Two Maryland-based organizations dedicated to economic and technological innovation — the Mid-Atlantic Gigabit Innovation Collaboratory (MAGIC) and Innovators of Progress (IOP) — recently linked up with a new deal that lets IOP fundraise under MAGIC’s nonprofit status.
A statement announcing MAGIC’s new financial sponsorship of IOP noted that the move allows IOP to accept donations and scale its signature pre-accelerator program for full-time undergraduate, graduate and vocational students. The partnership will also change the program criteria to incorporate two-year degree-seekers, as well as bring more focus to rural Maryland areas — for instance, Carroll County, in whose county seat of Westminster MAGIC is based.
“MAGIC’s mission to build a technology ecosystem that creates and nurtures entrepreneurship is in lockstep with the mission of Innovators of Progress,” Markus Proctor, IOP’s founder and executive director, said in a statement. “Working together will be extraordinarily beneficial to our region’s ability to cultivate and retain technology-enabled ventures.”
