Joseph Maselli has been the catalyst for countless Italian American activities in the community, founding the first state-wide organization of Italian American activities in the community, founding the first state-wide organization of Italian Americans that later became the Italian American Federation of the Southeast, an umbrella organization with over 9,000 members in states: Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

He is the only Italian American in the United States who has successfully organized clubs statewide. Ten years later, he founded the Italian American Renaissance Foundation Museum and Research Library, the first of its kind in the South, which contains more than 400 oral tape histories, vertical files on 25,000 individuals, and 5,500 Italian American books. To honor Louisiana, Italian Americans who have excelled in athletics, he founded the Louisiana American Italian Sports Hall of Fame.