Buy Your Team’s Gifts from SSTB

By: The PDC Board and DEIB Committee

It’s that time of year when firms and schools are thinking about end-of-year gifts, and many PDC members have purse-string influence over those purchases for their teams or even for their entire organization.  As part of our ongoing efforts to support Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging goals, the PDC has teamed up with Start Small Think Big (SSTB), a national nonprofit supporting small businesses, to promote SSTB’s shopping guide as a potential source of gifts.  Over 80% of SSTB’s small businesses are owned by people of color and more than 90% are women-owned.  Any purchase helps support a small business (keep the guide in mind for your own holiday list!), and a large-scale purchase can sustain a small business for sometimes an entire year. 

We encourage you to take a look at SSTB’s shopping guide and consider it for your firm’s or school’s gift needs.  You can filter the guide by product type, geography, Black-owned, Latinx-owned, AAPI-owned, LGBTQIA+-owned, and more.  Consider adding a note to gifts explaining what type of business the purchase supports.  If your organization already partners with SSTB for pro bono legal services, there may be an opportunity to feature your work there in connection with a giveaway.  If gift purchases are not part of your role, you can pass this information along to the right person in your firm or school. 

Procurement from diverse vendors is one way we can put our money where our mouths are and stand in support of these endeavors in a real and tangible way.  For more information about Start Small Think Big, you can visit their website at www.startsmallthinkbig.org/.