Benefits of Group Purchasing Programs for Nonprofits
October 17, 2017Members of 501(c) Agencies Trust have known about the incredible cost saving benefits of group purchasing programs for nearly a decade. Almost six years ago, our members began a partnership with the National Human Services Assembly and joined PurchasingPoint®. PurchasingPoint has access to more than 200 vendors with contracted discounted rates that allows us to save almost 30% on items such as office supplies, shipping and printing.
Group purchasing programs leverage the collective buying power of nonprofits, schools, and other organizations to drive down costs and increase savings. The PurchasingPoint program is managed by National Assembly Business Services. This group purchasing program has an annual combined buying power of $28.5 billion, which it uses to negotiate pricing on everything from office supplies to copiers to furniture. This gives us access to prices so low they are usually reserved for Fortune 100 companies.
In 2016, 501(c) Agencies Trust members collectively saved an estimated $600,000 through PurchasingPoint.
When you join 501(c) Agencies Trust and then enroll in PurchasingPoint you get access to aggressive pricing with discounts as high as 50% on items from brand name vendors that you already know and trust. Best of all, you don’t have to change your purchasing process. For example, if you already have a FedEx account, you just add PurchasingPoint to the account and obtain even deeper discounts beyond what FedEx is already offering. It’s seamless.
Besides the obvious cost saving benefits of group purchasing programs, like PurchasingPoint, these programs have still more benefits. Amir Eyal, in a recent Forbes.com piece, listed some of the following additional benefits.
- Time savings – A member organization like 501(c) Agencies Trust and the National Human Services Assembly usually vets these professional services and negotiates the discounts on behalf of their members, saving member organizations time that would have been spent finding brokers and negotiating fees and services.
- Better broker services – Access to a membership pool is very valuable to a broker, so brokers often better serve those members to maintain their relationship with the nonprofit association.
- Better organizational culture – When a nonprofit structures its organization utilizing all the benefits from a great group buying program, it can facilitate better recruitment and retention of quality staff, increase grant writing efficiency and preserve and grow its donor base. It can also help facilitate all sorts of synergy because certain group buying programs are structured to connect organizations with their nonprofit colleagues in the community.
501(c) Agencies Trust includes the PurchasingPoint program as part of our industry leading unemployment trust at no additional cost to our members. It’s just another one of the ways you can save mission-critical dollars with 501(c) Agencies Trust. Contact us for more information.