Procurement Initiative Launching as Independent Non-Profit

The Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL) is proud to announce that after more than a decade of testing and incubation, its procurement research initiative is launching as an independent non-profit, Partners for Public Good (PPG).

Since 2011, the GPL’s applied research in procurement has helped jurisdictions improve how they procure goods and services to deliver better results for residents. This work has affected more than $5.4 billion of spending, including:

• Providing technical assistance to more than 100 communities working to transform their procurement practices through the What Works Cities initiative. One example is helping the City of Charleston, SC design and release an RFP that resulted in developing affordable housing for over 350 individuals.
• Helping five communities overhaul processes affecting public purchasing through “Extreme Procurement Makeovers,” a particularly intensive form of technical assistance that helps cities restructure their procurement systems to be more efficient, outcome-focused, equitable, and strategic. This included working with the City of Tulsa, OK to cut cycle times by nearly a month – the result of leveraging a cross-departmental body to regularly identify pain points and streamline the procurement process; and working with the City of Long Beach, CA to create pathways for small and first-time vendors to compete for city contracts resulting in double the number of vendors responding to RFPs.
• Building the Procurement Excellence Network – a community of more than 2,000 government officials from all 50 states focused on collaboration and spreading best practices. This includes facilitating 35 virtual events and releasing 100+ publications with over 45,000 resource downloads.

As a lab based in the Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government, the GPL is dedicated to testing, incubating, and scaling promising solutions to pressing social problems. To build on the success of its procurement work and to meet growing government demand, PPG is launching as an independent nonprofit on March 1, 2025. PPG will focus on helping state and local governments harness core operational functions — procurement, staffing, digital infrastructure, and budgeting — to drive public impact. In addition, PPG will expand the Procurement Excellence Network. GPL managing director Kailey Burger Ayogu will lead the new organization. Read more about PPG here.

The rest of the GPL will continue to operate within the Harvard Kennedy School, working with governments to develop and test solutions for their communities across its Children & Families, Homelessness & Housing, and Criminal Justice portfolios. The GPL will do so through the use of its core tools, including results-driven procurement and contract management, data-driven performance management, and human-centered service systems.