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By Maddy Smith
From minority-owned agencies and ethical advertising to diverse suppliers, view our comprehensive review of active DE&I organisations and movements across the globe.
Producers and Procurers iQ have researched the following list of organisations and marketing services supplier databases to help agencies, marketers and marketing procurement professionals source DE&I suppliers for ethical marketing and advertising campaigns.
If you have also been searching for similar organisations, you’ll have realised how difficult it is to find them all in one place. That’s why we’ve created this list. If there’s any you think we might have missed, you can get in touch with any details you might have at editorial@pxpiq.com.
Organisations A-Z:
Certifications:
See full details of each below.
As consumers’ concern and awareness of DE&I issues grows around the world, some may not know where to turn, to find socially-conscious organisations to help them in their business. Producers and Procurers have pulled together a useful list of organisations which include trade bodies, movements, databases, certifications from around the world, which are actively working to promote DE&I in the production and procurement of marketing and advertising.
While there are also many individual brand initiatives as well as advertising and marketing trade bodies incorporating DE&I initiatives within their member activities, the list that has been collated below are organisations that are specifically dedicated to tackling DE&I within the advertising and marketing ecosystem. These include trade organisations, industry initiatives and global movements. Most of which, predominantly originate from North America, UK and Europe, though there are a number emerging slowly across Asia, South America and filtering through to the rest of the world.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion is perhaps one of the biggest issues facing brands and agencies at the moment. To evolve, they must include a diverse range of ethics, people and talent, as well as financial transparency within the advertising and marketing ecosystem.
The pressure is on, now more than ever before, for brands and agencies to adopt socially-conscious practices. This database highlights some of the top ethical organisations in the marketing and procurement sphere worldwide, from Black-owned agency databases to a carbon calculator to track your footprint. If you know of any more organisations, please let us know via the email above.
ANA – Diverse Supplier Database
One of the organisations we have listed and would specifically highlight, is the ANA, that has developed a comprehensive spreadsheet of around 350 inclusive companies which include Black, Women, Asian and minority-owned organisations as well as LGBTQ+ and disability-owned. The spreadsheet features links to the organisations, contact details and any certifications the companies hold. If you encounter certification acronyms which you’re unsure of, we’ve outlined them below so you have an easy point of reference. You can find further details below.
Latin America
While North America and Europe have a number of established dedicated organisations focusing on DE&I, with Africa beginning to creep up, there are still considerable gaps across South America, Australasia and Asia.
However, there are some exceptions such as the recent project from Publicis titled ‘Entre’ (‘Get in’) to empower and encourage recently graduated women to find creative roles in Brazil. Furthermore, recently a group of agencies including AKQA, Dentsu, Grey and Publicis announced the initiative Observatorio da Diversidade (Diversity Observatory) in association with the Cultural Diversity Observatory.
What will ultimately drive and promote DE&I adoption worldwide will be through brands insisting that in their own offices, marketers, procurement and creative agencies adhere globally. The more frequently brands raise that consciousness and the more consumers speak up and/or boycott brands which fail to promote these values, the quicker the pace will be.
Ethical advertising and marketing
While not quite in the DE&I category, but nonetheless just as important, is the issue of ethical advertising. The following organisations address this.
ANA Centre for Ethical Marketing
The ANA say that accountability through self-regulation advances industry growth vital to our future and that not only are self-regulatory measures preferable to governmental mandates, they are more readily adaptable to evolving technologies, shifting consumer preferences, and changing economic and social conditions.
As a leader in self-regulation, ANA’s accountability programs help businesses build consumer trust and best meet the needs of their customers. Through consumer help, committees, education, guidelines and guidance, and accountability tools, that aim to advance accountability for the industry.
CAN – Conscious Advertising Network
The Conscious Advertising Network is a voluntary coalition of over 70 organisations created to ensure that industry ethics catches up with the technology of modern advertising, in part, Co-Chaired by Jake Dubbins, Harriet Kingaby, with Tina Fegent heavily involved in promoting CAN to the marketing procurement fraternity and who is one of Producers and Procurers’ recent Women of Influence.
