for 48 nonprofits were built within 48 hours. To do this, we rallied over 150 digital marketing professionals. Two developers and one designer were assigned to build each of the 48 websites, with several other UX designers, content writers, and other digital professionals pitching in across multiple projects. At the end of the event, each of the 48 nonprofits was given all of the files for their new site and were directed to the next steps toward getting it live.
Our Founders
Jeff Hilimire of Dragon Army loves to work with nonprofits and give back to the community. During his time leading large digital agencies, he tried to instill his passion for helping nonprofits with his employees, but it bothered him that these highly skilled professionals were not able to use their skills in volunteering. So, Jeff started Match Atlanta with this goal in mind, and 48in48 was a natural next step.
Adam Walker of Sideways8 has started two nonprofits in the past and is passionate about helping nonprofits grow. His company has done a lot of work building websites for nonprofits, so joining 48in48 was a good fit.