Among the main purposes and activities of ICI are:

• to assist member institutions with information, staff expertise and other appropriate resources, including the administration of grants for the collective benefit of member colleges;
• to provide collective information about independent higher education in Indiana to public and private bodies as appropriate;
• to represent the interests of the independent college sector to the media, the general public and other audiences;
• to negotiate or provide a variety of collective services for member institutions in an effort to realize efficiencies of scale to reduce costs;
• to collect, analyze, interpret, and provide basic information about the member colleges individually and collectively as an aid in their institutional planning; and
• to solicit and receive gifts from corporations and foundations, which then are distributed among the member institutions.