The Multicultural Media & Correspondents Association (MMCA) is an official funder of Elevate Dayton. Nathan Dillard, Elevate Dayton’s publisher, serves on the MMCA Advisory Board and is a paid contractor of MMCA through his digital consulting agency LunarX Agency. 

Elevate Dayton is working with its first investors to accelerate and scale operations. The investors are the Multicultural Media & Correspondents Association (MMCA) based in Washington, D.C.

The MMCA is a growing group of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) media stakeholders unifying to help fix the media diversity problem. The key pillars of their efforts revolve around building coalitions, awareness and advocacy, constructive engagement, stakeholder assistance and honoring BIPOC media excellence.

Elevate Dayton is the MMCA’s first cohort in its BIPOC media incubator program. The program’s goal is to help BIPOC publishers become self-sustaining and scalable while accelerating their impact.

The business transformation process has five phases projected to take about a year to complete: Assessment, plan development, implementation, measurement and evaluation.

“We picked Elevate Dayton because it was well positioned for success,” said David Morgan, MMCA co-founder and president. “It had favorable market conditions, a visionary leader and a management team that had the capacity and commitment needed to excel in the demanding incubator pilot.”

The MMCA has also brought in Innovation Media Consulting Group to revamp Elevate Dayton’s editorial agenda and business plan. Innovation Media has consulted for the likes of The New York Times, BBC and other high-profile international media outlets.

“During our extended process of discussing and defining the Elevate Dayton mission, vision, values, personas, and editorial agendas, the Elevate Dayton team was always engaged, always curious, always probing,” said John Wilpers, a senior consultant for Innovation Media.

The next steps in the media incubator program are the implementation, measurement and evaluation phases. With the help of additional investors introduced through the MMCA, Elevate Dayton has hired two writers in Darius Beckham and Charisse Ponder to write weekly stories. Other initiatives include hosting events and further diversifying readership and revenue strategies.

“Elevate Dayton has a young, dynamic team that you cannot help but root for,” said Morgan. “What stood out for me was their entrepreneurial spirit and will-do attitude, complementary skill sets, commitment to success of the venture and digital proficiency.”

He also said the MMCA wants to help Elevate Dayton develop an editorial model and business plan that is sustainable and addresses the information gaps in the Dayton media ecosystem.