In this interview with Zunia, Joe Cistone, CEO of International Partners in Mission (IPM), talks about their work working with marginalized children. He discusses the unique challenges they face as a faith-based organization.

Zunia: Tell us about International Partners in Mission and its work to help marginalized children, women, and youth.

Joe Cistone: IPM (International Partners in Mission) works across borders of faith and culture on behalf of children, women, and youth, to create partnerships that build justice, peace, and hope. IPM partners with community organizations, primarily in Latin America & the Caribbean, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, providing seed funding and technical assistance with the goal of enabling the organizations to become self-sustaining. To complement these partnerships, IPM created the Immersion Experience Program. The Immersion Experience Program offers 7-12 day travel opportunities to the communities in which our Partners work. Participants engage in dialogue with Project Partners in the Region. Each night, IPM Staff facilitate reflection sessions, collaborating with group leaders, to help participants understand the experience as it impacts their own lives, and their role as global citizens.


Zunia: How does IPM go about connecting potential donors with local communities? What are the main challenges you face in this task?

Cistone: IPM connects potential and current donors with local communities through the Immersion Experience Program, direct written communication between our Project Partners and donors, as well as through our Regional Staff. We believe that true partnership is born out of personal interaction. Our donors often receive letters and updates from the Project Partners that they have supported for years. When they decide to participate with us in an Immersion Experience, those relationships deepen, and the partnership becomes one of friendship. Our Regional Staff help to facilitate these partnerships by maintaining our connection with our Project Partners, and providing the rest of the IPM Staff, as well as donors and Friends, with updates on Project Partner needs and successes.

The primary challenges to facilitating these connections are in ensuring communication between IPM, our donors, and our Project Partners. Part of this is recognizing the needs of both sides—donors to feel connected to the Project Partners and understand where their funding is going, and the Project Partners to feel like there are individuals who care about them and the progress of their organization. For IPM, the challenge is in assuring that this communication is consistent and thorough. An additional challenge in working across cultural boundaries, is the need for us, as North Americans, to abandon the notion that we know how to do everything. Working with our donors and our Project Partners, we are challenged to acknowledge and celebrate the wisdom and assets of the local communities in which our Project Partners are working, instead of entering communities with the mindset of “fixing” everything on our own.


Zunia: Give us some examples of how your Immersion Experience Program has helped to raise global awareness and create personalized partnerships.

Cistone: IPM's Immersion Experience Program (IEP) has facilitated personalized partnerships and helped to raise global awareness for hundreds of individuals. Most typically, these individuals participate in an IEP through their school, congregation, or company. Many participants participate in an Immersion Experience with IPM, and remain involved for many years with IPM, either as donors or volunteers.

In other instances, institutions have developed a relationship with one of IPM’s Project Partners. Fosbel Ceramic Technologies, a Cleveland-based company, sent four employees on an Immersion Experience to India with IPM. Upon their return, Fosbel partnered with the Notre Dame Community College, an IPM Project Partner that offers vocational education programs to young women in Vaniakudy, INDIA, helping to furnish the school’s English language program with necessary teaching tools and technology.

We are always happy when longtime donors or partners choose to join us on an Immersion Experience. Recently, the Executive Director of the Singing for Change foundation, an IPM funder for many years, joined us on an Immersion Experience to Kenya. This has made the partnership between Singing for Change and IPM’s Project Partners more authentic and personal.


Zunia: What are some unique challenges you face as a faith-based organization?

Cistone: As a faith based organization, some public and/or secular institutions sometimes have some resistance to partnering with us. As an interfaith organization, we are in the unique position of being able to facilitate partnerships, reflections, and discussions that acknowledge the faith traditions of each individual, without promoting a particular interpretation of faith. However, it is a consistent challenge for us to communicate what it means to be an interfaith organization, particularly when working with institutions that have no faith basis.

Another challenge that we face is remaining focused on the “faith” of our mission and work. When working in international development, there can be a tendency to get so wrapped up in the work, that the intention or philosophy gets lost. We try as a Staff to remind one another of the spiritual underpinnings of our work, and reflect together periodically as a means of both self-care and inter-personal sharing.


Zunia: Has the recent financial crisis affected IPM? If so, what steps have you taken to overcome this hurdle? What measures do you think the Obama Administration could take to insulate NGOs from the economic downturn?

Cistone: The recent financial crisis has affected IPM in reduced donations from donors, as well as postponed grants from several foundations. Additionally, because IPM relies on the Immersion Experience Program as a major source of income, as fewer people have the economic means to travel, IPM has suffered additional losses. Like most nonprofits, we have overcome this in several strategic ways: cutting expenses by consolidating Staff positions; delaying any unnecessary expenses; and soliciting additional donations, including a $100,000 Challenge Match from an anonymous donor. IPM has been upfront with our Board of Directors and our donors about our need for additional support at this time, and has received a very positive response.

As an international organization, we are deeply encouraged by President Obama’s international roots, and his particular connection to Africa. It is our hope that his unique life situation not only serves to inform decisions on foreign policy, but also to recognize the important work of organizations like IPM, working in the United States in partnership with individuals in marginalized communities around the world. Having an individual in the White House who recognizes that value and advocates for nonprofits will hopefully serve as a model for US citizens who are able to give philanthropically, but have not done so since the economic downturn.

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Joseph Cistone provides the strategic vision, leadership, and supervision of all activities, programs and staff of this faith-based, international, non-governmental organization. IPM has offices in Cleveland Heights, OH, St. Louis, MO, El Salvador, India, Italy, and Kenya as well as programs in some fifty communities and five continents. Joe began his work with IPM in June of 2001.

Before working for IPM, Joe served as the Vice President of Capital, Endowment, and Philanthropic Programs at The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Foundation (1997-2001). Prior to his position at The Catholic Diocese, Joe lived in Rome, Italy for seven years where he worked with a variety of organizations. Joe was Associate Director of the International Office for Justice, Peace, & Integrity of Creation of the Franciscan Friars Minor (1995-1997), and the Director of the Joined Hands Refugee Center (1991-1995). He is married to Alyne Kemunto Cistone and is the father of Francesca and Joseph Jacob Cistone.

Joe holds degrees from the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts), Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut), has studied in the Doctoral Program at the Gregorian University (Rome, ITALY) and is currently completing a Doctor of Ministry at Eden Theological Seminary (Saint Louis, Missouri). In addition to a number of international Boards, Joe serves as a mentor at the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio), was a member of the charter class of Cleveland Bridge Builders (2001), and is a frequent guest lecturer and public speaker at academic institutions, congregations, and community events. In 2006, he was the recipient of the Sanctae Crucis Award from the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA), the highest non-degree recognition bestowed by the College on an alumnus or an alumna.