Community Impact – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

The Dayton Foundation works to bring all voices to the table. From strengthening Black-led and Black-serving nonprofits, to collaborating on efforts to create change in Northwest Dayton, The Dayton Foundation is making Greater Dayton a more equitable community for all.

Here to help.

Tania Arseculeratne
Senior Community Engagement Officer
(937) 225-9966

Historical Initiatives & Projects

Minority Inclusion Steering Committee & the Minority Business Partnership

In 1999, The Dayton Foundation convened a Diversity Task Force to study and develop a plan to bring the issues of diversity and inclusion to the forefront in Greater Dayton. The Task Force’s key mission was to engage area businesses and minority leadership in meaningful conversation about the serious gaps that exist and the economic barriers that inhibit minority participation and success. These efforts led to the creation of the Minority Inclusion Steering Committee and its first operational entity, the Minority Economic Development Council, which later was renamed the Minority Business Partnership. Now a program of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, MBP works to create opportunities for local businesses by pairing minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses with large buying organizations within the region.

The challenge is to acknowledge that nothing will change unless things are done differently and deliberate plans and systems are put into place to change the current equity and inclusion landscape. Every entity in the community must look onto itself and ask what it is doing to bring about change.

William Gillispie
Former Dayton Foundation Governing Board Member and Co-chair of the Minority Inclusion Steering Committee

Learn more about the Minority Business Partnership, an economic development initiative, that seeks to grow our economy and strengthen area businesses by leveraging the region's minority assets

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