What do we mean by “Mission Creep”?

Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary defines mission creep as “the gradual broadening of the original objectives of a mission or organization”. Mission creep can lead to reduced resources and teams being ‘spread too thin’ when they are trying to address too many things at once. Often, fears of mission creep are founded, particularly when existing organisations working under one set of practices gradually begin to take up space that had previously been filled by others, especially when the motivations are about increasing the organisation’s money or power. 

Example of mission creep:

An organisation that had been founded to run a national sexual violence hotline begins leading independent policy advocacy to shape the government’s funding priorities to more closely align with its own, even though there is already a strong national sexual violence policy coalition in place. The hotline organisation leads its own policy advocacy rather than joining the existing efforts, even though its mission was focused on service provision.

Equitable cross-movement collaboration is not mission creep.

When organisational fears take priority over movement impact, collaborations are often only seen as ‘safe’ when the organisation itself sets the priority. For example, anti-trafficking professionals may only acknowledge collaborations as Anti-Trafficking collaborations only when the anti-trafficking organisational partners set the agenda and frame both the problems and the solutions. This leads collaborations to feel more like roundtables, with cross-movement partners feeling like guests at the Anti-Trafficking Table. When people advocate for more equitable partnerships, they may be cautioned to avoid ‘mission creep’ or told “we can’t work on everything at once!” This kind of resistance may come from not understanding collaborative principles, lack of skills for equitable cross-movement facilitation, misunderstanding movements, or fears of losing control or funding. Ultimately, the desire for ongoing access to power and funding drives mission creep, but it often leverages fears of mission creep to reduce collaboration, too.

To get a better idea of what cross-movement collaboration could look like without mission creep, see: Shared Risk and Protective Factors.

Recommended citation: “Mission Creep.” Movement Glossary. Collective Threads Initiative, 2026. https://www.collectivethreads.org (date accessed).