# Explore

There are thousands of Collectives, Fiscal Hosts, and Organizations on Open Collective, working across education, mutual aid, climate, arts & culture, open-source software, and more. The groups also use Open Collective to host Projects, Events, and Funds.\
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With so much going on, finding a community and a cause that means something to you can be overwhelming, so we built tools to help you discover groups and projects in areas you care about.

### Exploring

Our [Explore](https://opencollective.com/search) feature is built to help you find Collectives, Fiscal Hosts, Organizations, Projects, Events, and Funds to support by location and impact area.\
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Admins for Collectives and Fiscal Hosts are encouraged to tag the impact areas in which they work. The most popular categories are available to filter. Clicking an impact area will show only items that have identified themselves as working in that impact area. \
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Similarly, Admins are encouraged to share the location where they are based.  You'll find filters below the category filters in the sidebar. Check any region, country, or city that you're interested in to show only Collectives in those areas.&#x20;

{% hint style="info" %}
Administrators can only choose one location and may opt to add the area where they predominantly work, rather than their headquarters.
{% endhint %}

### Using Search

Can't find what you're looking for with our [Explore ](#exploring-collectives)feature? Don't worry; we have full search functionality too.

Search is always available from the primary navigation. Alternatively, you can hit the `/` key to open a search anywhere on Open Collective. Finally, you can go straight to [https://search.opencollective.com](http://search.opencollective.com)

Our site-wide search allows you to filter by entity type ([Collectives](/collectives/collectives.md), [Projects](/collectives/managing-money/projects.md), [Events](/collectives/events.md), [Organisations](/getting-started/creating-an-organization.md), etc), country, and tag.

{% hint style="info" %}
If you wish to search for a specific region or city, we recommend using the Explore feature.
{% endhint %}

### Understanding a Collective

We recommend learning about a collective before making a financial contribution.

By clicking on a collective, you can see various information that will help you decide if they’re right for you, including their mission and values.

Our transparent budgeting pages also give you insights into:

* How many financial contributors do they have
* How much money have they raised
* Their top financial contributors
* Their recent income and expenses

Many collectives also share public or private [updates for backers](/advanced/keeping-your-community-updated/updates-and-contact.md), giving you news on the impact they’re having.

### Discover

Interested in a broader overview of Open Collective and the groups that call it home? Check out our [Discover feature](https://discover.opencollective.com/) to see how many collectives are on the platform, the total amount raised, and how many contributors have supported others using Open Collective. You can also filter this information by various properties, such as impact area, date range, and location. You can also see recent updates from active collectives.&#x20;


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://documentation.opencollective.com/getting-started/explore.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
