Winnipeg's Social Purchasing Portal

The Winnipeg Social Purchasing Portal (SPP) was started by SEED Winnipeg in 2004 based on a Vancouver portal that commenced a year earlier. The SPP is designed to strengthen CED initiatives by bringing together social enterprises and purchasers to raise sales and put both suppliers and purchasers in touch with a pool of employment-ready workers from disadvantaged groups. This report is based on a review of existing literature on SPPs, their origin and track record; semi-structured interviews have been conducted with SEED, LITE, current purchasers and suppliers to assess how the SPP operates and how it might be strengthened in the future; data has also been collected from LITE on the extent to which SPP suppliers purchased from each other and on the extent to which purchasers used suppliers.