CAN’s mission is to stop advertising abuse, by highlighting the conscious choices advertisers and agencies have, to ensure good practice. As modern technology for all sectors of the advertising industry has progressed at such a rapid rate, ethics often haven’t been able to keep up.
While many CAN members are based in the UK and Europe, the scheme aims to be global and encourage enquiries from members worldwide. Holding a CAN logo is proof that an organisation is signed up to the Conscious Advertising Network and is committed to embedding its principles in all agency briefs and RFPs. It also demonstrates that an organisation is embedding CAN principles in the way they create, target and buy and sell advertising. The network currently operates on a self-certification model, supported by ISBA. In order to gain accreditation, you’ll be asked to report on progress six months after signing up.
GARM is the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a cross-industry initiative established by the World Federation of Advertisers to address the challenge of harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising.
The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) was founded by WFA members and is made up of advertisers, agencies, media companies, platforms and industry organisations.
Membership of GARM is open to advertisers, media agencies, media platforms, and industry associations. Members support the GARM operations via an annual membership fee and are expected to appoint representatives to be part of the GARM community. They also collaborate with relevant industry association members to ensure as many people as possible understand GARM’s work.
Finally, they also engage with NGOs involved in civil society and safety with a focus on safe uses of media and tech. The WFA have a core group of NGOs that they consult with at least once a quarter, hugely valuing the ability to consult with the likes of Consumers International, Amnesty International, UNICEF, the Antidefamation League, the Journalism Trust Institute for the wider perspective they bring to the work of the WFA.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) organisations
Below is the list in alphabetical order.
4A’s Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) Owned Media Companies Resource List
The 4A’s have curated a list of 350+ minority-owned media outlets (TV and radio stations) to make available to members and non-members. This list has been cultivated primarily from the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA, a division of the United States Department of Commerce), but will expand as additional resources become available.
As a UK initiative which was run this year, the All In Census aims to establish the best record of the make-up of UK advertising’s workplace and a vital benchmark for progress. Developed by a team of DE&I experts, the inclusion working group is composed of Kathryn Jacob CEO of Pearl & Dean & Chair of IWG, Bobi Carley Head of Media & Lead on D&I at ISBA, Leila Siddiqi Associate Director – Diversity at IPA and Sarah Jenkins Managing Director at Saatchi & Saatchi amongst others.
Conducted over the course of 2021, the results were published in June 2021 and were used to inform an Action Plan, which was launched at an industry summit to address how greater inclusivity across all areas of the industry’s talent will be achieved.
On the All In website, Leila Siddiqi commented, “Our ambition with today’s All In Census is to create a single source survey on diversity and inclusion across all UK advertising and marketing services professionals. For the first time we will have data on certain strands in the D&I spectrum which we don’t have much data around currently – such as disabilities, sexual orientation and social mobility. We urge you to encourage your teams and colleagues to join in today, as the accuracy of this data depends on how many of you are All In”.
The results of the survey and the subsequent action plan can be viewed on the website. The census was the UK Advertising’s first and biggest industry-wide survey created by a collaboration between the Advertising Association, IPA, ISBA and Kantar. The results are a result of comprehensive data gathered from over 16,000 advertising and marketing professionals and provide new insights on the representation and experience of the UK advertising’s workforce.
Afripedia is a leading platform which strives to increase opportunities for African creatives who are so often overlooked. The platform ultimately aims to drive change across the creative industry through digital platforms as well as offline events. Afripedia connects, supports and champions their creatives, with the goal to change the ratio of represented African creatives and change the minds of those who hire.
Released in 2014, the platform originated from a 5-part documentary series which showcased emerging creatives from major cities across Africa. The work of the featured artists challenged stereotypes to change preconceptions of what it means to be African today. The series has been screened at over 70 film festivals worldwide since its release date.
While producing the Afripedia series, filmmakers and Co-founders Teddy Goitom and Senay Berhe connected with talent across the African continent and saw a major market was underrepresented in the current creative industry.
