Many charities put so much time and effort into helping others that their website falls by the wayside. Maybe a charity's website is stuck in the '90s, complete with animations and autoplaying tinny music. Maybe it was made by someone's friend's son who's taken one class in web design (and it shows). Or maybe a charity's website is just really, really ugly.

Local digital agency rtraction wants to help. Through their second annual Canada's Worst Charity Website contest, they're seeking nominations for charities across the country (excluding Quebec). "We want to help charities engage with their supporters more effectively and become more known in their community," said Chad Alberico, rtraction's public relations intern.

While some charities may balk at being deemed as having the worst website in the country, rtraction is first and foremost holding the contest to help. "We're not there to laugh at them or anything like that; we really are there to help, because that's what rtraction is all about: we like to help people engage with their audiences."

During the nomination period between February 12 and March 12, Canadians can head to worstcharitywebsite.ca to nominate the charity they think has the worst website. From there, the rtraction team contacts each organization. "We're not calling them up and saying, 'Hey, you could be one of the worst websites! Congratulations!'" Alberico said with a chuckle. "We confirm they're registered charities, and we also confirm that they're interested in taking part."

Next, a panel of rtraction judges chooses the top 12 websites based on criteria including design, copywriting, social media presence, browser support and age of existing site. The team's top picks will be posted on the CWCW website for people to vote on between March 19 and April 2. The winning site will be announced on April 3.

The winning charity will receive $20,000 in services from the rtraction team. "The $20,000 in web design is really going to go a long way to help people communicate more effectively with their supporters, their potential supporters, even the media," said Alberico. "We're really looking to have the most impact on a charity that we can with that $20,000." In addition to web services, the charity will also receive training from rtraction in order to use their new site most effectively.

This prize is part of the annual $100,000 worth of web design rtraction gives each year to charities, non-profits and community organizations as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. "It's really a major initiative for us and it's something we really believe in," Alberico said.

This is the second year rtraction is running the CWCW contest. "We were really happy with the results (last year). We ended up with 140 separate individual charities nominated. It was a huge number for the first year," said Alberico. "People really responded well to the idea."

Last year's CWCW winner, Stratford House of Blessing, received over 8,000 votes, thanks in part to being tweeted about by Justin Bieber's mom, Pattie Mallette. "It shows the power of social media in that if you get the right people to support your charity — even charities in small communities like Stratford — you have a chance to win. It doesn't matter where you're from, it's how effectively you engage with your supporters to get the vote out."

This year's CWCW contest site includes a screenshot of what the Stratford House of Blessing website looked like before winning the contest — a bland pink and yellow page — and after — a sleek and welldesigned site that clearly shows what the charity does. "It's been hard work but the process was made easier by the staff at rtraction, who have been very kind, patient and supportive. We feel very blessed for this opportunity," said Theresa McMurray, executive director of Stratford House of Blessing. Rebuilding an ugly website is no quick or simple task; Stratford House won the contest in March 2012 and the site went live at the beginning of January this year. "It's a huge development process that the site goes through because it's not only the design of the site, it's making sure that it works on multiple platforms, in multiple browsers," Alberico said. "It's quite an involved process."

To nominate what you think may be Canada's worst charity website, head to worstcharitywebsite.ca. Don't forget to check back after March 19 to vote for the winner!