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, visit the Corporate Plus program page.
