Dear Colleagues,

I was thinking about trying to develop Swarthmore College's supplier diversity program. I wonder if you might be able to provide some insight on one question? I want to be able to look up diverse supplier credentials or the availability of diverse suppliers by commodity, but don't know how. Do you know if there is a subscription out there or something that would enable finding information about diverse suppliers?

 

Thank you,

Cindy

If Swarthmore were to join the National Minority Supplier Development Council or the Women's Business Enterprise National Council you'd have access to their databases but membership is not cheap. You have a couple of great free options. The PA small and diverse supplier database located at http://www.dgs.internet.state.pa.us/suppliersearch - click on advanced search to search by commodity/service type and diversity status, and the SBA's Dynamic Small Business Search at http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm

Hope this helps!

Mark,
I appreciated your insights! Using the DGS website, I found a lot of helpful information when I selected "Export to Excel." It provided a very through spreadsheet with everything I need to know, although the information is contained in several worksheets. I still have to work with the SBA website to understand how to use it a little better. Thank you so much for your helpful response!
Cindy