Interfaith America

Interfaith America (Formerly Interfaith Youth Core ^[1]) is a Chicago-based non-profit founded in 2002 by Eboo Patel.^[2] The organization’s stated mission is to inspire, equip, and connect leaders and institutions to unlock the potential of America’s religious diversity.^[3] Today it operates with approximately 60 full-time staff^[4] and a $15-million+ budget.^[5]Since 2023, IA has distributed more than $9 million to fund local pluralism and bridgebuilding projects. Since 2020, Interfaith America (IA) has published more than 2,500 articles on everyday pluralism and interfaith work in its digital magazine.^[6]

It has worked on five continents and with over 600 college campuses domestically.^[7]

Interfaith America (originally called Interfaith Youth Core) officially launched its operations at the 1999 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Cape Town, South Africa, under the direction of Eboo Patel, a Rhodes Scholar and author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation,^[8] and organizers Anastasia White and Jeff Pinzino.^{[9]: P. 114–119} At the time, Patel was finishing up his doctorate in the sociology of religion at Oxford University, so Pinzino spearheaded much of IFYC’s early organizational growth.^{[10]: P. 156} Upon completing his doctorate in 2002, Patel took over as executive director. A $35,000 grant from the Ford Foundation enabled IFYC to run its first conference of interfaith leaders and teach a graduate-level course on the methodology of interfaith work.^{[11]: P. 160}Since then, the organization has coordinated the Chicago Youth Council, a group of eight student interfaith leaders, Days of Interfaith Youth Service, and the Fellows Alliance, a year-long fellowship that trained student interfaith leaders on individual campuses.^{[12]: P. 168–170}Patel discuses the genesis of IFYC in-depth in his memoir, Acts of Faith.^{[13]: Chapter 8, "Building the Interfaith Youth Core", pp. 151–174}

In 2022, the organization officially rebranded as Interfaith America, expanding their mission from an exclusive focus on Higher Education to working in broader sectors such as healthcare, business, and government.^[14]

In September 2011, IFYC launched recruitment for its Interfaith Leaders for Social Action (ILSA) program.^[15]Through partnerships with NGOs in four different cities in India, ILSA trained 50 interfaith leaders, whose work will address social issues like child labor and domestic violence.^[15]The program receives support from the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor—Office of International Religious Freedom.^[15]

• 2011 - Launches recruitment for its Interfaith Leaders for Social Action (ILSA) program.^[15]
• 2015 – Begins a partnership with leading researchers that leads to the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Study (IDEALS), the first longitudinal study on religious diversity in higher education.^[16]
• 2018 – Publishes Interreligious/Interfaith Studies: Defining a New Field (Beacon Press), shaping academic discourse on interfaith education.^[17]

• 2022 – Rebrands to Interfaith America to reflect broader engagement with civic institutions, workplaces, and healthcare systems.^[14]
• 2023 - Launches the Team Up project, a nationwide bridgebuilding initiative, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity International, Catholic Charities USA, and YMCA of the USA. (As of 2025, the partnership has awarded nearly $1 million to more than 60 local affiliates for projects that bring communities together.)^[18]

• 2024 – Develops the Faith in Elections Playbook in collaboration with Protect Democracy to provide faith-based, civic, and campus communities with practical, nonpartisan resources to engage in U.S. elections.^[19]
• 2025 – Interfaith America launches a nationwide ad campaign with the centerpiece being a digital ad on a billboard in New York City’s Times Square.^[20]