Get Your FREE Guide to Navigating Cooperative Purchasing

The concept of cooperative purchasing is certainly nothing new, but for many, the process of utilizing this type of resource is completely unfamiliar. While a variety of definitions can be used to describe it, a cooperative purchasing organization – at its core – utilizes a group approach to procure goods or services. Often, participating organizations share a common interest and are looking to lessen the administrative burden and contract compliance issues associated with procurement.

As noted in a recent Harvard Kennedy School of Government white paper, “Cooperatives have evolved to provide a wider variety of benefits to procurement officials and vendors, offering increasingly complex services adaptable to a growing participant pool. Expansion of offerings and targeted attention to best-in-class contracts have furthered their value proposition.”

Other names for a cooperative purchasing organization include purchasing consortia, purchasing cooperative, buying cooperative, cooperative consortia, and group purchasing organization (GPO).