As a new school year is now upon us, local government organizations, various nonprofits are facing the inevitable yearly budget discussion.
What to spend money on this year?
How much money is available? And how do we go about spending that money?
Removing the Dreaded Request for Proposal (RFP) Process
For some time now, TSAChoice has advocated that these organizations consider using Sourcewell as a purchasing partner during the budgeting process. From trucks to furniture, and even to technology purchases, Sourcewell pre-bids and pre-negotiates all kinds of capital purchases so that governments and nonprofits don’t have to engage in that tiresome work. Sign up for Sourcewell (it’s free), find the kinds of purchases you’re looking to make, and let Sourcewell come up with hard dollar figures for you to work with during budget time.
Now, let’s add a new wrinkle here: What if the costs of these purchases exceed what your organization is capable of or willing to spend? What if you would prefer to make yearly or monthly payments instead of one lump sum?
This is where TSAChoice and Sourcewell both recommend leasing that purchase, specifically with the help of a time-tested Sourcewell partner, National Cooperative Leasing.
Leasing Based on the Needs of Government and Education Facilities
National Cooperative Leasing (NCL) is a company that’s built for assisting Sourcewell clients in the government/nonprofit sector. NCL will allow contracts awarded through Sourcewell multiple leasing options, based on the organization’s budget constraints.
For example, let’s say you are a local government with an ever-changing board of aldermen. These aldermen obviously will have very different opinions on how much money to spend on technology purchases, and when to allocate it.
NCL will allow this government to make monthly payments for 30, 60 months (for example), or it could enable them to make lump payments every year. This kind of flexibility is vital for these organizations.
And more importantly, let’s say that a new aldermen board is elected in the middle of a lease payment timeline, and they decide to discontinue utilizing the technology that was purchased some time ago through Sourcewell. In most cases, National Cooperative Leasing will allow (with no strings attached) for the termination of that lease in mid-stream.
This is huge, and it makes for a compelling argument to not only utilize Sourcewell for procurement but to use NCL as your leasing partner.
It’s these kinds of partnerships that make life so much easier during budget time–from determining budget numbers to selecting technology, to purchasing, and if needed, to easily leasing and spreading out payments over time.
Nothing is ever certain, and these purchasing partners acknowledge that and work to help governments, and nonprofits get through budgeting season and back to focusing and what they do best.
