Protecting the Idealist Brand by Distinguishing Group Types

Idealist is a very open platform to engage people in many different ways. As a casual user, I was heartened by your willingness to disintermediate yourself and share contact information between organizations and prospective volunteers and employees (other websites might trap you on the site to communicate).

With the Idealist Network, I think it’s important to take some simple steps to protect the Idealist brand. Since you are coordinating these volunteer groups, or at least inspiring them, I think you might want to try creating two different types of Idealist Groups:

Idealist-Supervised (working title):
Groups that have met at the Idealist headquarters and maintain active contact with Idealist staff members. Perhaps there will be some simple check-in system.

Idealist-Inspired:
Groups that have used the tools and structure provided by the Idealist website on their own. They have self-identified as affiliating with Idealist, but they have not been engaging in the automated check-ins / staff contact that put them in the previous category.

The first category is not a good title “supervised” but I thought it was better than “authorized” or “supported”. Maybe something like “Idealist +” would be good, if you decide to go this route.

I think these groups should be created to help laypeople know what they are getting into when they seek help from an Idealist Group / Connector.