Today, GuideStar is excited to announce the launch of its online community. GuideStar’s mission is to revolutionize philanthropy and nonprofit practice by providing information that advances transparency, enables users to make better decisions and encourages charitable giving. Our new community will allow you to share our vision and support collaboration in the nonprofit sector. But before you jump right into the community, let's check out a few of its key features.
Search GuideStar Support
Featured on the community’s homepage, the Search GuideStar Support search engine will do its best to answer your questions related to our products and services. At GuideStar, we like to think we thought up every question imaginable about our products and services. We have added those questions, and accompanying answers, to our support database. Hopefully, you find the answer you need. If not, ask away utilizing the community. Here's how:
- Type your question into the search bar, responses will auto-populate
- Click on a discussion thread that looks most likely to solve your issue
- If the community does not have a response to your query, click “Ask Support” to post a discussion thread
- A GuideStar support staff member will respond to your request in a timely manner
How You'll Be Helping the Nonprofit Community
Who would've thought something as simple as asking a question would do so much. You're a superstar and you didn't even know it! Here's how you'll be helping others in the community: Discussion threads created by community members are saved to the support database. When a community member with a related question searches for a response, your discussion thread with GuideStar’s “correct answer” attached to it, could pop up as a resolution to the issue. Below shows what a discussion thread with a "correct answer" looks like in the community.
Sign Up for the Community
If you've gotten this far you must be excited to join the community. That's great to hear and we're excited for you to participate. If you have a guidestar.org account, signing up for the community is easy.
- Go to the community (the community is also accessible from guidestar.org)
- Click on “Log in”
- Sign-in to the community using your guidestar.org username and password
If you do not have a guidestar.org account, please take a moment to create one and then follow the steps above.
Getting Started
Before jumping in we recommend you complete 5 steps to learn more about how to participate in the community. Then, we encourage you to take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us how the community can support the great work you do. Join the GuideStar Community and help us change the world.
The preceding post is by DeLeon DeMicoli, a communications writer with over ten years of experience as an online community manager and project manager. Currently, he works as the community manager for the GuideStar Community.