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A website your committee can actually run.
For historical and learned societies, civic trusts, archaeological groups and family history societies. Built to be handed on, because your chair changes every two years and the website shouldn’t fall over when they do.
Sound familiar?The same four problems, every time.
I’ve yet to meet a society website that isn’t held together by one very patient volunteer. It doesn’t have to be that way, and the fix is mostly about handover, not code.
It was built by a member who’s since moved on.
Nobody knows the password. Nobody’s quite sure who hosts it. An invoice arrives each year from a company nobody recognises, and everyone pays it because the alternative is unthinkable.
Membership runs on a spreadsheet.
Renewals arrive by cheque and standing order at wildly different times of year, and one very patient volunteer holds the whole thing in their head.
The journal archive is a folder of PDFs.
Decades of real scholarship: unsearchable, invisible to Google, and doing nothing at all to bring new members in.
Nobody can update it.
So it doesn’t get updated. The events page still shows last year’s programme, and members quietly stop looking.
What I buildFive things that make the difference.
- 01
A structure a newcomer can follow
Most society sites are organised the way the committee thinks, not the way a curious visitor reads. Getting that right is most of the work, and it’s the part that turns a browser into a member.
- 02
A searchable publications archive
Journals, newsletters, back issues, research papers: properly indexed and findable in Google, with member-only material behind a login if that’s how you’re set up.
- 03
Members’ area and online renewals
Stripe or GoCardless, automatic reminders, and one place the membership secretary can see who has paid. Recovered lapsed memberships tend to cover the cost of the whole project within a couple of years.
- 04
An events programme that stays current
Talks, walks, visits, the AGM. Easy enough to update that it actually gets updated, which is the only test that matters.
- 05
Committee-proof handover
Written notes in plain English. Access held in the society’s name, never an individual’s. An hour of training for whoever takes it on, and another hour free for whoever takes it on after them.
What it costsA fixed price your committee can vote on.
Fixed prices, no scope creep, no awkward conversation at the AGM. One number, agreed before I start.
£4,000 to £9,000
Depending on how much content there is, and whether you need memberships and payments.
- A reduced charity rate. Registered charities and volunteer-run societies pay around 20% below commercial pricing. Mention it when you enquire and it’s applied from the start.
- Never pay to keep it online. Hosting, SSL and backups are included for as long as you have the site: no subscription for a volunteer treasurer to chase, and no renewal that catches the next treasurer out. Most societies take the Website Care plan at the charity rate: from £36 a month, with a set amount of change time each month that rolls over. Without it, small changes are a flat £50, and anything bigger is quoted as a fixed price before I start.
- A proposal to circulate. You’ll get a written document you can send round the committee and vote on, with the price fixed. I’m happy to join a meeting or a Zoom to answer questions.
Recent workThe de Vere Society.
Fifty pages of scholarship, made navigable.
A full rebuild for a literary and research society: long-form articles, a members’ area, an education portal, and a structure designed so a first-time reader knows exactly where to start, without losing anything the long-standing members rely on.
Launching autumn 2026
Before you askQuestions committees ask.
Who owns the website?
You do, completely. The domain is registered in the society’s name and paid on the society’s card. The files are yours, handed over on request, free, whenever you want them.
What happens when our committee changes?
That’s the bit I plan for from the start. Access sits with the society rather than with a person, there’s a written handover document, and I’ll spend an hour with any new officer showing them how it works at no charge.
We have thirty years of journals as PDFs. Is that a problem?
It’s the opposite: it’s probably the most valuable thing you have and the least visible. Making that archive searchable is very often the single biggest gain from a rebuild, both for existing members and for the people who ought to be members and have never heard of you.
Can you help with scanning and printing too?
Yes. I’ve worked in Bristol fine art printing for thirty years, and I’m still managing director of a printing business in the city. If your society needs journals printed, fragile archive material scanned properly rather than photocopied, or fine art prints made from your collection to sell as a fundraiser, I know how it should be done and who should do it.
Do we have to move away from our current host?
Usually yes, and usually it saves you money. I’ll handle the move, keep the old site live until the new one is ready, and make sure every existing link still works, so you don’t lose your search rankings or break citations in other people’s research.
How long does it take?
Three to four months for a typical society rebuild, most of which is content rather than code. Committees meet quarterly and I plan around that. You’ll never be waiting on me to make your next meeting.
Tell me about
your idea.
No obligation, no hard sell. A friendly chat about what you're after and whether I'm the right fit.
hello@tomchard.uk