Now headquartered in Sweden, Goitom and Berhe spent two years developing Afripedia in New York at New Museum’s tech lead incubator program New Inc. The platform has now expanded beyond the original docuseries to become an online movement, where creatives of African descent can connect with one another, share their work and be sought after for hire by major global companies.
ANA – The Growth of Supplier Diversity Guide
The ANA and its diversity initiative, the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), have curated two resource lists that identify diverse suppliers for marketing and advertising.
A supplier diversity program is a proactive business program which encourages the use of women-owned, ethnic/minority-owned, veteran-owned, LGBTQ-owned, disability-owned, and small businesses as suppliers. The ANA and their Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) initiative have been active on this issue for some time.
As a follow-up to the above, the ANA curated a list of Certified Diverse Suppliers, initially published in July 2020. Additions to this list are being made regularly. The November 2021 update has 343 companies. In addition to the PDF, an Excel document that allows users to sort by column is also available.
Many of the companies are accredited with diversity certifications such as WOSB, MWBE and NGLCC. You can find a full list of the certifications with definitions below.
The list contains 90 different types of supplier categories including numerous specialist sub categories within Advertising, Media, Agencies, Production, Research, Consultancies, Talent and Technology.
AIMM | Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing
Established in 2016, AIMM which is a diversity initiative of the ANA, is a platform which elevates multicultural and inclusive marketing to promote business growth in an increasingly diverse marketplace. Co-Founders Carlos Santiago, President and Chief Strategist at SSG and DMI Co-Presidents Lisette Arsuagaand and Gilbert Dávila set up the alliance with a clear-cut and passion driven mission to help CMOs and their teams rise above the most pressing challenges, blocking them from realising their full multicultural market growth potential.
In 2020, the ANA and AIMM issued a Call To Action on diversity and inclusion, highlighting serious industry shortfalls in racial equality that require leadership commitment for change with substantive actions.
ANA CEO Bob Liodice says, “The ANA and AIMM are fully committed to revisiting and revising our diversity and inclusion efforts and develop new plans that bring real, permanent, and long-overdue changes to the advertising and marketing sectors. We must move forward as an industry that embraces equality and gives all people—regardless of race, gender, identity, culture, ability, or age—the opportunity to reach their full potential. The time to act is now.” Read the full article here with a list of 8 recommended steps marketers can take to address DE&I.
The Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing was introduced as marketing executives required support that they could depend on for resources and information, that would allow them to better understand how to target multicultural and inclusive segments. This therefore, in turn helps to make more informed decisions about their investments, priorities and growth opportunities.
AIMM is 50% constituted of client-side marketers, 15% media/publishers, 5% research and data companies, 25% advertising agencies and 5% trade associations. Based in the US, the national organisation is represented in 25 states nationwide. Members represent 33% of Hispanic ad spend and 25% of African-American ad spend.
AIMM have produced the following diverse supplier database.
Suppliers Serving Predominantly Multicultural and Diverse Audiences for Marketing and Advertising, Non-Minority Owned and/or Non-Minority Certified (updated November, 2021.) These are most often companies which do not qualify for the Certified Diverse Suppliers list. In addition to the PDF, an Excel document that allows users to sort by column is also available.
Bid Black is a non-profit platform, on a mission to normalise the presence of Black filmmakers in creative roles in the advertising industry. The idea was born in 2018 following Founder Sydni Chistz’s first job in production, whereby she felt an “otherness” and felt compelled to begin this passion project to increase awareness and cultural relevancy of Black expression inside her company.
Bid Black has now evolved into an industry-wide tool to normalise Black voices in storytelling and is a complementary resource for all creative industries to source Black talent– placing an emphasis on creating more opportunities for Black creators to bid on commercial jobs by increasing awareness and access to Black directors, cinematographers, editors and more.
LA-based Bid Black is a direct call to action for marketers to transform their approach to bidding and awarding commercial jobs. The non-profit’s site explains that, “gate keepers are hesitant to work with talent who don’t have ‘the right experience’ or who they’re not familiar with; thus, many creatives face a catch-22 of having less opportunity to work and not enough work on their reel to be considered for a job”. This cycle creates a network of “go-to,” predominantly white-male creators who routinely get hired, while untapped talent remains pigeonholed.
