Endorsements

An endorsement is a public statement from one Homeward user about another — a person or an organization — describing what it is like to work with them. It appears on the public profile of whoever it is about, and it is one of the first things a donor reads there. This page covers both sides: writing them, and living with the ones written about you.

Writing an endorsement

Anyone signed in can write an endorsement. Open the person’s or organization’s public profile, scroll to the endorsements section, and choose to write one. If you are not signed in, Homeward sends you through sign-in first and returns you to the profile afterwards.

Two things describe the relationship behind your words:

Relationship — how you know the person or organization, chosen from a fixed list: ministry colleague, former colleague, collaborator, prayer partner, supporter, volunteer, and similar. It is shown next to your name.
Strengths — the areas you are vouching for, drawn from a shared vocabulary such as Evangelism, Discipleship, Preaching & teaching, Adaptable, and Trustworthy. They appear as badges beside the text.

Write what you have personally seen. An endorsement is a public vouching, not a review form to fill in.

Endorsements publish as they are written

There is no preview, approval step, or editing window. What you submit is what appears on the profile, immediately.

That works in both directions, and Homeward states it plainly on the Endorsements page of every profile:

Endorsements publish as they are written. If one breaks the community rules, anyone signed in can report it and Homeward staff decide whether it stays — you cannot remove an endorsement of yourself.

You cannot remove an endorsement of yourself

This is deliberate, and it is the rule people ask about most. If a profile could delete the endorsements it disliked, every profile would in time show nothing but praise, and an endorsement would stop meaning anything. Leaving removal to Homeward staff is what keeps the words on a profile trustworthy.

The same applies to organizations: an organization cannot remove or hide an endorsement of itself either. The only thing an organization can add is a Summary of endorsements — a short text, written by the organization and published with its profile, that sums up the endorsements it has received.

Reporting an endorsement

If an endorsement breaks the community rules, report it from the public profile using the report action. You add an optional reason; anyone signed in can report.

Reporting raises the endorsement to Homeward staff. It does not hide it. The endorsement stays public while staff look at it, and it keeps a “Reported · with Homeward” badge on the profile’s Endorsements page in the meantime. Only staff can remove an endorsement, and removal is the only action that changes what visitors see.

Your Endorsements page

In the dashboard, each profile you manage has an Endorsements page (Dashboard → your profile → Endorsements). It is read-only by design — there are no edit or delete controls, for the reason above.

Individual profiles show three counters:

Endorsements — how many are published on your profile.
Reported to Homeward — endorsements still shown while staff look.
Removed by Homeward — reports that staff upheld.

Organization profiles show the same first counter, a New in 30 days count, and Reported to Homeward, followed by the endorsement summary the organization writes.

Each row lists the author, their relationship to the profile, the date, the status (published or removed), any open reports, the full text, and its strength badges.