contributed photo CIRSI employees celebrate the news they won a $30,000 technology office makeover in the Make My Non-Profit Run Better contest on Thursday.

Central Iowa Residential Services Inc. – CIRSI – on Thursday was named the big winner of the 2019 Make My Non-Profit Run Better contest.

The contest, put on every year by Premier, focuses on non-profit organizations in specific areas of Iowa and Illinois. This year, Premier chose to hold the contest in Central Iowa, covering the counties of Marshall, Black Hawk, Clarke, Dallas, Davis, Decatur, Grundy, Hardin, Jasper, Lucas, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Polk, Poweshiek, Story, Tama, Union, Wapello, Warren, Wayne and Webster.

Premier made a surprise appearance at CIRSI and let them know they had won a $30,000 office technology makeover.

Executive director Jeff Vance said it was a wonderful and unexpected surprise.

“We had no way to gage how we were doing in the contest,” Vance said. “We had no way to measure how we compared to other contestants. We were up against the Ronald McDonald House.”

There were 47 other initial entries in the contest which was conducted through online voting which began Sept. 13. That voting lasted until Sept. 19 and knocked the 49 entries down to 10 finalists. Then a second round of voting on the finalists ran from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3.

Sarah Larson, public relations for the contest, said she was happy CIRSI was the big winner.

“It was so thrilling to be there in the room with them and see the excitement,” Larson said. “Non-profits have great causes and this is a way to bring awareness to those causes.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611

or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.