Chustz states, “Excuses like ‘there’s not enough’ or ‘I don’t know where to find them’ won’t cut it anymore. Here we are”.
For other platforms promoting Black creatives in the production industry, Black in Film is an open-collaboration database designed to get more Black individuals hired in the film and television industry. The platform is a free and public self-submission Black filmmaker database and job submission hub.
Members range from young people fresh out of school at the start of their careers, through to Emmy-Award winning Hair Stylists and Directors of Photography (DPs). Founded by Ramone Hulet, Chicago-based Black in Film is funded by donations and staffed by volunteers, operating in the US.
A collection of media experts and below the line crew all with one common goal of increasing the number of Black women working in the industry behind the camera. Based in LA, Black Girl Film School delivers a film school curriculum online, keeping the learning experience 100% free.
Black Girl Film School offers students the skills, language, literacy and community to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) learning, as well as the inclusion of the Arts (STEAM) learning for girls aged 13-17 years old. It therefore offers girls the opportunity to study STEM and STEAM related college tracts in film production. This in turn, increases the number of Black women working and leading in the film, TV and media industries.
Black Hollywood Education & Resource Center
Headquartered in Los Angeles, the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center is a non-profit, public benefit organisation, designed to advocate, educate, research, develop and preserve the history, and the future, of Black creatives in the film and television industries.
In 1996, the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center was founded by Sandra Evers-Manly to remove the veil of invisibility that shrouds African Americans and other diverse groups from the main stage, and to spotlight diversity and the stellar contributions of black film and television artists who brought dignity and professionalism to even the most menial of roles.
Black Women Film Network (BWFN)
Another platform to support minority talent, established in 1997 the Black Women Film Network (BWFN) was founded to prepare Black women to enter the film and television industries in the US.
The organisation seeks to preserve the voice of women through film and educational programs that empower and inform. As a non-profit organisation, BWFN provides student scholarships, hosts screenings and workshops and honours individuals who have excelled in this difficult industry. The organisation has given thousands of dollars in scholarships to women pursuing careers in film, broadcast and related areas.
Sheryl Riley Gripper, Founder and Executive Director of BWFN is a multi Emmy Award winner and was Vice-President, Community Relations, for WXIA-TV, 11Alive and WATL-TV 36, for 29 years. Additionally, she was Founding Executive Director of the BronzeLens Film Festival, a festival that promotes diversity in film. She is also founder of Rosey Posey Pictures, LLC, a company that produces film and digital media.
Change the Lens is formed of a collective of Black filmmakers creating actionable steps to improve the commercial and music video film industry. As Black people represent approximately 15% of the US and London populations, the organisation pledges to ensure that the representation of Black filmmakers within the commercial and music video film industry is reflective of the greater population.
Based in Los Angeles, Directors Savanah Leaf and Rohan Blair-Mangat and Executive Producer Alli Maxwell lead the team, pledging to eliminate systemic racism and for production companies to increase the diversity of their crews at all levels and to consult a head of diversity and inclusion.
“This push, this movement right now has been something that has been happening in our lives. All our lives, we’ve all been fighting systemic racism one way or another,” says director Savanah Leaf.
In the advertising industry, Savanah notes that the lack of representation in agencies has come under scrutiny – and in the world of production several groups, companies and collectives have been working to address this lack of diversity, the barriers to entry and progression, as well as forms of discrimination.
Change the Lens pledge has been launched with over 100 Black creatives in collaboration with Deadline, AdAge, Film Daily, Little Black Book, It’s Nice That and nofilmschool.
As an award-winning non-profit global consultancy, Creative Equals, created by CEO and Founder Ali Hanan, helps to grow workplace cultures to unlock the potential for entrepreneurial cultures, creativity, inclusive campaigns and to achieve commercial success by reaching more customers and building meaningful relationships with communities. The goals are to ultimately challenge the status quo, push for fairness, diversity and inclusion.
