Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission
Making Mission Trips Better.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Making Mission Trips Better. Because organizing and leading mission trips is hard. Research suggests that roughly 80% of those traveling cross-culturally aren't properly prepared. When this happens, our good intentions can lead to bad results.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission is a catalyst for excellence in all short-term mission
See mission statement
Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission
Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission assists mission sending and receiving entities in pursuing excellence for effective Kingdom services.
Where we work
Accreditations
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) 2014
External reviews

Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
SOE seeks to lead a movement through the short-term mission world--a movement towards excellence. With international travel getting more accessible, it's getting easier to go on a short-term mission trip. This means more people are going without a real understanding of what they are doing. We want to lead the way and set the standard of what excellence in short-term mission looks like while also providing the tools, resources and conferences to help all short-term mission trips be better.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
SOE helps others apply the Seven Standards to their context in four main ways:
Membership: by being a member, our organizations declare their commitment to excellence but they also receive valuable benefits such as a monthly publication, free webinars, and discounts on products and services in the short-term mission world
Resources: SOE seeks to produce and curate the best resources and make them easily available
Onsite training and mobilization: SOE can train and mobilize your program with excellence
Conferences and workshops: SOE facilitates the short-term missions track at mission conferences all around the US as well as co-sponsors many types of mission conferences
Connection for individuals or organizations looking to participate in mission trips
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
SOE's best resource is it's human resource. Our staff and board represent a range of experience and expertise including educators, pastors, missionaries, writers, and tech developers. The people behind SOE are what make it possible to provide the assistance each members and others who needs to apply the Seven Standards to their ministry context and or to connect to a possible ministry situation.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
SOE has grown it's membership to roughly 155 members, we've created a new site that curates and makes resources available in one place to the short-term mission world, and participate in several conferences each year that allow us to equip participants to apply the Seven Standards to their ministry context.
We have expanded coaching and consulting as this is the most customized and inexpensive way to address our member's ministry context. We have also expanded our involvement in at least 8 conferences nation-wide in the next 3 years, grow membership, and begin to take the Seven Standards to new countries that are sending short-term missionaries.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
Individuals, churches, organizations
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Suggestion box/email,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
Strengthening online training.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our community partners,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
Strengthened online training and the number of such training.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission
Board of directorsas of 03/24/2022
Mr. Don Johnson
Send International
Term: 2016 -
Don Johnson
SEND
Charlotte Kassis
Isabel Lee
CBCM
Jenny Collins
Taylor University
Jesse Kroeze
Touch the World
Jolene Erlacher
Leading Tomorrow
Marti Wade
Orlando Team
Randy Schmor
Jim Cross
John Jordan
Dennis Fuqua
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data