Who uses Joshua Project
Source: internal analytics, updated 2026
What's broken
The platform was built for a desktop, English-speaking, North American audience. That is no longer who uses it.
Thirty years of tech debt
The core systems date to the early 2000s. They can't deliver real-time updates, they don't scale, and performance degrades as traffic grows.
English only
The largest missionary-sending countries now include Brazil, Nigeria, South Korea, and the Philippines. The site is available in English.
Built for a desktop
52% of visits come from a phone. The navigation, the data tables, and the map tools were all designed for a mouse and a wide screen.
One view for everyone
Every visitor gets the same page. There is no way to narrow the data to a region, a role, or a sending context.
What we're building
A two-to-three year rebuild of the whole stack, in three phases.
This is a rewrite, not a redesign. The database, the application, and the front end all get replaced.
Joshua Project is used across denominations and agencies partly because it is neutral and free to use. Keeping it that way means the rebuild is paid for by donors instead of by the people who depend on the data.
Three phases
- 1 Infrastructure and core systems
- 2 User experience and mobile platform
- 3 Advanced features and global scale
Two to three years, depending on funding.
In the rebuild
- Cloud database and infrastructure replacing the legacy systems
- Mobile-first pages that hold up on a slow connection
- Twelve languages
- Views that adapt to a visitor's region, role, and ministry focus
- An analytics dashboard for planning (JP+ membership)
- People group adoption, connecting prayer networks to specific peoples
- AI-assisted reporting so researchers can file from the field
- A public API for mission management software
- Shared workspaces for field teams, sending churches, and prayer partners
Funding the rebuild
How much of the team we can staff depends on what comes in.
Raised so far
$81,820.30 of $550,000 raised
Foundation
$250K A Tech Director, core software licensing, and the operational increases the rebuild requires.Growth
$450K Adds a Software Engineer and a UX/UI Designer to the Tech Director.Transformation
$550K The full team: Tech Director, Software Engineer, Data Engineer, and UX/UI Designer.$1,650,000 funds the full team for all three years of the rebuild.
Duration dependent on number of hires and volunteers, as well as depth of features (anticipated 2–3 years and keeping at least one tech director on staff post-rebuild).
The data outlives the software
Thirty years of research is only as useful as the platform that serves it. Rebuilding that platform is the work in front of us, and it is paid for by churches and individuals who decide it matters.
