We do not just build association websites. We build them, we host them, we update them, and we stay with the association through every board change, secretary change, and busy show season. Many of our association clients have been with us for way over a decade.
Why Association Websites Are Different (and Why That Matters)
A horse association is not a small business. It is a member-driven nonprofit with bylaws, a board, sponsors, an annual show calendar, a fee structure, a sanctioning relationship with national bodies, and a secretary who is often a volunteer working part-time hours doing a full-time job.
A website for an association has to do many things at once:
Members
Serve members who are looking for show dates, results, and benefits.
Potential Members
Serve potential members who are deciding whether to join.
Sponsors
Serve sponsors who are paying real money and expect real value.
Secretary
Serve the secretary who has to keep everything current and field questions every week.
Board
Serve the board who needs to see the website reflect their direction.
Youth Members
Serve youth members and their parents, who have specific needs and longer-term plans.
Most web design firms treat an association the same way they would treat a small retail business. We do not. We build association websites around how they actually work in running an association, because we have spent decades inside that workflow.
What We Build for Associations
Every association is different, but most of our association builds include some or all of the following. We configure the specific mix based on your bylaws, your committees, your show calendar, and what your members actually need.
For Your Members
- Online membership applications and renewals with integrated payment
- Online show entry forms with online entry payment
- Show results, standings, year-end points, and earnings tracking
- Hall of Fame and award winner archives
- Newsletter signup forms
- Photo galleries from shows and events
- Youth program pages with separate registration flows where needed
- Optional: member directory for trainers, judges, or paying member tiers, managed for security and to prevent spam scraping
- Optional: member-only content, common uses include historical results, association documents, or members-only resources
For Your Sponsors (Real Value, Not Just a Thank-You)
Your sponsors are not donors. They are partners who are writing real checks and expect real value for what they put in. A website that buries sponsors on a single “Thank You” page is one of the fastest ways to lose them at renewal time.
Our association sites give sponsors visibility across the entire site, year after year, so renewing their sponsorship feels like an obvious yes for them and a reliable revenue line for the association.
- Scrolling sponsor banner that appears on every page of the site
- Sponsor recognition pages with description, links, logo placement and tier visibility
- Sponsor-of-the-event callouts on individual event pages
- Year-over-year sponsor placement that builds renewal equity
- Sponsor logos displayed where members and visitors actually look, not buried in a corner
For Your Secretary (The Hardest Job in the Association)
The secretary is the hardest role to fill in any horse association. Many secretaries are volunteers, or working part-time hours doing full-time work, juggling event entries, results, member questions, board requests, sponsor coordination, and a thousand other things every week.
A website that fights the secretary at every turn drives good people out. A website that makes their life easier keeps them. A happy secretary makes for a happy association.
- A simple back-end built around the specific items your secretary actually needs to manage
- Unlimited content updates handled by our team through the 24-hour update guarantee
- Show calendar updates that propagate everywhere the calendar appears on the site
- Show entry processing, draws, confirmation, and results
- Training and walkthrough when a new secretary takes over
- Optional: SiteGuide answers the repetitive member questions for you, so they never hit the secretary's inbox in the first place
For Your Board
- Board of directors pages with photos, bios, and committee assignments
- Meeting minutes and bylaws sections
- Optional: board-only or member-only areas for document content (add-on, used by some associations)
For Your Auction (If You Run One)
- Optional integration with our stallion auction platform, used to raise more than $8.7 million for horse associations since 2020
- Branded auction site that visually matches your association site
- Auction reporting that flows back to your treasurer
Associations We Have Built Websites For
We have built websites for more than 50 horse associations, including breed associations, discipline associations, performance associations, youth associations, and regional and state associations.
A partial list of associations we have built or currently maintain websites for:
If your association is not on this list, that does not mean we cannot help you. It means we have not worked with you yet.
How We Work With Associations
1. Discovery
A 30-minute conversation about your association, usually with whoever is leading the search, often a board member or your secretary.
We ask how you run things now, what the board wants the new site to do, and what your secretary wants it to stop doing. Most of the time you will have a quote before we hang up.
2. Build
We build your site knowing how you work. Show calendars, membership and entry payments, results and points tracking, sponsor placement, and any optional features your association needs.
Every association is configured for the way it actually operates.
3. Migration
If you have an existing site with members, results, and historical data, we migrate the content into your new Big Sky site.
Old show results, member archives, photo galleries, sponsor histories, and Hall of Fame entries come with you. Nothing has to be retyped.
4. Launch and Train
We launch your new site and walk your secretary through the specific show items they will manage day to day.
Most secretaries we work with can run their show-specific tools comfortably after one training session because the back end is built around how they work. For everything else, our team handles it under the 24-hour update guarantee.
5. Ongoing Support
Once your site is live, you have our 24-hour update guarantee. Send updates to Debbie and our team and most are live the same day.
When your board changes, the work continues without interruption. When your secretary changes, we train the new secretary. We stay with the association through every transition.
