Innovation for all | Amazon Business
collaboration collaboration

Innovation across education and nonprofit organizations

No matter your industry, there are several innovative ways you can achieve your organization’s mission.

There’s great power in bringing together people from different fields as similarities often emerge despite their differences. Industries tend to focus on what sets them apart when comparing themselves to others, but common ground exists across sectors. Although higher education and nonprofit organizations serve different groups, both industries rely on innovation to thrive.

 

Take University of New Mexico and Goodwill Industries International for example.

 

Defining innovation

When being asked what innovation means to their respective organization, Marcos Roybal, Associate Director of Finance and Administration at the University of New Mexico mentioned, “innovation really translates to thinking outside of the box and placing an emphasis on collaboration and driving solutions.” Similarly, Rick Hill, Vice President of Retail and Sustainability at Goodwill Industries International, echoes the collaborative spirit as “[their] 154 nonprofit organizations partner with local leaders and organizations to identify mission and operational innovations and meet the needs of their communities.”

 

Innovating for a better environment

Founded in 1889 as New Mexico’s flagship institution, The University of New Mexico, aims to serve their community, striving towards a more educated, healthy, and economically prosperous New Mexico. However, some of the general challenges the Higher Education industry face are: declining enrollment, restrictive regulations, rising costs, and the expectation to do more with less resources. Because of this, the University of New Mexico has been keen on gaining more insight and visibility into understanding its spending behavior across its main campus and five branch campus locations. The university collaborated with Amazon Business for a product basket analysis, an overall comparison of selection and pricing between the university’s current vendors and Amazon Business. This tool helps demonstrate how the university can save money through consolidating their suppliers. Since then, they have adjusted their spending thresholds and increase their spending limits, now that having visibility and analytics-driven insights has helped them reduce the costs of doing business across campus.

 

Another important aspect to the institution is to support its local community. Serving also as the Small Business Liaison Officer, Roybal stated “[the institution] is looking at ways to collectively help some local small businesses and elevate them to another level.” With Guided Buying, a tool available with a Business Prime plan, the university can designate local, diverse, and small businesses as their preferred sellers. Now, University of New Mexico is able to deepen community engagement in ways previously not explored, creating a better environment for their students and faculty.  

"Higher education is a very small community at the end of the day and very collaborative in nature. My advice is to leverage your partnerships and relationships and run your pain points by them."

— Marcos Roybal, Associate Director of Finance and Administration, University of New Mexico

Likewise, Goodwill values creating a better environment. As Hill states, “Our triple bottom line impact is focused on the three tenets of people, planet and prosperity. Through the sale of donated goods, we support people through job training and the power of work. Goodwill keeps materials out of the waste stream and keeps goods in circulation longer to help the planet. Goodwill’s mission and our presence benefits local communities through the services we provide, contributing to prosperity.”

 

As sustainability has been at the nonprofit’s heart for over 120 years, Goodwill organizations look for innovative solutions for donated goods that are traceable, circular, and scalable. Local Goodwill organizations are pursuing zero-waste certification, forming partnerships to divert materials from the waste stream and into the recovery cycle, and innovating solutions for hard-to-recycle items such as plastics, glass, and wood. Goodwill collaborated with Amazon Business for product acquisition, which allows Goodwill to buy quality items in bulk, experiencing shipping savings and quantity discounts. Goodwill is also part of Amazon Business' Associated Accounts Program which allows their related organizations to link their accounts and access these benefits while extending their purchasing power and maintain account autonomy.

"At Goodwill, we have countless examples of collaborating with partners across technology, talent development, sustainability, retail and more."

— Rick Hill, Vice President of Retail and Sustainability, Goodwill Industries International

No matter your industry, there are several innovative ways you can achieve your organization’s mission:

  • Adopt predictive technology to better understand your spending patterns, make more informed decisions, and do more with less.
  •  Make progress towards your socially responsible goals by prioritizing and supporting small, local, and diverse sellers and sourcing products with sustainability certifications.
  • Drive cost savings across your supply chain by consolidating suppliers, simplifying your purchasing process, and leveraging bulk buying.

Learn more about smart business buying solutions for your industry