Who we are

The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), founded in 1967 by progressive church leaders and activists, is the first national foundation led by people of color. For over 40 years, IFCO has supported community organizations and public policy groups fighting for justice and self-determination by providing technical assistance, training organizers, administering grants and using its global network of grassroots organizers, clergy and other professionals to advance the struggles for justice and self determination of the oppressed.

IFCO’s mission is to support marginalized communities by contributing to the advancement of human and civil rights. We aim to be a bridge between faith communities and grassroots groups, particularly those led by people of color, and provide tools, training, and resources to support community-building and advocacy efforts.

At IFCO, we envision a world where justice, equity and self determination are not privileges but rights accessible to all. We believe in our collective power to dismantle systems of oppression and create opportunities for marginalized communities to thrive. Through our work we aim to be a bridge, a resource, and a unifying voice in the ongoing movement for social justice, building a world where every human being has the opportunity to live with dignity, free from domination, exploitation and injustice.

What we do

Fiscal sponsorship program: Administrative support for grassroots organizations working towards the advancement of justice in marginalized communities in the United States.

Education and Training: Leadership development, community organizing and capacity building trainings for faith-based and grassroots organizations.
Medical Program: Scholarships for low income youth to study medicine at the Latin America School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba.
Friendshipment Caravans and Solidarity Campaigns: People to People initiatives fostering international solidarity with our family across the United States, in Cuba and the global south.

Learn more

Bridging struggles, building unity

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Bridging struggles, building unity 〰️

IFCO TEAM

Rev. Claudia De la Cruz, MDiv./MSW

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Claudia De la Cruz is a mother, popular educator, community organizer and theologian. Being at the nexus of many different projects, organizations and social movements, Claudia connects different groups of people to link and merge struggles in the overarching fight for justice.
She graduated from Union Theological Seminary/ Columbia University and served as pastor of her home church, Iglesia San Romero de Las Américas - UCC for eight years. Claudia also co- founded and served as co-Executive Director of The People’s Forum in New York City. In her roles at San Romero Church and The People’s Forum, Claudia remained committed to the work towards building internationalism and people to people solidarity.
For nearly 30 years, Claudia has demonstrated a fierce commitment to building people power locally, nationally and internationally.
Carolyn Yao

OPERATIONS MANAGER
Carolyn Yao is an organizer and educator born and raised in Queens, New York. Her movement experience spans from anti-racism struggles as a student, to fighting housing displacement in New York City, to being a leader in the anti-war movement.
Carolyn has organized major popular education events and campaigns across the country, creating spaces for working class people to build solidarity between each other in the U.S. and build bridges with working people abroad. Carolyn believes that solidarity must mean commitment to political organization on the path to true liberation.
She is joining IFCO to push forward its vision of connecting networks to fight for dignity for all!
Samira Addrey, MD

ELAM COORDINATOR (U.S.)
Samira Mifatou Addrey is a 2020 graduate of the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba. She was born and raised in Accra, Ghana before migrating to the United States at the age of nine with her family. She credits her parents for instilling a thirst for learning and the conviction to selflessly serve her immediate and global community. She believes in health as a human right and fulfilling the ethos of Cuban medical training which is based on solidarity, altruism and humanitarianism.
She is currently working at IFCO/Pastors for Peace as the ELAM Scholarship Program Coordinator while completing the necessary requirements to apply for medical residency in the United States. Her field of interests include but are not limited to Rural Community Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Cultural Psychiatry.
Sonyi Lopez

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR
Sonyi Lopez is a Producer, Editor and Community Journalist and Organizer from the South Bronx. Through visual storytelling, Sonyi highlights the Bronx with an authentic lens focusing on the borough's artists, activists, movers and shakers while amplifying collective voices of the community and discussing topics that truly matter and resonate to the people.
Sonyi is currently a freelance video producer, contributing to Democracy Now! She joined IFCO in 2024 to assist the organization with digital media as a Communications Coordinator. Her first contribution to IFCO was on her first trip to Cuba, where she filmed the US ELAM 2024 graduation ceremony.
Emily Thomas

DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR
A Kansas farm, Birmingham in 1962, Detroit in 1968, Cuba in 1978. The blessing of many experiences and teachers who shared their lives and wisdom with me. Worked as laboratory technician, ESL and Jr. High School teacher, organizer for Clergy and Laity Concerned for Vietnam, immigration organizer for the Presbyterian Church, and then IFCO. Also claim the titles of mother, wife and now grandmother.
Elice Higginbotham

FISCAL SPONSORSHIP COORDINATOR
The Rev. Elice Higginbotham is a retired minister of the United Church of Christ. Throughout an electic professional and post-retirement career, she has served as a pastor, denominational and interfaith staffperson, religious journalist and social justice activist in New York, New Mexico, Ohio and Arizona. During the late 1970’s Elice served for three years on the staff of the Cuba Resource Center, a faith community-supported project which enabled U.S. and Cuban churches to be in contact with each other and engaged in education and advocacy on Cuba with the U.S. religious constituency.
She visited Cuba four times as a member of faith community delegations and for research. She is a former member of the IFCO Board of Directors and was a member of the New York City Pastors for Peace/Friendshipment Committee, and presently serves as IFCO’s Grants Administrator, coordinating IFCO’s Fiscal Sponsorship program.