The way in which Creative Equals operates is through the use of a data-based approach to reveal the systematic inequalities that exist and apply cultural intuition to achieve true equity. This creates space for all voices to rise, shape behaviour change and policy in the workplace.
By consulting with stakeholders throughout the business: from the C-Suite, to People/HR teams, to Learning and Development, and brand marketing teams, Creative Equals’ clientele includes agencies, media owners and brands spanning a number of different sectors. These include creative, media, PR, recruitment and tech.
The scheme also closely partners with industry bodies and networks, promoting inclusion as a driver for innovation, creativity and profitability.
Founded by Ani Har’el and supported by a team including Executive Director Pamala Buzick Kim, this global community of underrepresented creators based in the US, aspires to change the lens through which the industry addresses DE&I and production. Free the Work originated from the wish to include one female director in every triple bid.
This pledge, by brands and their agencies, would then increase the female director’s exposure, skillset and overall chance of actually winning the bid. Free the Work is a non-profit initiative dedicated to identifying systemic inequalities in film, television, advertising and media. This seeks to find actionable solutions to expand access for all underrepresented creators.
Through their curated talent-discovery platform, Free the Work advocates for LGBTQI+, creators living with disabilities, female-identifying, non-binary people, people of colour and military veterans communities.
These are much wider terms of reference than the original Free The Bid movement, which recently became part of Free the Work and coincides with the ongoing field work, advocacy campaigns, editorial content and events and partnerships.
Executive Producer Pamala Buzick Kim was recently featured as a Women of Influence by Producers and Procurers iQ, the full interview can be read here.
Founders and guardians are Jen Salke, Alex Schultz, Suzy Deering, Marc Prichard, Diego Scotti, Kenny Mitchell, Ann Rubin, Ana Maria Henao and Martin Renaud.
Incorporated in October 2019, Film Family is an Atlanta-based organisation that connects people of colour (POC) with the support, recognition, mentorship and community they need to be successful in the television and film industry. Their vision is for filmmakers, at all levels and in all roles, to be supported on their journey to reaching their professional and financial film goals.
Film Family is open to new and experienced POC’s in any area of filmmaking, membership is composed of actors, writers, directors, production assistants, assistant directors, gaffers, grips, editors, animators, directors of photography, producers, makeup artists, script supervisors and more.
The organisation is Co-Founded by De’Narius Allen, Glenn Callwood, Etta East, Shaun Mathis, Shaquayla Mims and Victoria Renee – it is created by people of colour, for people of colour. Film Family’s website also offers resources for many forms of TV and film production, such as advice on how to write treatment, create an artist statement, mood boards and film reels and filming budgets.
Spending four years as a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and media educator while forging her way as an emerging director, Founder and CEO of Made In Her Image, award winning Director and Philanthropist MALAKAI, saw first hand how the lack of representation affected the self esteem of young girls and women, especially for those of colour.
The organisation was founded out of a need to not only provide equity within the fields of film, media and technology, but to create and empower young women and non-binary youth to create a space for themselves in the industry.
MIHI was founded in 2018 and is based between Phoenix and Los Angeles, where it is the CEO’s personal mission to be a “disrupter” within the media and entertainment industry.
The inspiration to create social change came through personal experience. Through a lack of self-confidence as well as a lack of identifiable equitable resources as an emerging director, this experience led her to often feel isolated within an entertainment industry that rarely reflected her or saw her.
The organisation has been founded through grassroots organisation and community passion. The mission is to strategically build a career pipeline and place representation directly into the hands of the young women and communities who need it most. The organisation has curated multi-city workshops and programs garnered towards educational advancement.
In order to balance the misrepresentation of people from under-represented groups in the media, MAMA Youth Project aims to actively change this and reduce the ways in which this negatively affects society in the UK.
The project recruits, trains and nurtures young people between 18-25 years of age from under-represented groups or with limited educational or employment opportunities. Through training projects the organisation equips people with the skills and experience necessary to secure long-term and fulfilling employment in the TV and media industry.
