By default, a Connect site has 16 causes that can be applied to agencies, and 16 interests that can be applied to needs. An agency manager selects causes for their agency and interests for the opportunities that they post. Volunteers can then search for agencies by cause, and they can search for opportunities by interest or skill.

Note: Many Community Connect sites use the term "skills" rather than interests. For the article on Community Connect's causes and skills, click here.

Click the links below to learn about the default causes and interests available in Get Connected:

If the default causes and interests do not meet your organization's needs, you have several options:

  • You can remove default causes or interests and replace them with ones that better reflect your community's needs
  • You can change the count of causes or interests to fewer or more than 16, as applicable. Contact Customer Care to learn more.
  • (Causes only) If you do not want to use causes, you can have the causes feature removed from your site. Contact Customer Care to learn more.

Custom Causes and Interests

Causes and interests are added in Site Settings. From your admin panel, click Settings, located in the top right-hand area of your screen, and click either the Causes or Interests as applicable. You'll see a list of default designations under the tab you selected, along with the number of agencies (or needs) that have selected the cause (or interest/skill).

In this example, we're seeing the Causes, which lists the default cause categories for agencies and programs.

Adding a Custom Cause or Interest

Now that you've accessed the proper tab, you'll need to take three main steps to add your custom cause or interest/skill:

  1. Remove an existing cause or interest/skill (to make room for the new item)
  2. Add the new cause or interest/skill
  3. Assign an icon

Remove an Existing Cause or Interest

To remove an existing cause or interest:

  1. Clear the checkbox to the left of the item to be removed.
  2. Add a new one to replace the item you're removing.
  3. Click to submit your changes.

Add the New Cause or Interest

By removing an existing item, you've opened up the necessary spot for a new one. To add a new cause or interest:

  1. Enter the name of the new designation into the text box above the table.
    This site manager is creating a new cause titled "Homelessness."
  2. Click Add New. The new item is added to the bottom of the list, as shown here:
  3. Click Submit to save this change.

Assign an Icon

When you click Submit (step 3 above), the Color and Icon columns are populated with additional options. At this point, you can select both the icon for the interest/skill and the color of that icon.

Color

The default color for the icon is white (hex code #ffffff). To select a new color:

  1. Click in the text box to open the color selector.
  2. Select a color (or enter a hex code) and click OK.

Note: Click here for more information on your Connect platform's color selector.

Icon

To select an icon:

  1. Click Pick an icon to view all of the available icons.
  2. Select the desired icon.
  3. Click Submit.

An agency manager will now be able to see (and select) this new category when adding an agency or need to your Connect platform.

Changing Your Number of Causes or Interests

Click here to view a video to learn more about how many causes and interests your platform can have.

If your site needs more or fewer causes or interests than are provided by default, you can contact our Customer Care team with your request. Causes or interests can be increased or decreased in units of four for design purposes; your options are 4, 8, 12, 16 (the default), 20, and 24. Here are a few things to be aware of if you do change the number:

Cause and Interest/Skill Counts are Independent

You are not required to have the same number of causes and interests. For example, you can have 8 causes and 20 interests.

Decreasing Causes or Interests

If you decrease your causes or interests, you will be required to delete causes or interests the next time you go to those areas of your Site Settings. You cannot delete one during one visit and the rest later; you must delete all to meet the new maximum. If there are agencies or needs that have a deleted cause or interest/skill, those will not be removed; they will continue to be displayed with the agency or need, and it will continue to show up as a search option. It will not, however, be an option for agency managers adding new needs, and it will no longer show up as an option in the user registration.

Increasing Causes or Interests

If you've opted to increase your number from 16, you'll need to add enough to reach the maximum next time you visit the applicable area of your Site Settings. You will not have the option to add a few in one visit to your Site Settings, and then add more later.

Corporate Connect and Campus Connect Sites

If you are a Corporate Connect or Campus Connect site sharing data with a Get Connected hub, you can use any custom causes or interests that the hub has added to their site. Those custom items will appear at the bottom of the applicable table in your Site Settings. If you want to use any custom causes or interests—whether created on your site or adopted from the Get Connected hub—you will need to first remove one so that you have a total of 16 each.

Click here to learn more about data sharing between Get Connected hubs and Corporate and Campus Connect sites.

Related Articles

Check out these articles to learn more about how causes and interests, and how they are used on a Connect platform: