The Riding Centre
Website Rebuild Proposal

About Your Organization

The Website Has to Tell the Story

This is the piece most nonprofit websites get completely wrong — and it is the piece that determines whether someone donates, volunteers, registers their child, or clicks away in ten seconds. A website is not a brochure. It is not a list of programs and a phone number. It is your organization's story, told in the right order, to the right people, with a clear invitation to be part of it.

Every page in the rebuilt site is designed around this principle. Your therapeutic riding program page won't just list what the program is — it will show who it helps, what changes for them, and how a visitor can support it. The volunteer page won't just say "we need volunteers" — it will describe what it feels like to be one. The donate page won't just have a form — it will tell your donors exactly what their gift makes possible.

You have strong branding — a clear visual identity, real character, and colors worth showing off. Your current website reflects almost none of it. The rebuild brings that brand to life visually and verbally, so The Riding Centre feels as credible and compelling online as it is in person.

Current Site Audit

Your current Squarespace site functions in the most basic sense — it loads, it has pages, there is a donation link somewhere. But it is not doing the work your website needs to do in 2026. Here is a plain-language breakdown of what we found and what each issue is costing you.

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  No story — no flow — no hierarchy

  Your homepage opens with a photo and immediately drops visitors into a director retirement announcement. There is no hero moment, no mission statement front and center, no visual structure guiding the eye. A first-time visitor has no idea what your organization does within the first five seconds — and five seconds is all you get.
• ✕
  No meaningful calls to action

  Your donate prompt is inline text buried in the mission paragraph. There is no primary CTA button above the fold, no "Register for Lessons" button, no "Become a Volunteer" prompt. Your 5K, your shop, your camps — all hidden. Visitors who want to take action have nowhere obvious to go, and most won't look hard.
• ✕
  Your donation experience is an afterthought

  There is no dedicated donation page, no suggested giving amounts, no impact framing ("Your $50 funds two therapeutic riding sessions"), and no recurring giving option featured anywhere. This is the single largest missed revenue opportunity on your site. Donors who might give $250 give $25 — or give nothing — because the experience doesn't guide them.
• ✕
  Mobile experience is broken in feel if not in function

  Squarespace provides baseline responsiveness but your content hierarchy collapses poorly on mobile — long text blocks, no thumb-friendly CTAs, heavy navigation. The majority of people who visit any website today are on their phones. If it doesn't work beautifully on a phone, it doesn't work.
• ✕
  Your therapeutic riding program is essentially invisible

  Your most fundable, most emotionally compelling program gets a single nav item and a basic text page. No participant stories, no photos of the program in action, no explanation of who it helps or what it changes for them. Grant reviewers looking specifically to fund therapeutic riding programs won't find what they need to say yes.
• ✕
  Zero impact storytelling anywhere on the site

  Donors give to stories, not organizations. Your current site has no participant stories, no statistics about lives touched, no video, no testimonials. The most powerful fundraising asset a nonprofit has — the human transformation narrative — is completely absent from every page of your site.
• ✕
  Your Facebook presence has been lost

  With your original Facebook page taken down, there is a broken gap between your website and social media. A missing or disconnected social presence signals inactivity to potential donors and supporters who check before giving. It needs to be rebuilt — and properly connected to your new site — so both work together.
• !
  Navigation is over-structured for its actual content

  You have seven top-level nav items with multiple dropdowns for a site that fundamentally needs visitors to do one of three things: donate, register, or volunteer. This creates decision fatigue before anyone finds what they need. The rebuild simplifies your navigation around those three goals.
• !
  You are invisible in local search

  Your site has no page-level title tags optimized for search, no local SEO signals for "therapeutic riding Yellow Springs Ohio" or "horse lessons Greene County Ohio," and no ongoing content to build search authority. People in your own area searching for exactly what you offer are finding other organizations instead.
• !
  Squarespace is limiting what's possible

  Squarespace is a reasonable starting point but it charges transaction fees on donations, provides no path to true platform ownership, and can't flex to meet your real needs around registration, donation integration, and content management. Moving to WordPress removes all of those constraints — and puts you in full control.
• !
  Your sponsor and donor recognition is buried

  Wagner Subaru and your full list of foundation supporters are acknowledged in plain text near the bottom of the homepage. No logo grid, no dedicated sponsor page, no tiered recognition system. Your sponsors need to feel valued — and prospective sponsors need to see that being visible here is real and worthwhile.

Competitive Comparisons

These are organizations doing the same work you do — therapeutic and community equestrian nonprofits — with websites that actually serve their mission. You referenced Dreams on Horseback and Hope Meadows yourself, and they are excellent examples. We have added four more. This is the standard the market has set, and where your website belongs.

What I Build

This is not a refresh or a template swap. It is a strategic rebuild from the ground up on WordPress with Elementor — designed around your mission, built to raise money, and structured so your staff can update it without breaking anything.

Measurable Goals

These are the specific, trackable outcomes that prove this investment is working. Setting them now — before I start — is how I keep myself accountable to you, measure real change, and demonstrate the value of continued work together. Each is measurable within 90–180 days of your new site going live.

Market Rates & My Pricing

Here is what the market says a project like this costs — so when you see my numbers, you understand exactly what you're getting and what I'm offering.

Since I know budget is a real consideration, I'm offering two flexible ways to work together — same deliverables, same quality, different cash flow:

Optional Add-Ons — Available Under Either Option

Next Steps & What to Look For

I know a decision like this — especially one that will likely go to the board for approval — deserves more than a proposal document. I'm happy to walk you through everything in person, answer any questions, and give you whatever you need to present this confidently. Here's how I'd suggest thinking about next steps, and what to look for if you're evaluating other options alongside this one.

If you're evaluating other providers — what to look for

Whether you move forward with me or explore other options, here is what any qualified candidate should be able to offer. This is your checklist:

• ✓
  A portfolio of nonprofit or mission-driven website work

  Ask to see examples. Nonprofit websites have specific needs — donation flows, volunteer funnels, program storytelling — that are different from general business sites. Make sure they've done this before.
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  Clear ownership terms — you should own your site and domain

  Make sure you retain full ownership of the WordPress installation, your domain, and all content. You should never be locked into a provider who holds your site hostage if the relationship ends.
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  Transparent pricing — no hidden platform fees or transaction costs

  Ask specifically about donation processing fees, platform transaction percentages, and what happens to your annual costs after the build is complete. Squarespace and some hosted builders layer fees on top of what you pay the developer.
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  A plan for content — not just design

  A beautiful website with placeholder content doesn't raise money. Make sure whoever you work with is thinking about what the site says, not just how it looks. Your story needs to be told in words and images, not just layout.
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  Post-launch support — what happens after the site goes live

  Websites require ongoing maintenance — security updates, plugin compatibility, backups, content changes. Ask what ongoing support looks like and what it costs. A site that launches and then gets no attention will start to degrade within months.
• ✓
  Mobile-first and accessibility-aware design

  Ask specifically whether the site is built mobile-first and whether basic accessibility standards (WCAG) are considered in the build. For a therapeutic riding organization serving people with disabilities, this isn't just good practice — it's the right thing to do.