Every year, around 3.6 million kids get opportunities to pursue their dreams with the support of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. That incredible impact takes the work of hundreds of thousands of people in more than 5,000 club locations across the country.

Among them, hustling behind the scenes at the national office, is BGCA’s hard-working procurement team led by Director of Procurement, Chris Burton. From large federal grants to generous private donations, every dollar that passes through the BGCA national office is strategically allocated by his team to ensure each club has the resources it needs.

It’s a massive responsibility to bear. But it’s also a big part of what keeps Chris and his team improving processes, strengthening relationships, and striving to be their best every day.

In this episode of Inside Public Procurement, Bonfire host Maria Volakhava sits down with Chris and his colleague Jordan Rodges for a journey into the world of purpose-driven nonprofit procurement.

The pair share their firsthand experience managing procurement at one of America’s top youth organizations—diving into these hot topics, and more:

● What makes nonprofit procurement unique

● The biggest challenges that nonprofit procurement teams face

● How BGCA navigates challenges like vendor diversity, complex contracts, and financial planning

● Managing the ebbs and flows of nonprofit budgets

● Strategies for measuring procurement’s cost-saving successes

Enjoy the show! And don’t forget to connect with Chris and Jordan on LinkedIn.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Procurement departments know that federal grants play an important part in achieving their community goals. The good news is that there’s never been more funding to go around. The bad news? Making sure all that money gets to the right places-and stays there-requires a lot of work in the form of reporting and compliance, and the rules are always changing. 

In this week’s episode, we invite you to listen in on a roundtable discussion at the 2023 NIGP Forum, where Stephen Cook from Bonfire, a Euna Solutions brand, sits down with Sherry Weir (partner at Kearney & Company) and Andrew Janos (Director of Procurement and Material Management for Fairfax County) to discuss how you can help your organization stay accountable. 

Hear about: 

• The importance of understanding grant requirements 
• The journey of a federal grant, from “pre-award” to “post-award” 
• The difference between a subrecipient and a contractor 
• How to optimize your grant compliance  

Plus much more! 

A “one-size-fits-all" solution is not something that applies to the procurement capacity puzzle, as so many factors can influence how your team handles projects: staffing, process, demand, technology, etc. It’s a tough conundrum but it is solvable. 

Our guest on this episode of Inside Public Procurement, Danny “Rockstar” Mays, Director of Procurement at Maryland Judiciary, chats with Euna’s Ian Roberts about how you can start creating solutions to these multi-faceted challenges. 

They talk about: 

• Why the phrase “do more with less” should be retired 
• Procurement’s secret advantage for bringing in new talent 
• How becoming a strategic partner to your customers improves capacity, among other things 
• The marriage of the procurement and grants offices 

And so much more! 

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.  

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.