.ORG, The Public Interest Registry, announced today that they have won a WebAward, for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development for the Technology Standard of Excellence. Additionally, the company is a finalist in the 2009 PR News NonProfit PR Awards for Marketing.

The WebAwards are organized by the Web Marketing Association, who sets out to recognize organizations for their outstanding website development. This year, more than 2,000 sites from 45 countries were adjudicated in 96 Industry categories. Entries were judged on design, copywriting, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation and use of technology.

.ORG, who was recently identified as the fastest growing gTLD (generic Top-Level Domain) for the first half of 2009, redesigned its corporate site to better reflect the brand, and its appeal to a broad and diverse community. “We redesigned the .ORG corporate website to not only reflect the brand values of trust and community, but also the innovative approaches we have taken on Internet security and advocacy,” said Alexa Raad, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, “and I am thrilled that the marketing community has recognized my team’s efforts with a stamp of excellence for our achievements.”

The NonProfit PR Awards is organized by PR News to honor the most talented communicators and teams in the nonprofit sector. This award recognizes campaigns that relay messages around critical public issues and project a positive image through innovative and creative programs. As a finalist for this award in the category of Marketing, PIR has been recognized for its marketing communication campaign for the Rollout of DNSSEC (DNS Security Extensions), which included promotion, education and awareness of the need for an upgraded Internet infrastructure with the implementation of DNSSEC.

“The issue of DNS has been around for over 15 years,” said Raad. “The challenge was how to communicate a very technical, yet critical issue to encourage wider support and adoption to the larger market. PIR is honored to be recognized by PR News for the success of this campaign.”