Our Mission

The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) is a broad-based organization which works to coalesce, train, and organize the communities of Greater Boston across all religious, racial, ethnic, class and neighborhood lines for the public good. Our primary goal is to develop local leadership and organized power to fight for social justice. We strive to hold both public and private power holders accountable for their public responsibilities, as well as to initiate actions and programs of our own to solve community and economic problems.

We are multi-issue. The issues we work on come from within our institutions, from the concerns of the people. We cross neighborhood, city, racial, religious, and class lines to find common ground and act on our faith and democratic values.

GBIO is affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) and is inspired by the 65 other IAF-affiliated organizations working in cities and metropolitan areas across the country.

Founding
GBIO was founded by a group of 45 clergy and community leaders who began meeting in January of 1996. What motivated this founding group to begin building GBIO was a common desire to transcend the historic divisions in Boston that existed between neighborhoods, particularly around race and class issues. These founders were motivated to build a new organization which could help build relationships across these divides and provide a new vehicle for different constituencies to act together on common interests in ways which would be powerful and effective. This founding group raised seed money from ten different religious denominations and the first staff organizer was hired in August 1997. In November of 1998, GBIO held its founding assembly attended by some 4000 people from across Greater Boston. This watershed event in Boston's recent history was the largest and most diverse mass meeting held in Boston during the past 25 years.