Local, state, and federal governments in the United States spend over $4 trillion annually through procuring goods and services. This means that governments are powerful economic agents, and their spending can power more just and inclusive economies.  

We help build pathways to economic opportunity by making procurement processes less burdensome for small firms, especially minority-led firms, and exploring creative solutions to help SMEs access finance.

Spotlight: Through our Lift program, we’ve demonstrated that better procurement can promote more inclusive economies and support historically disadvantaged businesses. We helped our partners in the cities of Portland, Oregon, and Boston, Massachusetts tackle persistent barriers to public contracting by capturing and publishing more data about their procurement processes. Results include the Equity in City Contracts Dashboard in Boston, which provides real-time, interactive public-facing analysis of how funds are spent with different types of businesses, and the implementation of the Open Contracting Data Standard in Portland, which makes contracting information more accessible to the public and to local businesses.

Procurement is how critical public services, like social safety net programs, are experienced by the American public. 

We support governments to unlock better services through procurement reform, and design and implement systems that deliver accessible, dignified public services for people who need them most.

Spotlight: We engage a coalition of nonprofit, philanthropic, and government partners across local, state, and federal levels, including Code for America’s cohort of states to promote a results-and data-driven procurement process that strengthens safety net programs, as well working groups from the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program and Facing a Financial Shock Life Experience Interagency Team on procurement and vendor management.

As digital public services become the norm, how governments buy and implement digital technology must adapt to meet new challenges. 

We help transform how governments buy, build, and implement technology, including procurement technology itself. We also help governments get the most from emerging technologies, like AI.

Spotlight: We developed our vision for the next generation of procurement technology by exploring how procurement technology affects government service delivery. Our research brief identifies key challenges in current systems and proposes practical principles for human-centered procurement technology: focusing on public outcomes, meeting people’s needs, and delivering reliable data. By addressing these technical foundations, we can transform procurement from a compliance-driven administrative function into an effective digital public service that better serves communities.

Procurement is democracy in action, where the promises of policy become reality. But right now, procurement is a weak and neglected link in the chain of public trust, which starts with voting. 

We advocate for and elevate public procurement as a powerful tool to rebuild trust in democratic institutions, as well as help our partners radically improve their procurement practices for more accountable, transparent, and responsive government.