LSU Athletics Collaborating With BRPOP to Support More Small Businesses

Small businesses are the lifeblood of our local economy, but finding them and contracting with them is not without its challenges. It’s that fact that led leaders at LSU Athletics to join the Baton Rouge Procurement Partnership, also known as BRPOP in an effort to diversify their spending.

Founded in the spring of 2019, BRPOP is a strategic effort that began with the Office of Mayor Sharon Weston Broome, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, East Baton Rouge Fair Share Program, and MetroMorphosis, a non-profit dedicated to transforming urban communities from within. Inspired in part by cities like Cincinnati, where public-private partnerships serve as major forces for progress in supplier diversity, several public and private entities joined the BRPOP effort to create sustainable and systemic change. The goal of BRPOP is simple; to bring intentionality and focus that increases supplier diversity and inclusive competitiveness as these entities seek to purchase goods and services from local, small, and diverse suppliers.

To date, BRPOP Members have spent more than $15.7M with small, local businesses. A major pillar of this effort is the work of LaunchBR, a strategy of MetroMorphosis that identifies and cultivates small, women, veteran, and minority owned businesses. Most of the services offered by LaunchBR are free of charge, so local small businesses receive support without a hefty price tag.

LSU Athletics has worked diligently to fully engage with BRPOP, and currently has plans for a Virtual Vendor Day as a way to connect with more diverse suppliers.