The organizations directory is ordered by followers. The organization with the most followers is first, and where two have the same number the newer one comes first. Nothing else moves an organization up: not how many members it has, not how many competitions it has run, not whether it is verified, and not payment.
So the honest answer to a low position is that the directory is a popularity list, and following is the only thing that changes it.
You can re-order it yourself
The sort control on the directory offers six orders, and any visitor can switch between them:
- Most Followers, which is the default.
- Most Members.
- Newest and Oldest, by the date the organization was created.
- A - Z and Z - A, by title.
Whichever you pick applies to the whole directory rather than to a page of it, and the list is drawn live rather than from a cache, so a follower gained a minute ago already counts.
Search only reads the name and the tagline
The search box matches your organization's title and its tagline, anywhere inside them and regardless of capitals. It does not read your description, your location, your members or your work, whatever the placeholder text in the box suggests.
Two things follow. Searching for a city returns nothing useful unless the city is in somebody's name or tagline. And a tagline is the one piece of text you control that makes your organization findable, so it is worth writing as a sentence someone would actually type.
What is left out of the list
The directory leaves out organizations that have been banned, deleted or archived, and nothing else. An organization that has not been verified still appears, and so does one with no members and no published work.
If your organization is not in the list at all, it is one of those three states rather than a ranking problem. Closing an organization you own explains what archiving does and how to reverse a decision to step away.
The directory shows 40 organizations to a page.