Joshua Project
Joshua Project is a Colorado Springs-based non-profit research initiative that compiles and shares comprehensive ethnic people group data on unreached and frontier populations, serving global Christian missions agencies, churches, missionaries, researchers, and individual believers through free web tools, APIs, and mobile apps.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1995
- HeadquartersHouston, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Joshua Project does
Joshua Project is a Colorado Springs-based faith-based research initiative founded in 1995 that compiles and disseminates comprehensive data on the world's ethnic people groups, with a specific focus on unreached and frontier populations. Its platform catalogs 16,436 people groups globally, identifying 7,162 unreached groups (43.6%) and 4,823 frontier groups (29.3%), collectively representing 3.62 billion people with limited access or response to the gospel. The underlying technology comprises a relational database with standardized Harvest Information Standards coding (ROP3, ROG3, ROL3), integrated into web-based products including the Global Dashboard, Interactive Data Explorer, Light the Nations Prayer Map, country-level views, and People Group Profiles. A daily content engine ('Unreached of the Day') is distributed across web, email, podcast, mobile apps (iOS and Android), printable prayer cards, and a Substack newsletter.
The platform serves five primary segments: missions organizations and agencies (e.g., International Mission Board, Jesus Film Project, Samaritan's Purse, Pioneers), local churches, missionaries and church planters, missions researchers, and individual believers seeking prayer guidance. Distribution is overwhelmingly self-serve: a free website, free API for non-commercial use, downloadable Excel datasets, and mobile applications drive global reach, with 75% of users outside North America and 68% accessing via mobile. Joshua Project is a ministry of Frontier Ventures (formerly the U.S. Center for World Mission) and is operationally and legally structured as a non-profit with no traditional equity investors.
The business model is donation-funded, with core data and tools provided free of charge to remove barriers to global missions mobilization. Supplemental revenue comes from printed collateral and assets (posters, booklets), customized research and data formatting services, and bulk/specialized data packages for organizations. The organization is currently running a $550,000 tech-rebuild fundraising campaign to deliver a mobile-first platform translated into 12 languages, having raised approximately $81,820 to date, signaling both a strategic pivot toward the global-south user base and a capital-constrained execution path.
Joshua Project firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Joshua Project
- Legal name
- Joshua Project
- Website
- https://joshuaproject.net
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1995
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Joshua Project is a Colorado Springs-based non-profit research initiative that compiles and shares comprehensive ethnic people group data on unreached and frontier populations, serving global Christian missions agencies, churches, missionaries, researchers, and individual believers through free web tools, APIs, and mobile apps.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Joshua Project is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Houston
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Joshua Project business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain
Revenue model
- Charitable Donations: Joshua Project is a faith-based initiative solely dependent on charitable contributions. As a non-profit ministry, they rely on donations to cover operational costs and continue providing resources. The organization is currently running a tech-rebuild fundraising campaign to modernize their platform.
- Printed Collateral and Assets: Physical materials including posters, booklets, and other print assets require production and shipping costs, for which Joshua Project charges.
- Customized Services: Tailored reports, specialized research, or custom data formatting services offered for a fee to organizations requiring specific data configurations.
- Bulk Data Packages: Core data is publicly available free of charge, but bulk or specialized data packages for organizations and researchers come with a cost to support Joshua Project's work.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free core data access |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Printed Collateral |
| Subscription | Pay-as-you-go | Custom Data Services |
| Subscription | Pay-as-you-go | Bulk Data Packages |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels9 records
Joshua Project product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Joshua Project compiles, curates, and disseminates a comprehensive database of the world's 16,436 ethnic people groups, with detailed emphasis on the 7,162 unreached and 4,823 frontier people groups. The data is delivered through a free web-based platform, downloadable Excel datasets, a public API, mobile applications, interactive maps and dashboards, and prayer mobilization resources (daily Unreached of the Day feed, prayer cards, guides, videos). The platform is used by mission agencies, churches, missionaries, and individual believers to plan outreach, coordinate effort, and pray strategically for unreached peoples worldwide.
Product overview
Joshua Project is a research initiative that offers a web-based data platform focused on ethnic people groups worldwide with the fewest followers of Christ. The platform consists of a core people group database with interconnected tools including the Global Dashboard for statistics, Interactive Data Explorer for custom visualizations, Light the Nations Prayer Map for geographic prayer focus, Unreached of the Day for daily prayer reminders, People Group Perspectives for filtered views, Frontier People Groups for the most unreached populations, and People Group Adoption for focused engagement. Supporting resources include downloadable data via API, prayer cards, prayer guides, videos, presentations, and infographics. The service is provided free of charge for non-commercial missions research and educational use.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Global Dashboard A big-picture view showing key statistics and insights about unreached people groups globally, providing a quick understanding of the scope and scale of the need.
