NIGP 91879: Minority and Small Business Consulting

NIGP 91879 Minority And Small Business Consulting, an Item code, encompasses advisory and program-development services that state and local governments procure to support entrepreneurship, business equity, regulatory compliance, feasibility analysis, and workforce-development initiatives targeting small, minority-owned, and disadvantaged enterprises. Recent solicitations show jurisdictions engaging consultants for shariah-compliance assessment of education savings vehicles, small-business cohort programming, food-truck workforce training, procurement disparity studies, industrial symbiosis feasibility work, tax-allocation-district redevelopment planning, and compliance monitoring for federal grant programs. The buying mix spans state departments and agencies (Oregon Business Development Department, Washington Student Achievement Council), counties (Bernalillo County, Bartow County, Fairfax County), cities (Arlington, St. Petersburg, Waco, Apopka, College Park, Sandy Springs, Columbus), regional authorities (Columbus-Phenix City Transportation Study), and mission-specific entities (Invest Atlanta). The prevalence of RFPs and RFQs structured as multi-award, standing vendor pools or task-order vehicles reflects state and local preference for managing consulting relationships through pre-qualification rather than single-engagement procurements.

Recent activity concentrates in Georgia (Columbus Consolidated Government, Invest Atlanta, Sandy Springs), Texas (Arlington, Waco), Florida (St. Petersburg, Apopka), and Oregon (Oregon Business Development Department), with additional solicitations from Washington, New Mexico, and Virginia. Representative recent opportunities include the Washington Student Achievement Council's RFQ 27RQ002 (due October 21, 2026) for Islamic finance expertise to assess a state 529 plan's shariah compliance; the City of Arlington's RFP 260295 (due August 20, 2026) for structured four-cohort-annual entrepreneur development programming; Invest Atlanta's RFQC for TAD redevelopment consulting across six service disciplines (due July 20, 2026); the State of Oregon's RFP for industrial symbiosis technical assistance to four pilot communities (due July 6, 2026, budget $900,000); and Bartow County Water Department's RFP 26-55-03 (due August 20, 2026) for five-year on-demand engineering services. Set-asides and diversity goals vary by issuing body—some solicitations carry voluntary goals (Washington's 25% small-business, 10% minority-owned targets), others encourage MBE/WBE/VBE participation without mandate, and several carry no stated set-asides.