At the Minority
Business Economic Forum in Miami, the National Minority Supplier
Development Council (NMSDC) announced it has received a
multi-year grant totaling $500,000 from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation to
connect minority-owned businesses with major employers through its Corporate
Plus program. Operating for over 25 years, Corporate Plus enables vetted,
certified minority business enterprises (MBEs) to adequately scale their
business, so they are better able to execute national and global contracts.
This grant will enable NMSDC to expand and increase the impact of the program
by:
·
Growing Corporate Plus membership by 20% year-over-year.
·
Facilitating increased direct corporate introductions to MBEs.
·
Driving an overall revenue growth rate for Corporate Plus members
exceeding the national average.
·
Increasing capacity building for MBEs focused on meeting industry gap
areas.
“All too often
MBEs are associated primarily with the small business community. While this may
be true in many cases, Corporate Plus recognizes that there are also numerous
large, minority-owned businesses that are primed to do business on a national
and global scale,” said NMSDC Chief Growth Officer Sylvia Acosta, Ph.D. “This
program has helped many MBEs take the next step in their business development
and we are excited for the acceleration in MBE growth that will no doubt result
from Blackstone’s support of this program,” she added.
“At Blackstone,
we believe supporting the growth of diverse businesses delivers strong
performance, drives entrepreneurship, and builds a more resilient supply
chain,” said Blackstone Charitable Foundation Executive Director Maura Pally.
“Blackstone is thrilled to be supporting NMSDC as we seek to enable our
portfolio companies to align their supply base with their consumer base.”
NMSDC is
extremely grateful to Blackstone for its support of this program as the two
organizations work together to achieve NMSDC’s ambitious goal of $1 trillion in
annual revenue for certified-MBEs and its larger vision of eliminating the
racial wealth gap and building long-lasting, generational wealth for
communities of color.
To learn more about the
Corporate Plus program visit the NMSDC website at nmsdc.org/programs-events/corporate-plus-2/.