- Interactive Data Explorer A tool for creating custom visualizations and exploring data interactively, allowing users to build their own filters and discover patterns in unreached people group data.
- Light the Nations Prayer Map An interactive prayer map allowing users to see the world through a missions lens, pray for peoples and places, and discover where the gospel is still moving forward.
- Unreached of the Day A daily rotating feed featuring an unreached people photo, statistics and prayer points, available via email, mobile app, podcast, calendar, print/download, and prayer cards.
- People Group Profiles Statistical profiles of all ethnic people groups worldwide, many with photos, maps and text, including population, language, religion, and progress status indicators.
- Countries Country-specific data related to Christian status, persecution rankings, human development index, economic levels and religious makeup.
- People Group Perspectives Views of the Great Commission and unreached people groups from perspectives such as by geography, ethnicity, religion, language and more.
- Frontier People Groups The most challenging frontier people groups where fewer than 1 in 1,000 individuals follow Christ, essential for pioneer work reaching nearly 1.9 billion individuals.
- People Group Adoption A program allowing churches, organizations, or small groups to adopt a frontier people group, enabling focused prayer, strategic giving, and engagement.
- Downloadable Data and API Excel downloads and bulk data packages available for any listing, as well as API access for integrating Joshua Project data into other websites.
- Unreached of the Day Mobile App
Quantifiable outcome
- 3,218 frontier people groups identified (nearly 1.9 billion people) where pioneer work is essential for gospel advancement
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Joshua Project
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Joshua Project technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature6 records
Joshua Project partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
22 partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.
- Africa Inland MissioncoreAfrica Inland Mission uses Joshua Project data to identify and target unreached peoples in Africa for church planting efforts. This partnership exemplifies Joshua Project's role in facilitating mission agency coordination.
- AIMScoreAIMS (probably Alliance of Missionary Enterprises) uses Joshua Project data for mission planning and coordination in reaching unreached peoples.
- Alliance for the UnreachedcoreStrategic alliance focused specifically on unreached people groups, using Joshua Project data to coordinate efforts among member organizations.
- Anglican Frontier MissionscoreAnglican Frontier Missions uses Joshua Project data to identify frontier peoples for Anglican mission engagement.
- Crossover GlobalcoreCrossover Global utilizes Joshua Project data for strategic deployment of church planting movements among unreached peoples.
- EthnologuecoreEthnologue (language database) and Joshua Project share data and integrate language classification with people group information for comprehensive unreached peoples analysis.
- Frontiers USAcoreFrontiers USA is a pioneer missions agency that uses Joshua Project data to target unreached Muslim peoples for church planting.
- Frontier Ventures (formerly U.S. Center for World Mission)flagshipJoshua Project officially became a ministry of the U.S. Center for World Mission (now Frontier Ventures) in 2006. This is the parent organization providing institutional support and alignment with the frontier missions movement.
- Global Frontier MissionscoreGlobal Frontier Missions uses Joshua Project data to train and deploy missionaries to unreached people groups worldwide.
- Gospel AmbitioncoreGospel Ambition utilizes Joshua Project data for mission mobilization and church planting strategy.
- International Mission Board (IMB)coreThe International Mission Board (Southern Baptist Convention) is one of the largest missionary sending agencies, using Joshua Project data extensively for strategic mission planning and deployment.
- IndigitouscoreIndigitous uses Joshua Project data and has developed resources like the Children's Frontier Peoples prayer guide in collaboration with Joshua Project.
- Jesus Film ProjectcoreJesus Film Project uses Joshua Project data to identify target populations for Jesus film distribution and church planting movements.
- Missio NexuscoreMissio Nexus connects mission agencies and uses Joshua Project data for prayer coordination and strategic mission planning.
- Perspectives USAcorePerspectives USA (discipling movement) uses Joshua Project data in their educational curriculum for missions mobilization.
- PioneerscorePioneers is a missionary agency that uses Joshua Project data to identify unreached peoples for pioneer church planting efforts.