Founder and CEO Bob Clarke founded the organisation to particularly focus on young people with limited educational or employment opportunities, including unemployed graduates. The MAMA project is committed to getting young people into employment and to bringing diversity to the media industry.
Established in 2017, Minorities in Film was founded when Co-Founders Brittany Franklin and Ian Grant realised two things; that production spaces were not all accessible for people with varying disabilities and major above the line workforces were homogeneous in nature in the US.
By working together on passion projects, Franklin and Grant believed that they could overcome challenges much more efficiently. From its first production workshop in Brooklyn to their new, and growing, online community, Minorities in Film are dedicated to the advancement of creative careers.
The organisation focuses on advocacy, support and education, with the collective’s mission always in mind, striving to find new strategies to allow filmmakers to create viable products that will give them the competitive edge they need to advance their careers. Advocacy is taken very seriously working each and every day to make a positive impact.
Through collaboration and community empowerment the organisation believes progress can be facilitated. With this initiative, the goal is to promote great opportunities for those in need. With access to the right resources, Minorities in Film believes people can become empowered by their own abilities and gain the confidence to fulfil their potential.
Outvertising are a non-profit LGBTQ+ advertising advocacy group primarily run by industry volunteers as well as Joint Chief Executive Mark Runacus MBE and Lucy McKillop, who are on a mission to drive LGBTQ+ equality in the industry.
The organisation aims to agitate, educate, demonstrate and celebrate all things relating to LGBTQ+ in the advertising landscape and from awards evenings to practising role model training sessions, Outvertising offers a variety of resources to effect changes within the advertising and marketing industry.
Surprisingly, She Runs It was founded in 1912 in the US as League of Advertising Women (later named AWNY), by journal editors Christine and J. George Frederick as a counter to the exclusive, all-male Advertising League.
Designed to encourage and promote women’s role in the advertising industry, the club held classes and dinners with presentations on advertising best practises, awarding scholarships to encourage girls to pursue degrees in advertising during a time when women weren’t even allowed in many universities.
Since then, She Runs It has been rebranded to what it is today to be led by Lynn Branigan, President and CEO of the organisation. The community has grown beyond advertising to address all facets of marketing, media and tech and the organisation has also expanded beyond New York, first to Chicago, then to the West Coast. Ultimately through eMembership we have grown to be a national organisation.
World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) – D&I Taskforce
The WFA Diversity and Inclusion Task Force is a global platform of the world’s top marketers gathered to drive greater inclusion in our work and in our workplaces to accelerate the industry’s progress on diversity.
The WFA convenes brands, agencies and NGOs to create and curate the knowledge and resources needed to drive measurable change.
The organisation helps to set and challenge the global industry agenda, catalysing national initiatives to drive the change locally, so that diversity can thrive everywhere.
The WFA has published the full DEI Census report, highlighting the vast differences in the lived experiences of different groups across the industry, based on more than 10,000 respondents from 27 markets around the globe. The study identifies the global marketing industry’s main pain points.
The DEI Census is designed to form the basis of local action plans to tackle local pain points, acting as a benchmark for a follow-up census, which will take place in Spring 2023.
The WFA’s D&I taskforce is led by Belinda Smith, CEO, Americas of m/SIX.
WOC – The JTC List
Women of Colour Unite (WOCU) is a social action organisation focusing on fair access, fair treatment and fair pay for women of colour in all aspects of the entertainment and media industries.
The JTC List is an extensive, searchable database of women of colour who work in the film industry, both in Los Angeles and around the world. It’s referenced by studios and production companies to help guide hiring for both above and below the line positions and make sure that every set is inclusive.
The JTC List is a database of 4500+ Women of Colour working in entertainment and is used by countless Hollywood entities to hire from; the list was named after Joan Theresa Curtis, Bedford’s mother, a statistician and activist, who passed away in February 2016.
The list is free to access and can help brands and agencies search for and implement ethical practises. For more information and to sign up to access the list, you can visit the link here.
