For the second consecutive year, BT plc and Metropolitan Life Insurance are among the winners of the corporate website Hallmark Awards.

Developed by CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) the Gold and Silver Awards recognise companies which excel in demonstrating their corporate community involvement through their websites.

This year's Gold Award winners include Ben & Jerry's, Boeing, BT plc, Cable & Wireless, Metropolitan Life Insurance and Hewlett-Packard with Silver Awards going to BellSouth Corp, Cisco Systems, Compaq, Intel, LloydsTSB and Verizon Communications.

According to Celeste Strentz, Corporate Researcher with CAF: "All companies actively reporting their CCI activities online are to be congratulated. Through the Hallmark Awards, however, we aim to reward those organisations who have clearly considered their audiences and how they might help them, and applied their expertise in creating a best practice benchmark for others."

The judging for this year's awards was conducted by members of CAF's Corporate Services team who assessed all sites on www.CCInet.org against a number of specific criteria including -

· design: its attractiveness, ease of navigation and concern for disabled readers
· content: use of links to other funding sources and the inclusion of relevant, up-to-date information such as mission statements, grant guidelines and funding preferences
· technology: online grant application forms, easy print options and email contacts
· special features: for example a searchable database for a breakdown of community activities

While organisations increasingly use technology to communicate with their stakeholders, Celeste commented: "A number of basic errors are still being made, particularly that too much attention is being paid to design and too little to content. But through the Hallmark Awards, we look forward to seeing standards overall continuing to improve."

Charities Aid Foundation

Charities Aid Foundation

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