Our History
The Charleston Council for International Visitors (CCIV) has facilitated international exchange programming in Charleston for more than 15 years in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). During that time, CCIV has developed and hosted projects for emerging leaders from dozens of countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
First operating as a member of the Global Ties network (then known as the National Council for International Visitors) in 2010 under the leadership of Don Sparks, CCIV was established up as an independent nonprofit focused on international professional exchanges and citizen diplomacy in the Lowcountry. In this relationship, CCIV serves as a community-based member of the IVLP, responsible for developing and executing the Charleston-area programs for State Department-selected projects. CCIV also supports other exchange programming outside of the IVLP.
CCIV programming has regularly highlighted Charleston’s role in conversations on cultural preservation, interfaith dialogue, public education, heritage interpretation, international trade, and dozens of other topics through partnerships with local businesses, nonprofit organizations, government, and educational institutions. These programs have highlighted community responses to national tragedies, cutting-edge approaches to 21st-century challenges, and best practices in industry, education, and government.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, CCIV hosted the first in-person IVLP project to return to the United States. In the years since, CCIV has continued expanding its programming, including recent exchanges focused on heritage, infrastructure security, and youth engagement in civic life.
CCIV & Partnerships
Global Ties
Across the United States, there are 70 other community-based organizations like us, all members of the Global Ties Network, which Global Ties U.S. leads and supports. The Global Ties Network showcases the best of America’s history, culture, and innovation – and the finest that South Carolina has to offer – to future global leaders.
IVLP
What unites our Network is the IVLP, our country’s flagship professional exchange program, widely recognized as one of the most effective, low-cost diplomacy tools to identify and influence key decision makers abroad on issues important to U.S. foreign policy. The IVLP and other exchange programs bolster U.S. security by promoting cooperation with global leaders in law enforcement, cybersecurity, science and tech innovation, business, and other critical areas for our country.
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina is one of America’s oldest and most beautifully preserved cities. Founded in 1670 by English colonists, the settlement was named Charles Town in honor of King Charles II and quickly grew into a thriving seaport. Its strategic location between the Cooper and Ashley Rivers made it a hub for exporting rice, indigo, and cotton, earning it a reputation as the “Little London” of the New World.
From its earliest days, Charleston embraced religious tolerance, welcoming French Huguenots, Baptists, Jews, Lutherans, and Catholics — a legacy that earned it the nickname “The Holy City.” The city weathered countless challenges over the centuries, including fires, hurricanes, a major earthquake in 1886, and the Civil War, yet always rebuilt and endured.
Today, Charleston is celebrated as a living museum of American history. Its 300-year-old streets, historic architecture, and vibrant culture make it one of the most distinctive cities in the United States — a place, as native writer Elizabeth O’Neill Verner put it, “worth keeping.”