Built by People Who Have Been Around Associations Their Whole Lives
Tom Bruch holds a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Science and has trained, bred, shown, judged, and stood stallions throughout his career. His wife Carrie served on the National Youth Cutting Horse Association board for many years. Their daughter Jessica was NYCHA secretary. Both of Tom and Carrie's children showed extensively in NYCHA and earned scholarships through the association.
We have built websites for some of the most prestigious associations in the horse industry. We have also sat on the other side of the table as members, as board members, as parents of competing kids, and as sponsors. That dual perspective shows up in every association website we build.
“When you call Big Sky and say ‘we run an association,' you are not explaining things like points systems, year-end awards, or the way a sponsor expects to be recognized. We already know.” — Tom Bruch
Running a Stallion Service Auction Too?
Several of our association clients run an annual stallion service auction as their main fundraising event. We have built the only stallion auction platform designed specifically for horse associations, and it integrates directly into your association website. Same brand, same look, same admin team, with all of the auction reporting flowing back to your treasurer.
Drowning in Member Questions?
Every association fields the same questions over and over. When is the next show? How do I renew my membership? Where are the year-end standings? SiteGuide answers them instantly, right on your website, using only your association's own information. It takes the repetitive questions off your secretary's plate, and a single sponsor can underwrite the whole thing in exchange for their banner, placement in relevant answers, and full reporting on every time it is shown.
Backed by the 3-Way Guarantee
28-day money-back. 24-hour updates. 100% transparent pricing. No one else in horse website design offers this.
How Pricing Works
Every association website we build is different, so the final price depends on what is needed. There is too much that varies. A small regional association with a few shows and an event calendar is a different build from a national association with member-only content, point standings, and an annual auction.
What we will tell you up front:
- Association websites at Big Sky typically start at $3,500 and scale up based on functionality.
- We give you a fixed quote before any work begins. The price we quote is the price you pay. Read the full 3-Way Guarantee.
- Hosting and unlimited updates are a flat monthly or annual fee. We do not charge per update.
- We do not take a percentage of membership dues, event entries, sponsorship revenue, or auction proceeds. Ever.
The first step is a 30-minute conversation about your association. We will tell you what we would build, what it would cost, and how long it would take.
Common Questions About Association Websites
Do you take over our existing website?
No. Every Big Sky association site is built on our server, on our hosting infrastructure, with Cloudflare Enterprise security. We require that for the uptime, security, and email deliverability we need to guarantee for our clients. We migrate your existing content (members, results, history, photos, sponsor records) into the new site. You do not lose anything important. You gain a platform we can actually stand behind.
What about having a board member or volunteer build the association website on Wix or another DIY platform?
We have seen this play out many times. A board member offers to save the association money by building the site on a DIY platform. Six months in, they get burned out or busy and step away. The association is stuck with a half-finished site that nobody else knows how to update, no online entries, no support, and often no backup. We have had to rescue association sites that started this way, including one recently where we pulled the site back from a backup because the volunteer left without leaving any login information behind. DIY platforms work for personal blogs. They do not work for an association.
Will our member data and historical records come with us?
Yes. Member archives, past show results, Hall of Fame entries, photo galleries, sponsor histories, and newsletter back issues all migrate into the new site. Nothing gets retyped.
How do you handle online payment for dues, entries, and sponsorships?
We integrate with Stripe most often, but also PayPal and Authorize.net depending on what your association prefers. All payment processing happens off your website on secure, PCI-compliant systems. Your website never stores or touches a credit card number, which protects you, your members, and your sponsors. Funds deposit directly into your association's bank account.
What if our board changes mid-project, or our secretary leaves?
That is normal in association life and it does not disrupt the work. We work with your designated point of contact at any given time, and when leadership changes we train the new people.
Can our secretary actually run this site, or do we need a webmaster?
Big Sky is your webmaster. All website changes go through our team, covered by our 24-hour update guarantee. Your secretary typically handles only show-specific items, like setting up new shows, posting results, processing entries, posting draws, and uploading to photo galleries. And even those, we can do for them if your secretary would rather focus on other association work.
Can we have members-only content?
Yes. Member-only content is an add-on to the standard build. Common uses include member directories, association documents, or members-only resources. We will quote it as part of the project.
Can we run online entries for our shows?
Yes. Online show entry, online entry payment, automatic confirmation, and entry data that can be sent to your show secretary are all standard features.
We run an annual stallion service auction. Can the website handle that?
Yes. We built the stallion auction platform that has raised over $8.7 million for horse associations since 2020. It integrates directly into your association site.
How long does it take to build an association website?
Most association builds take 4 to 6 weeks from contract signing to launch, often quicker. We will give you a specific timeline in your quote.
Let's Talk About Your Association
If your association is thinking about a new website, or your current site is hurting more than helping, the first step is a 30-minute conversation. We will tell you what we would build, what it would cost, and how we would migrate your existing content without losing anything important.
Or call us directly at 979-217-1544