Use our spending for good
Why it’s important to us
Our commitment to do the most possible good with the resources left by Archie Bush goes beyond our grantmaking. We regularly rely on the services of a variety of businesses, from independent contractors to larger companies, to help us get things done. We believe all the money we spend should benefit the region as much as possible.
While we consider businesses of all types and make selection decisions based on their qualifications, we track the businesses we work with and who owns them. Based on research and data, we have identified six groups of people that have faced unique barriers and/or had lower success rates in starting and growing businesses: people who identify as Black, Indigenous or people of color; women; LGBTQ+ people; refugees and immigrants; people with disabilities and veterans. We don’t make decisions based on this information. We use it to make sure our processes are accessible to people around the region, including people from those identified groups.
In addition to considering business ownership, we track how much of our spending stays in the region. Wherever possible, we want Bush spending to benefit local businesses and support local jobs.
How we’re doing
In 2024, at least 68% of our non-grant payout went to businesses owned by people who self-identify as Black, Indigenous or people of color; women; LGBTQ+, refugees and immigrants; people with disabilities and veterans. These groups make up more than half of the people in our region. In addition, 73% of our spending stays in the region.
We do not have quotas or targets for any of our spending and our top priority is to partner with businesses that are qualified, good to work with and cost-effective. We re-evaluate all our contracts at set intervals and put out an open call for all interested businesses, and we work to ensure that we have a broad pool of candidates.
73%
Percent of non-grant payout to businesses in our region
What’s next
In 2024, 10 of the 62 businesses we worked with did not or declined to respond to our vendor form. We want to be more intentional about requesting this information from every business with the goal of reaching a 100% response rate. Understanding the businesses that choose to apply to us or want to work with us helps us to improve our recruitment strategies and be a better partner.
*Source for chart: Self-identified information from vendor forms. Includes all non-grant and non-PRI expenditures included in our IRS payout calculation. Excludes payments to nonprofits, government agencies, and publicly traded companies, where “ownership” is difficult to define.