2023 Supplier Diversity Week
During the week of October 30, 2023, the City of Boston is planning a week of exciting announcements and workshop opportunities for businesses to participate in City contracting.
On Monday, October 30, 2023 Mayor Michelle Wu, Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion Segun Idowu, Chief Financial Officer Ashley Groffenberger, the Supplier Diversity and Procurement Program staff, and local business owners declared this week Supplier Diversity Week. They also announced several initiatives to foster a fair and competitive marketplace by bolstering the operational capabilities of Boston-based businesses historically excluded from competing for City contracts. Through additional investments in staffing and technology improvements, the City of Boston hopes to build on the progress made in fiscal year 2023 and further increase its discretionary spending with diverse firms towards its goal of 25 percent.
In an effort to further create transparency around supplier diversity and share the City’s progress, the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion (EOI) today released a report on equity in City contracting. The City of Boston awarded $151 million in contracts to City certified MBEs and WBEs during Fiscal Year 23, which represents a 133 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2020. The City awarded a total of $1.08 billion in contracts that began in Fiscal Year 2023.
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EQUITY IN CITY CONTRACTS FY23 REPORT
Workshops
During Supplier Diversity Week, the Department of Supplier Diversity is hosting a series of in-person and virtual workshops to support small businesses with resources and guidance in the City certification process:
SCALE ACCELERATOR
On Monday, October 30, 2023, Mayor Wu announced the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the groundbreaking Supplying Capital And Leveraging Education (SCALE) business accelerator program. The SCALE program will utilize $2.4 million in American Rescue Plan funding to support industry-specific technical assistance, educational programming, and consulting services. The SCALE program is designed to help small businesses, particularly those owned by BIPOC and women entrepreneurs, who face challenges accessing financial capital, business resources, and essential knowledge needed to compete for government, private, and institutional contracts. Proposals to this RFP are due on Monday, November 20, 2023 at 12:00 pm.
Request for Proposals (RFP)
The RFP seeks partners who will work collaboratively with the Department of Supplier Diversity to empower small businesses in specific industry sectors. The priority industry sectors were chosen because they represent areas of high City spending. With the goal of supporting a cohort of at least 18 small, Boston-based businesses in its first year, the SCALE program will provide business participants with the tools, training, and capital to address key capacity issues that prevent smaller businesses from competing for larger government and institutional contracts.
The RFP will be available on the City of Boston's Supplier Portal (Event ID: EV00013110). The City seeks to award six (6) contracts under this RFP. Each contract will correspond to one of the six (6) priority industry categories.
Priority Industries:
- Waste collection and management
- Snow removal and landscaping
- Design and architectural services
- Food and dining services
- General contracting services for construction
- Construction trade work, including plumbing & HVAC services, electrical work, roofing/siding/flooring work, insulation, drywall, masonry, and weatherproofing
SUPPLIER DIVERSITY COMPACT
On Monday, October 30, 2023 Mayor Wu and eight local economic council leaders signed A Compact to Build Local Economic Growth. Through this Compact, the City of Boston and its partners commit to implementing the fo to increase awareness and engagement. These initiatives aim to build generational wealth and opportunity for local minority-owned enterprises (MBE’s), women-owned businesses (WBE’s), veteran-owned businesses, and LGBTQ -owned businesses.
- Awareness: To create greater exposure for local, diverse small businesses to explore contract awards, the City can create business, training, and networking opportunities when requested and when appropriate.
- Certification: To strengthen the pipeline of qualified businesses ready to do business with the City, efforts to increase the number of certified diverse and small companies is necessary.
- Engagement: To reach as many eligible local, small businesses as possible to participate in procurement opportunities and diverse business initiatives, the City must work in partnership with trusted organizations.
- Policy: To ensure the sustainability of supplier diversity efforts, it is imperative that legislation and other means of codifying successful practices that lead to greater participation of small, local businesses be created.
- Transparency: To determine areas for growth and examples of success to build upon, regular evaluation of supplier diversity efforts is key.
CONTRACTING OPPORTUNITY FUND
On Monday, October 30, 2023, Mayor Wu announced 51 local, minority-owned and woman-owned businesses are receiving the City of Boston’s 2023 Contracting Opportunity Fund grants. The Contracting Opportunity Fund is an initiative that supports capacity building investments to help with operational capabilities of Boston-based businesses.
This marks the Fund’s third consecutive year of grantmaking, demonstrating the City’s ongoing commitment to facilitating small business participation in and competition for municipal contracts. Using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, the Department of Supplier Diversity recently disbursed approximately $750,000 in grants of up to $15,000, focusing on six priority sectors that represent areas of high municipal spending.
Learn more about the Boston Contracting Opportunity Fund.
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