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The Collective GPO, the only national group purchasing organization dedicated exclusively to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) organizations nationwide has announced strategic relationships that will provide community members’ access to multiple LGBT friendly vendor partners with an average savings potential of 30%.

LGBT organizations nationwide can now begin optimizing the group’s purchasing power on their everyday purchases, through a single access point at www.thecollectivegpo.org. From this site, members can access pre-negotiated discounts on purchases ranging from computers, hardware/software, business travel, shipping and much more. Leveraging the purchasing power of the group, community members can save an average of 30% off of their everyday business purchases.

The Collective GPO’s mission is simple. Collectively leverage its community members buying power to partner with LGBT owned/friendly vendor partners while providing its community members the most competitive prices on everyday purchases.

"The Collective GPO is the only purchasing group dedicated to the LGBT community; both for-profit and non-profit”, said Founder and CEO Jeremy Castle. "We have negotiated discounts with national LGBT owned/friendly vendor partners based upon the purchasing power of thousands of LGBT organizations. Through our web site, LGBT organizations have immediate access to savings online and in retail outlets. Now it is easy for LGBT organizations of any size, with or without employees, to save on their most commonly purchased goods and services."

The Collective GPO was started as a result of its founder realizing that many LGBT organizations lacked the ability to leverage their individual purchasing power. According to a National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and CMI survey, many LGBT business owners and decision makers are influenced by knowing if a vendor is LGBT owned/friendly. However, many times these same decision makers have difficulties identifying LGBT owned/friendly businesses. This is compounded by the fact that more than 1/3 of all LGBT organizations had annual revenues under $500,000 in 2010. Many LGBT business owners and decision makers don’t think their organization has the power to demand better pricing and service from their vendors.

“In the early to mid-1990’s, the gay community realized that its consumer buying power could demand and influence the marketplace” stated Castle, “Our community started to demand that the companies we buy from needed to cater to us. This resulted in many Fortune 500 companies to include domestic partner benefits, non-discrimination policies and financial support for organization to promote equality”. In many cases, The Collective GPO is now to taking the individual/consumer gay buying power to the next level which is from a business larger-scale perspective.

Jeremy Castle has been in the Sourcing/Procurement industry for over 15 years. He has experience working directly in and with Fortune 500 companies such as Target, Sears Holdings and Nokia. “As a Sourcing professional I realized that these large businesses weren’t doing anything that other businesses couldn’t do to help off-set their costs and positively impact their bottom lines,” stated Castle “I want to help our business community thrive and have the same advantages as larger businesses”. With that in mind, Jeremy set out to start The Collective GPO.

About The Collective GPO

The Collective GPO is the only national Group Purchasing Organization focused on the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transgender) business community. Our goal is to collectively leverage the non-strategic spend of LGBT owned/friendly businesses with key LGBT friendly vendors to drive toward mutually beneficial relationships. For more information, please visit us at www.thecollectivegpo.org.

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