Identity, photos, and biography
The Profile details card at the top of the Profile tab holds everything that says who you are: your names, your photo, your biography, and the ministry areas you focus on. Every row shows an eye icon telling you whether it is public, masked, or private — see Your individual profile for the three tooltips.
Identity fields
Section titled “Identity fields”-
Profile photo — public. Shown as a circle everywhere your name appears. Select the pencil icon, Upload, crop to a square, and Confirm.
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Name — public. First name and Last name are required; Middle name is optional. Once a pseudonym is set, this row shows as private, because the pseudonym replaces your real name publicly.
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Preferred name — public. The name Homeward shows instead of your first name. It must be consistent with your first name.
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Native Name — public, and shown under your name on the public profile. Up to 100 characters, with no automatic capitalization, for names in languages that do not use Romanized characters.
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Pseudonym — public, up to 20 characters. Homeward requires real, legal names, but some workers cannot be publicly identified for their safety or the safety of their ministry. If approved, a pseudonym replaces your real name throughout the platform for everyone except Homeward staff. It is not self-serve: send Support a request to use one. See Serving in sensitive places.
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Username — public, lowercase letters and numbers only. It becomes your profile address at
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Gender — private. Choose Male or Female.
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Date of birth — private. Shown as, for example, “Aug 28 1990”. It drives the age-based visibility limits, so keep it accurate. See Visibility, connections, and profile managers.
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Nationality — private.
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Languages — public. English is a pinned first row that cannot be removed, so every profile states its English proficiency. Add other languages from the searchable list, each with a proficiency of None, Beginner, Limited, Conversational, Fluent, or Native. They display as “Spanish · Fluent”.
Photos
Section titled “Photos”Under your identity fields sit two kinds of photos. The profile photo is the small circular image that follows you around the platform; the cover photo is the wide image across the top of your public page.
If your profile is not in the cover-photo programme, you get a single Cover photo row with a 16:8 image picker. If it is, the Cover photo manager replaces it:
- Add cover photos opens a multi-select file picker. The button reads Maximum reached once you hit the limit.
- Up to 8 photos, each 12 MB maximum, JPEG, PNG, or WebP.
- The first photo in the grid is badged Shown first. Arrow buttons move a photo earlier or later.
- Removing a photo asks “Remove this cover photo?” — “This permanently removes it from the profile. If it is the first photo, the next one will take its place.”
Biography and quotes
Section titled “Biography and quotes”- Biography — public. An inline editor with Save and Cancel. This is the first thing visitors read under your name, and the completeness checklist treats it as required. Saving an empty bio clears it.
- Quotes — public. Up to 25 headline pull-quotes shown on your public page. The counter reads “N of 25”. Each quote card can be edited, moved up or down, and deleted; deleting asks “Delete this quote?” — “This cannot be undone.” Surrounding quotation marks are stripped when you save.
Ministry focus areas
Section titled “Ministry focus areas”- Ministry focus areas — public. The hint reads: “The areas your ministry is about as a whole, not tied to one role. Select all that apply — up to 3.” Selecting a cause saves it immediately; if the save fails, the selection rolls back.
These choices fill the At a glance panel on your public profile and place you in search. Where you have chosen focus areas here, they win: the public profile only falls back to the causes listed on your work history if you have not chosen any. See What visitors see on your profile.