Finding people and organizations

Homeward has two public ways to browse its partners, plus search on the homepage. They cover overlapping data on purpose: the directory is for narrowing down, the partners page is for a simple look through.

Search on the homepage

The search box on the homepage looks for an organization, individual, ministry type, or cause area. It needs at least 3 characters — below that it does not search at all, it just tells you to enter more.

As you type, up to five suggestions appear from the directory: photo, name, and — for individuals — title, headline, and primary ministry location. Choose one to open the profile, or follow See all results for “…” to run the same search in the directory.

The Searchable Directory

Searchable Directory is the full, filterable view of every publicly visible profile. Everything you select is reflected in the page address, so a filtered view can be shared or bookmarked.

The header shows three counts — All, Organizations, Individuals — and each count is also a filter: select it to narrow the results to that type.

Search — matches names, causes, locations, and regions; 3 characters minimum, and a short query is ignored rather than treated as no results.
Verified 501(c)(3) — only organizations whose 501(c)(3) status Homeward has verified.
Endorsed by the community — one checkbox, not a score. An endorsement carries no rating; the question is only whether anyone has publicly vouched for the profile. See Endorsements.
Cause area — filter by ministry focus. Choose a whole group or expand it and pick a specific cause inside it.
Region — broad regions expand into a list of countries with counts. Selecting a country also selects its region; selecting a region clears the country.
Organization size — Small (fewer than 50 staff), Medium (50–249), Large (250 or more).
Network affiliation — the networks the organization belongs to.
Life stage — the organization’s age, derived from its founding year: Pre-launch, Startup (0–2 yrs), Growing (3–7 yrs), Established (8–20 yrs), Mature (20+ yrs).

Below the search bar, an A–Z index jumps the results to the first match for a letter; letters with no results are greyed out. Result cards show the photo, name, tagline or headline, location, first cause, and — when non-zero — how many projects and endorsements the profile has.

All partners

All partners is the simpler browse: a paginated list of individuals and organizations supported through Homeward Missions, 24 to a page. Filter by type, country, or cause, search by name, and switch between grid and list views. There are no facets, sizes, life stages, or A–Z index — that is the point. If the directory feels like too much machinery, start here.

Cause pages

Each specific cause area has its own landing page, reached from Explore by cause on the homepage. A cause page lists up to a dozen organizations doing that work, with a View all link that opens the directory already filtered to the cause. Broad group names (a group that contains other causes) redirect to that filtered directory instead of having a page of their own.

Why a profile might not appear

The directory shows only publicly visible profiles, so absence is usually a privacy setting rather than a missing record:

The profile is Private, or Protected — Protected profiles appear with limited information, and may show a padlock badge.
It is an individual under 18. Individuals need a known date of birth and must be 18 or older to appear at all.
Its organization is unpublished.

If you cannot find someone you know is on Homeward, ask them to check their visibility setting. See Visibility, connections, and profile managers.