Bright Star Ranch is a PATH (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship) and a CHA (Certified Horsemanship Association) Member Center non-profit located in Monroe, Louisiana. Bright Star Ranch provides equine therapy to individuals with physical or cognitive disorders. They also provide riding lessons, birthday parties and host special events throughout the year. Bright Star Ranch opened in 2018 and while they already had a good social media presence, they came to us to create their website.

Debbie came to us after seeing our other work and wanted to see if we could create a website for her non-profit. We chatted about what their needs were and started brainstorming! Bright Star Ranch had a logo, domain name, and photos already. After considering many content management system platforms and prices, we decided that Wix was the best option. Photos tell a story and had to be an integral part of the website. The photos are featured on almost every page, helping their audience connect to Bright Star Ranch, the horses, and the riders and see the difference they are doing in people's lives.

The homepage features a large banner with "Transforming Lives Through Equine Therapy" which scrolls through photos of staff assisting a rider during equine therapy. A large, red donation button is on the top right of the menu to catch the visitor's eye. Boxes below the banner feature pages of the website, enticing readers to learn more about the non-profit, services, volunteering, events, and how donations make a difference.

Bright Star Ranch's homepage with a scrolling banner and boxes that feature important aspects of the website.

 

 

Bright Star Ranch's about pages tell the history of the non-profit, team, horses and displays a photo gallery.

 

 

The About page features how Bright Star Ranch got started with Our Team, Our Horses, and Photo Gallery as sub-pages. A "call to action" is on the Our Horses page to get support for the care of their horses through donations.

Website tip: use "calls to action" to direct the user to take the action that you want them to take.

 

 

A photo gallery showcases all aspects of the ranch from the facility to horses and riders.

 

 

The Services page features their Therapeutic Riding and Birthday Party services. The page is designed to grow with the non-profit, so their staff can easily add more services when needed. Everything a potential rider or caregiver of a rider needs to know is on this Therapeutic Riding page. Forms can be accessed and downloaded. Information about Therapeutic Riding and the benefits are displayed on the page as well as pictures of riders during a session.

The services page features two services people can choose from to learn more. When the organization grows, it can easily add more.

 

 

The Therapeutic Riding page has all of the information and forms that prospective riders will need.

 

 

The Volunteer page works similarly, with boxes on the top holding information that a volunteer would need to know including examples of different areas of the non-profit where people can assist.

An event calendar was an absolute must on the website. Because Bright Star Ranch has different events throughout the year, they had to be displayed so people could learn about the events and attend. The calendar is customizable for showing and hiding specific events and adding RSVP. Class cancellations will also be displayed. 

The calendar shows upcoming events and class cancellations.

 

 

The event calendar can be customized to show RSVP, certain events, and more.

 

 

Not Rocket Science was able to save Bright Star Ranch some money on their monthly subscription because of how the Donation page was set up. If the website was going to accept payments on the website, their subscription would have to be upgraded to include that, which would cost them extra money that could be allocated elsewhere. Because we integrated the form to handle a direct PayPal link instead of PayPal handling the rest, Bright Star Ranch can put the extra money in their pocket. After a user submits the form, they are brought to the PayPal page for Bright Star Ranch and an email gets sent to them, notifying them of a donation. The Contact page has contact information, a contact form, and a map with their location.

The donation page features a form that was customized to go to their direct PayPal page.

 

 

The forms module is fully customizable.

 

 

Check Bright Star Ranch out on Facebook and Instagram and you can visit their website here  https://bit.ly/BSRWebs