Joining Homeward

Joining Homeward means creating an account and then creating or claiming the profile connected to it. This article covers that path: the fields the wizard asks for, what happens when Homeward thinks you may already have a profile, ministry self-certification, creating a profile for someone else, and applying as an organization.

Creating your profile

If your new account has no profile, Homeward sends you to the Create your profile wizard. It is one form, and most of it is your legal identity:

Email — shown as it is on your account and locked. Your email is the account identifier, so it cannot be changed here.
First name / Middle name / Last name — the instruction on the form reads “Enter the first, middle, and last names exactly as shown in the passport’s Latin-character section.” Each field allows up to 100 characters.
Preferred name — the name shown throughout Homeward instead of your first name. It must be different from your first name.
Name in native script — optional. Your complete name in its customary order, for readers who use that script.
Username — lowercase letters and numbers only. It becomes your profile address, /ppl/<username>, and availability is checked as you type. Changing it later rewrites that address and breaks links others have saved.
Date of birth — your birthday drives the visibility levels your profile is allowed, so enter it accurately.
Gender — Male or Female.
Nationality — a country picker.
Languages — one or more languages with a proficiency level. English is required: the form will not submit without an English entry and a proficiency selected for it.

Select Create profile when the form is complete. If a name or username field is rejected, the message appears next to the field.

“Is this you?”

Before creating anything, Homeward searches for an existing profile or account that matches the identity you typed. If it finds one, the wizard shows a second step instead of creating a duplicate.

You may see two kinds of match:

An existing account — someone has already signed up with this identity. If you signed in with Google, Apple or Facebook you can link this session to that account; if the account uses a password, choose Email me a sign-in code and a four-digit code is sent to the address on file.
A claimable profile — a profile that exists without a login attached. Select This is me and then verify it with Prior phone or Prior email — a phone number or email address already on that profile. Homeward compares your answer privately; it never shows you what is on file.

If a profile cannot be verified this way, the wizard says so and asks you to contact Homeward staff instead. There are also two escape hatches: Edit details returns you to the form, and Create anyway creates a separate profile when the near-match really is a different person.

Do you serve in ministry?

The last step asks whether you serve in ministry. Homeward words it as a statement you certify rather than a claim you make:

“I serve in ministry, and I’m accountable to a church or ministry organization for that work.”

Checking the statement enables Yes, turn on ministry tools, which switches on the ministry features on your profile — updates, funds, and the pages that depend on a ministry tier. If this is not you, choose Not right now; you can enable it later from your profile.

Creating a profile for someone else

From the profile switcher in the dashboard, Add a profile opens a dialog with two cards: Individual (“Create a profile for a child, dependent, or another person you manage”) and Organization.

The individual form asks the same fields as your own, with one addition: a checkbox, This Profile is for an Unborn Child. When it is set, the name, gender, and language fields are cleared and disabled, the date of birth field becomes Expected Delivery Date bounded from tomorrow to about a year ahead, and the profile starts with no name and no gender until the child is born and the record is updated.

Applying as an organization

Choose the Organization card in the same dialog to submit an organization for review. The form requires:

Organization Name — at least 2 characters.
Organization Username — lowercase letters and numbers, at most 8 characters. This is shorter than an individual username and becomes part of the organization’s address.
Country of Operation — a country picker.
Website — a valid address; https:// is added for you if you leave it off.
Primary Contact Email and Primary Contact Phone — how Homeward reaches you during review.

Submission sends the application to Homeward for review rather than creating a live organization. Once it is approved, you build out the profile itself — see Building your organization profile.

What approval does and does not grant

Approval is one decision, and it is often mistaken for three. Approval of an application:

is not profile access — it does not attach your login to a profile that belongs to someone else;
is not organization membership — appearing on an organization’s roster is a separate relationship, managed by that organization; and
is not permission to receive donations — funds are opened separately, and receiving depends on the profile’s tier and setup.

Each of these is granted on its own, in its own place in the dashboard.

Duplicate profiles

Two profiles for the same person cause real problems — split giving history, split connections, and conflicting records — so Homeward would rather merge than proliferate. If you find a duplicate, ask for a merge through Getting help.

A merge is reviewed by staff, not executed automatically. Staff reconcile identity, access, relationships, and dependent records before combining anything. The goal is one durable profile, not deleting whichever record looks older. For where each kind of value lives after a correction, see Fixing something that is wrong.