Can't Send Short Term Trips? Tip 7: Prepare for Relaunch

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Can't Send Short Term Trips?

Tip #7 - Prepare for Relaunch

Big Picture: Your relaunch will communicate a lot to your audience.

Was it Ben Franklin that said, “Failure to plan is planning to fail.”? I’m not sure, but the quote is awesome! In many ways, this season has given us time to rethink many things about our mission programs. Regardless, you should be taking time this season to retool how you do things and how you’re going to relaunch. This is such a great time to rework so many of those things you haven’t gotten to but have wanted to for such a long time. Here are a few areas you might consider for assessment as you prepare for a relaunch.

  • Participant Experience - what is the overall experience your participants have with your organization? How could it be improved? What’s missing?
  • Partnership - how could you better your partnership with other organizations? What is missing? What could help set you both up for greater success?
  • Application - how well built is your event application? Could it use a revision and critique?
  • Team Leader Training - How well do you train your team leaders? How could you be training them this season?
  • Trip Promotions - What materials do you have to promote your trips? What materials do you have to announce your relaunch (when it happens)?
  • Team Preparation - How could you better your process for training trip participants? What could you learn in this season from your alumni?
  • Communications - What does your overall communication strategy look like for participants? How could that be refined, rebuilt, and refocused?
  • Automated Systems - What tools are you using to run your short term trips? Are they serving your needs? Could something do that better?
  • Task Management - Have you mapped out all the tasks that go into managing a single short term trip into a standard process? Could this be streamlined?
  • Post Trip Engagement - How do you engage people once they get back from a trip? How could you keep people engaged better?

 

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Mission Trip Software: 5 Tips to Select the Right One for You
So what in the world is mission trip software?!  Great question.  Essentially mission trip software are tools that help you run the logistics of your short term missions trips.  But all things are not created equal.  It all starts with understanding your overall goals and then evaluating the tools that make the most sense for you.  Let’s navigate a few key tips to set you up for success on selecting the mission trip software that’s best for you.     Tip #1 - Know Your Goals Everyone has a different set of goals but we believe there are a few that we all agree on and ones that we see quite often.  Most everyone is looking for ways to do the following: Reduce Stress - there are so many logistical items for managing a short term trip - the software should help relieve some of that stress. Save Time - the average short term trip takes around 150 hours to manage - the software should greatly reduce that amount of time. Expandabilty to Grow - the reduction in both stress and time should allow for the expansion of your missions program. Keeping People Engaged - short term trips should always have a way to keep people engaged with your organization and in a life of missional living.     Tip #2 - Determine the Features that Matter You have an idea in your head about what features matter most to you.  Take a moment to write those down and talk those over with your team.  And if you need some ideas for features that you should be considering, take a look at our free Guide to Choosing the Best Technology to Grow Your Missions Program.  The best thing you can do is map out your desired features and then start evaluating which tool works best for you.    Tip #3 - Ask the Right Questions There may be a ton of questions you want to ask about any technology, as you should.  Many of these questions you can answer on your own as you look through their sales site and explore features.  But there are other questions you’ll have that might be specific to your needs or processes.  Be sure to contact the tools you’re exploring to help answer those questions.  Here are a few questions we recommend considering when looking at any new software: Does it manage online fundraising? Is it simple for our staff to use? Is it simple for our participants to use? Can it scale to our ultimate vision in missions engagement? Does it help mature our participants toward greater life engagement? Do applicants need to fill out application data from scratch each time? Can you control what each trip admin can and cannot do? Do trip members have dedicated fundraising pages? Are your trip participants notified of financial progress? Does it help you tell your organization’s missional story?   Tip #4 - Engage Others on Your Team Don’t make this decision on your own… certainly don’t feel the weight of the decision needs to be completely on your shoulders.  Consider engaging your boss, your finance department, your IT department, your communications department, your team leaders, and whoever else helps make the whole world of short term missions a reality at your organization. You will be thankful for their wisdom and insights.     Tip #5 - Build a Comparison Chart You know what you’re looking for in a mission trip software solution.  As you look through various options and solutions, create a simple comparison chart of your own that helps you see things side by side.  You know what’s important to you so, in some ways, you’re the only one who can build that chart.  Feel free to take a look at our comparison page to get an idea of how to start building your comparison chart.     Most of all… have fun!  I know, how is selecting a technology fun?  But it can be… this season of exploring is short-lived and it really is one that can help you dream of what you could be doing.  Enjoy this exploration as you investigate all the possibilities and narrow in your selection.