International Partners in Mission

IPM works across borders of faith, culture, and economic circumstance with children, women, and youth to create partnerships that build justice, peace, and hope. In 2014, International Partners in Mission (IPM) is celebrating 40 years of life-changing activity worldwide.

Over the past four decades, IPM have achieved its goals, by partnering with 306 grassroots, community-based organizations in over 40 countries across the world working across the border of faith, culture and economic circumstances. Through a combination of seed funds, technical assistance &training, and personal engagement, IPM aims to equip individuals and their communities to initiate and implement projects to improve their living standards and address social injustices. IPM places high value on building strong personal relationships with the Project Partners to ensure mutual trust and understanding as well as focuses on ensuring support mechanisms that transcend finances.
At the moment, IPM partners with more than 60 Projects in 25 countries to work with over 60,000 of the most marginalized individuals around the world. The longest running partnerships have developed domestically in Ohio and Missouri as well as internationally in El Salvador, India, and Kenya, just to name a few.
Apart from supporting projects, IPM also organizes Immersion Experience Programs, which are short-term trips to many of the IPM-supported communities, during which participants have the opportunity to discover both the locals and the projects. The Immersion Experience Programs’ goals are to ensure cross-cultural exchanges and to allow participants to walk in solidarity with the local communities, to build empathy and solidarity.
In 2013, IPM organized 16 Immersion programs to 6 countries, including Kenya, El Salvador and Nepal. Over 1,600 individuals have participated in an Immersion Experience since the program began in 2002. Many of them are high-school and college students from institutions, such as Saint Ignatius High School and College of the Holy Cross. For many of the students the Immersion was a life-changing experience, because it was the first time they went abroad and were engrossed in a different culture.

IPM benefits from an experienced, professional, and engaged staff with expertise in program management, resource development, and international outreach. The Staff, Board and volunteers, have managed to secure the nonprofit international visibility and funds needed to accomplish its goals. IPM has built a diverse funding base, comprising individual and corporate donations, major gifts, planned gifts, fundraising events, and earned income. IPM has developed partnerships with academic institutions, congregations, businesses, and other nonprofits, whose expertise, resources and support have proved invaluable over the years.
As a result of its existing capabilities, IPM has supported its Project Partners develop a total of 347 Project Partner initiatives focusing on the needs of children, women, and youth. When covering short-term, start-up costs, IPM partnerships usually last 3-5 years. Partnerships can last 8-20 years, if the partners are covering the dynamic, long-term needs of their communities. The IPM-donated funds are typically used for seed funding, rent and facility payments, purchasing materials related to food production, learning/literacy development, and medical needs, staff trainings as well as educational and advocacy/awareness campaigns focusing on health and education.
In terms of the funding provided, for start-up projects, IPM typically grants its Project Partners sums between $2,500.00 and $10,000.00 per year. For projects, where it acts as the primary fiscal agent, IPM has provided donations from $20,000.00 to $100,000.00. In the last 13 years, IPM has provided $5,425,054 in Project Partner funding and technical support, averaging $417,312.00 per year.

Over the past 40 years, the funds provided by IPM have made a tremendous difference in the lives of the people and communities that they have been directed to. An example is the creation of the ACACCPAMU cooperative in Armenia, El Salvador. In 2007, IPM provided its financial and technical support to the community to build a communal space for a shared tortilla grinder. It has since expanded to ensure vocational training and equipment to local women to sew, create goods and have a stable source of income.
The Immersion Experience Programs (IEP) has been another key achievement, given the positive participants’ feedback. Most have revealed that they consider their IEPs to be life-changing experiences, which have enabled them to discover other cultures, walk in solidarity with those in need and become social justice advocates. A Loyola University participant, who went to El Salvador with IPM in 2013, stressed: ‘I came to El Salvador believing that as an individual it is difficult to make a difference. Not only do I feel like I can have an impact, but I've realized that even the smallest change means something.’ Another Holy Cross College participant, who went to Kenya in 2013, confessed: “My Immersion trip allowed me to understand more about global poverty and recognize the similarities between me and the Kenyan people.”
IPM is committed to ensure the same level of Project Partner support and transformative IEPs in 2014 and beyond. To increase its decision-making process’ efficiency, this year, IPM will implement a General Assembly model of governance, which will include an international and interregional gathering of IPM Staff, Project Partners, Board Members, Volunteers, and other like-minded stakeholders. IPM believes this model of a popular assembly of 40 stakeholders from different professional sectors will deepen IPM’s lived commitment to its Mission, Vision & Core Values; expand its commitment to indigenization and interfaith collaboration; and enhance & strengthen IPM’s existing Strategic Planning process.
In 2013, IPM also started fundraising for the 40th Anniversary Project Partner Reserve Fund of a minimum of $300,000. The Fund shall allow IPM to guarantee each Project Partner donation for distribution in the first quarter of the calendar year rather than having to raise those funds annually. The intention is to gradually build up the Reserve Fund over the next decade so that IPM can convert the Fund to a Project Partner Endowment with a minimum balance of $3million, and 5% annual payout, in 2024.
As for its funding objectives, IPM seeks a total of $400,000 over the next year and $5 million over the next 10 years to: fund the Annual Regional Conferences and, every four years, an international General Assembly; endow IPM Staff salaries; expand IPM’s brand recognition through social media marketing; potentially create naming rights/endowments for IPM’s international offices.