How Group Purchasing Empowers Charter Schools: CPA's Insights from NCSC '25
This summer, staff from the Community Purchasing Alliance Co-op attended the largest gathering of charter school leaders in the country at the National Charter School Conference (NCSC).
NCSC brings together thousands of operations professionals, heads of schools, charter school founders, teachers, vendors, and policy experts across sessions that dive into the sector’s most pressing topics. This year’s conference featured sessions titled “Healthcare and Employee Benefits: Managing the Increasing Cost and Demand” and “The Next Frontier for Charter School Support” alongside an exhibition hall packed with vendors who play key roles in supporting school leaders.
For the first time, CPA Co-op sent two staff people to attend the conference: Shelby Garafolo and Katelyn Coghlan. CPA has broad reach in the DC charter school community - 55 of the 68 local LEA’s purchase through the co-op and 27 are member-owners. While our footprint is the largest in DC, the co-op is rapidly expanding into other regions. Our team’s experience at NCSC confirmed that there’s an appetite for CPA’s model elsewhere – and we’re ready to get started.
Group Purchasing Does More Than Just Save Money
CPA Co-op helps charter schools in the DMV procure several millions of dollars of services a year, everything from electricity and natural gas to HVAC and school lunch. Group purchasing helps drive down the cost of these services.
However, cost savings is only one of the many benefits of group purchasing. The buying power of several charter schools is much stronger than the buying power of a charter school on its own. This increased buying power also means access to more reputable vendors, fair contract terms, and the benefit of having a group ready to push back on a vendor if anything goes awry.
The National Charter School Conference was a great reminder of just how much charter school leaders have on their plate day-to-day and how the co-op helps them procure smarter, better, and with less burden.
It’s About Building Relationships
We spoke with charter leaders all conference long about some of the challenges that they face in their work. From a changing regulatory landscape, to safety concerns and rising costs – there is no shortage of worries on school operations leaders’ minds.
And while the educational sessions and vendor exhibitions are certainly helpful in supporting the work happening at charter schools, one of the most valuable parts of the conference was the relationship building that happened between panels (and at happy hours!)
Having 2 operations directors in the same room and able to talk about how they’re fixing their school’s leaky roof or tackling selecting a new school lunch vendor is an invaluable part of a conference gathering.
As a member-owned co-op, CPA works to build relationships in several ways:
We build relationships with school leaders: We meet with leaders regularly to have listening sessions about what is going on in their building. We’re often able to help.
We build relationships amongst school leaders: CPA hosts a monthly peer group call for school leaders across the DMV to gather, connect, and troubleshoot. This group has come together to solve shared problems such as nurse shortages, issues with student transportation, and late pickup management.
We strengthen relationships between school leaders and their vendors: We connect schools with high-quality vendors at a fair price and are able to step in and help mediate any issues. This ongoing support results in better outcomes for both the schools and vendors.
CPA’s Model Is Ready To Be Replicated
Our booth stayed pretty busy at the conference (the free candy helped!)
Many of the people who stopped by were intrigued by the CPA Co-op business model. While there are many group purchasing organizations in the charter school space, we are unique in that we purchase services (not goods) and that we’re owned by the organizations that purchase with us.
We have found time and time again that people have an appetite for replicating this model where they live. Throughout the conference, we heard several versions of “we need this for our school” or “how do we get started?”
What began as a grassroots group purchase in DC over a decade ago has now grown into a network of local co-ops that are doing over $35 million a year of purchasing a year in the DMV, MA, and OH. The co-op is expanding and has begun the process of branching out into Chicago, CT, TN, and PA. CPA Co-op has experience growing in new regions and we’re looking forward to working with leaders, wherever they are, on bringing this model to them.
Are you a charter school or nonprofit leader that could use support in securing better pricing on your facility services, higher-performing vendors, or finding a network of peers to collaborate with? Want to get started with a group purchase? We'd love to connect. Email us at membership@cpa.coop to get started.