Certifications
Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
Organisations with B Corp certification include Havas, with many more now striving to achieve it. In Producers and Procurers recent interview with Havas’ CEO, Xavier Rees says that, “I knew I wanted to run my business better, but I knew I wasn’t interested in profit at the expense of everything else. What B Corp does is give you a framework to do this. They can be the expert, so you don’t have to be”.
Society’s most challenging problems cannot be solved by government and non-profits alone. By harnessing the power of business, B Corps use profits and growth as a means to a greater end: positive impact for their employees, communities and the environment. The B Corp community works toward reduced inequality, lower levels of poverty, a healthier environment, stronger communities and the creation of more high quality jobs with dignity and purpose.
The Minority Business Certification has specific criteria. If you qualify, you must be United States citizens, at least 51% minority–owned, managed and controlled. For the purposes of NMSDC’s program, a minority group member is an individual who is at least 25% Asian-Indian, Asian-Pacific, Black, Hispanic or Native American. Minority eligibility is established via a combination of document reviews, screenings, interviews and site visits. Ownership, in the case of a publicly owned business, means that at least 51% of the stock is owned by one or more minority group members.
To qualify, the business must be a for profit enterprise and physically located in the US or its trust territories. As well as this, management and daily operations must be exercised by the minority ownership member(s).
The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), the business voice of the LGBT community, is the only national advocacy organisation dedicated to expanding economic opportunities for the LGBT business community.
NGLCC is the exclusive third-party certifying body for Certified LGBT Business Enterprise® (Certified LGBTBE®) companies. Over 1/3 of Fortune 500 recognize this certification and partner with NGLCC to create fully LGBT-inclusive supply-chains.
The LGBT business owners NGLCC generate over $1.7 trillion in economic impact, create jobs and innovate business solutions nationwide. Additionally, NGLCC is the leading public policy advocate working to include Certified LGBTBE® businesses in procurement opportunities at the federal, state and local level. NGLCC Global is expanding its reach to five continents, bridging economic opportunity and LGBTI human rights worldwide.
NMSDC
The National Minority Supplier Development Council advances business opportunities for certified minority business enterprises and connects them to corporate members.
To achieve their mission, they aim to work through the NMSDC Network to support and facilitate MBE integration into corporate and public-sector supply chains; build MBE capacity and capabilities through our programs and other education offerings; and facilitate MBE-to-MBE partnerships to meet the needs of our corporate members.
MWBE Certification — Business Outreach Center Network, Women’s Business Center
For businesses who are considering selling to the government, under the Business Outreach Center Network, the Women’s Business Center offers the opportunity to learn about the resources and benefits available to Minority and Women-Owned Certified Businesses as well as what it takes to become certified.
Beyond gaining valuable access to city contracting opportunities, certified minority and women-owned businesses (MWBEs) are provided with the tools and training to advance their potential. This includes one on one counselling, invitations to exclusive networking events, free advertising in a searchable online directory, free one-on-one guidance on selling to the government and access to business classes taught by industry professionals. To apply for this certification you have to be in business for at least a year.
WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council)
WBENC is the largest certifier of women-owned businesses in the US and is a leading non-profit advocate for women entrepreneurs.
The organisation believes that diversity promotes innovation, opens doors, and creates partnerships that fuel the economy. Therefore, they provide the most relied upon certification standard for women-owned businesses and offer tools women need to help them succeed.
Women Owned
Women Owned is an initiative from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and WEConnect International to create a movement of support for Women Owned businesses. Women Owned supports female entrepreneurs and those who do business with them by raising awareness for why, where and how to buy Women Owned.
Women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) are increasing in number, range, diversity and earning power. As women business owners expand their companies, they contribute to the growth of the national economy and defence in the US.
The focus of the DoD WOSB program is the provision of effective outreach, training and technical assistance in order to increase the accessibility of WOSB concerns to DoD procurement opportunities.
To be an Eligible WOSB, a company must be a small business that is at least 51% percent unconditionally and directly owned and controlled by one or more women who are United States citizens. It must also have a woman manage the day-to-day operations, make long-term decisions for the business, hold the highest officer position in the business and work at the business full-time during normal working hours.