KCIVC is part of a national network of program agencies and more than 90 community-based organizations under the National Council of International Visitors (NCIV). These nonprofit groups design and implement professional programs and provide cultural activities and home hospitality opportunities for foreign leaders, specialists, and international scholars. NCIV members have served as the U.S. Department of State's private sector partners since the inception of the International Visitor Leadership Program.  Through this program, each year approximately 4,000 foreign leaders and specialists come to the United States to meet and confer with professional counterparts and to experience first-hand its institutions.  These visitors – promising leaders in government, politics, the media, education, labor, science, and the arts – are selected by American embassies overseas. In March 2001, NCIV with its legion of volunteers including those in KCIVC was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Mission of NCIV and its members is to promote excellence in Citizen Diplomacy.  Citizen diplomacy is the idea that the individual citizen has the right, even the responsibility, to help shape United States foreign relations "one handshake at a time." By opening their homes, offices and schools to foreign leaders participating in the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and other exchanges, KCIVC member citizen diplomats foster international understanding and cooperation, constructive economic connections and peaceful interaction.