A Third Party Evaluation
By Pastor Jonathan Shaw, Lakeside Church, GA
In today’s world of church administration, efficiency is key—especially when it comes to mission trips. Planning, organizing, and executing a trip requires a great deal of coordination, from budgeting and fundraising to communication and logistics. ManagedMissions simplifies this process by providing churches with a centralized platform to manage every aspect of short-term mission trips. As a pastor who has worked extensively with mission trips, I wanted to take an unbiased look at ManagedMissions to see if it truly delivers on its promises.
Customization and Branding
One of the standout features of ManagedMissions is its customizability. For churches that prioritize cohesive branding, this is a major advantage. The platform allows users to align the design and feel of their missions pages with their church’s existing branding, creating a seamless experience for members and donors. This helps maintain a level of professionalism and familiarity that builds trust with those supporting the mission trip.
Payment Integration and Bookkeeping
Financial management is often one of the most stressful components of organizing mission trips. ManagedMissions simplifies this process by integrating with three major church management software (ChMS) programs: Planning Center Online, Church Community Builder, and Rock RMS. It also allows payment through Stripe, Vanco, and Pushpay. This flexibility makes it easier for churches to choose a payment system that aligns with their existing bookkeeping practices. The ability to track donations, manage budgets, and streamline financial reports helps eliminate a lot of the administrative burden that typically comes with mission trip fundraising. My bookkeeper was very excited after I introduced it to our church.
Fundraising and Individual Giving Pages
Fundraising is at the heart of most mission trips, and ManagedMissions offers a strong solution by enabling individual giving pages for each participant. These personalized pages allow trip-goers to share their mission, track their fundraising goals, and receive online donations with ease. This is particularly useful for engaging church members and extended networks, as donors can give directly to the individuals they want to support. The simplicity of these pages reduces friction in the fundraising process and makes it more accessible for everyone involved.
Centralized Trip Information
ManagedMissions doesn’t just handle fundraising—it also acts as a hub for all relevant trip details. Trip leaders can communicate directly through the software to each participant, and participants can access essential information such as trip budgets, dates, scheduled meetings, packing lists, and required documents. This centralization minimizes confusion and ensures that everyone involved in the trip is on the same page. Rather than relying on scattered emails and spreadsheets, ManagedMissions provides a structured and organized way to manage mission trips from start to finish. As a leader, it is nice knowing you can access the information from anywhere, and you don’t have to print off every document to find the information you need.
Areas for Improvement
As with any software, there is room for improvement. Task assignment could be more intuitive and streamlined. Although the platform offers communication tools, it lacks real-time updates, which means not all team members have access to the most current information simultaneously. Additionally, there’s limited automation. Most tasks must be assigned manually, which can be time-consuming. The software also does not integrate with all Church Management Systems (ChMS) or payment processors, which may limit its usefulness for some churches.
Final Thoughts and Recommendation
Despite some of the back-end frustrations, ManagedMissions is the best all-around software to help you in every stage of your trip. For me, it has been a huge time saver. The best part is it’s free if you’re doing fewer than 5 trips at a time. Now you don’t get all the functionality with the free version, but it is enough to see how beneficial it could be for your church. Then it is only $30 a month to upgrade and get the functionality that really saves you time.
Guest Author - Pastor Jonathan Shaw
Jonathan Shaw is the Groups and Executive Pastor at Lakeside Church in Greensboro, GA. He has been going on mission trips since he was born and has led quite a few mission trips in his 15 years of ministry, making it to more than 30 countries.
