Set up your profile

The profile is the input matching reads, and what other members see when deciding whether to connect. There is no separate mechanism for posting an offer, so the profile serves that purpose. An incomplete profile is the most common reason a member is not found.

Profile settingsSettings → Profile

Importing from a website

Enter a URL in Profile URL and select Import. Where a personal site, organisation biography or public profile exists, the platform reads it and populates the fields it can.

The URL must begin with http:// or https:// and can be up to 2048 characters.

Review and correct the result. As with opportunity autofill, the output is a draft derived from a single page and should be treated as such.

The profile fields matching reads — specialty, needs, offers, interests, match tagsOpen /a/settings/profile in the app

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1. Name and photo. First and last name are up to 100 characters each.

2. Choose your profile URL. This is the address people share.

   2–60 characters — Lower case, digits and hyphens. It cannot start or end with a hyphen.

3. Keep the bio brief. It is up to 160 characters. A one-line introduction rather than a biography; a character counter is displayed below the field.

4. Set your intent. One of Explore the network, Launch an initiative, Represent my organization, or Manage a community. This states your purpose on the platform.

5. State your specialty. One line describing your work. This is compared directly against other members’ specialties, so a specific term such as “water and sanitation engineering” performs better than a general one such as “consultant”.

6. Complete What I Need and What I Can Offer. These are the two most frequently omitted fields. As there is no separate mechanism for posting an offer, this is where an offer is recorded.

   They are matched directionally: your needs are compared against other members’ offers, and your offers against their needs. This is the one part of matching that pairs complementary entries rather than similar ones — “I need a grant writer” matches “I can write grants”. Both fields are free text and are read as sentences.

7. Add interests as tags. Select existing tags where possible. The tag vocabulary is shared with opportunities, so climate-justice on a profile matches climate-justice on a call for proposals.

8. Add Match Tags. A separate field from Interests, weighted slightly lower but still significant. Interests describe subjects of concern; match tags are the themes you wish to be found for. Completing only one of the two leaves a comparison unused — see how the parts are weighted.

9. Set your location. Search for a city or use the current location. Distance acts as a tiebreaker rather than a filter, so an approximate city is sufficient.

10. Save.

Fewer interests produce stronger matches

Overlap is scored as shared terms ÷ combined terms. Listing a large number of interests to increase coverage weakens every match, including strong ones. A small number of interests you actively work on outperforms a long list.

The same applies to match tags. See How matching works.

Controlling what is visible

The Visibility tab carries a single switch — Show my profile publicly. It governs your logged-out profile page and whether you appear in the public directory and map.

It is not a per-field control, and it does not apply to other members: signed-in members see the same fixed set of profile fields either way, and you stay listed in Network → Members regardless. To keep something from other members, leave the field empty. The trade is real — an empty field is also one that matching cannot use.

Putting your profile elsewhere

The profile page provides a URL, an iframe embed and a badge, each with a copy button. The embed is suitable for an organisation’s team page; the badge for an email signature or personal site.

If matching is not producing results

In order of likelihood:

1. Specialty, needs and offers are empty. These carry the greatest weight and are the most frequently omitted.
2. Too many interests. As above, breadth lowers every score.
3. Tags no other member uses. A precise tag used by no one else produces no overlap; a broader tag shared with others performs better.
4. No location. This accounts for 10% of the score and is rarely the sole cause.

Matches recompute within approximately thirty seconds of saving, so a change can be tested directly.