- Pray 10/40corePray 10/40 focuses prayer on the 10/40 Window region, using Joshua Project data to identify unreached peoples in this strategic geographic area.
- Samaritan's PursecoreSamaritan's Purse uses Joshua Project data for mission planning and humanitarian outreach to unreached people groups.
- Team ExpansioncoreTeam Expansion uses Joshua Project data to identify and engage unreached people groups for church planting movements.
- Traveling TeamcoreTraveling Team uses Joshua Project data for missions mobilization and church planting strategy.
- Unknown NationscoreUnknown Nations focuses on unreached and lesser-known people groups, using Joshua Project data for identification and engagement.
- Project 42coreProject 42 uses Joshua Project data to focus efforts on reaching the 42 largest unreached people groups.
Scale indicators9 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Joshua Project competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- The Traveling Team: Stateside missions mobilization organization listed as a Joshua Project data partner. Comparable as a peer-sized mobilization-focused entity relying on JP's people-group dataset.
- Missio Nexus: Network of evangelical mission agencies, churches, and schools that uses Joshua Project data for prayer coordination and strategic planning. Comparable as an adjacent mobilization platform serving the same constituency.
Direct peers
- World Christian Database: Subscription demographic and religious database on Christianity worldwide, operated through Gordon-Conwell's Center for the Study of Global Christianity. Comparable in mission and methodology to Joshua Project's people-group dataset.
- Center for the Study of Global Christianity: Gordon-Conwell research center publishing data on global Christianity, including status of evangelization and unreached peoples. Directly comparable as a research authority producing overlapping datasets.
- Operation World: InterVarsity/Paternoster-published prayer and research handbook for world evangelization. Closest direct comparable: provides country-by-country, people-group-level Christian missions data used by the same audience as Joshua Project.
- Ethnologue: SIL International's reference catalog of the world's languages. Listed as a Joshua Project data partner and integration, Ethnologue supplies the language dimension of people-group classification used by JP.
Broad incumbents
- Pioneers: International church-planting mission agency targeting unreached peoples. Listed core data partner; comparable in mission focus and as a significant institutional consumer of JP data.
- Frontier Ventures: Parent organization of Joshua Project (formerly U.S. Center for World Mission). Broader ministry focused on frontier missions, completing the task, and movements; comparable as the umbrella entity housing JP.
- Frontiers USA: Pioneer church-planting agency focused on Muslim unreached peoples. A core data partner that consumes and informs Joshua Project's dataset; comparable as a major institutional user in the same niche.
- International Mission Board: Southern Baptist Convention's global mission agency, one of the largest senders worldwide. Uses Joshua Project data extensively; comparable as a major institutional consumer and steward of missions data.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Joshua Project social profiles
Digital presenceJoshua Project financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Joshua Project leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Joshua Project funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Joshua Project M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Joshua Project
What does Joshua Project do?
Joshua Project compiles, curates, and disseminates a comprehensive database of the world's 16,436 ethnic people groups, with detailed emphasis on the 7,162 unreached and 4,823 frontier people groups. The data is delivered through a free web-based platform, downloadable Excel datasets, a public API, mobile applications, interactive maps and dashboards, and prayer mobilization resources (daily Unreached of the Day feed, prayer cards, guides, videos). The platform is used by mission agencies, churches, missionaries, and individual believers to plan outreach, coordinate effort, and pray strategically for unreached peoples worldwide.
Is Joshua Project a public or private company?
Joshua Project is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Joshua Project founded?
Joshua Project was founded in 1995. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Joshua Project based?
Joshua Project is headquartered in Houston, United States, in the North America region.
How does Joshua Project make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Charitable Donations are the primary driver. The others are printed Collateral and Assets, customized Services and bulk Data Packages.
Who are Joshua Project's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are The Traveling Team and Missio Nexus. Direct peers are World Christian Database, Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Operation World and Ethnologue. Broad incumbents are Pioneers, Frontier Ventures, Frontiers USA and International Mission Board.
Does Joshua Project have an API?
Yes. Joshua Project provides a free API for non-commercial missions research and educational use. The API allows users to access people group data, statistics, and related information. Data can be downloaded or integrated into other websites via API. Specialized queries and datasets are also available by contacting Joshua Project. Usage terms require non-commercial use only, proper attribution displaying "Data provided by Joshua Project" with hyperlink, no direct replication of Joshua Project services, and compliance with access limits to avoid impacting service performance. Developer documentation is at joshuaproject.net/resources/datasets.