Going out to bid on a project is the best way to get a fair and competitive price for a contract. But sometimes, it’s just not feasible. Maybe you don’t have a vendor in your network that does the work you need to source, or maybe you just don’t have the time to go out for bids.
When a category is running thin or an emergent need arises, cooperative purchasing agreements – piggyback contracts, state contracts, and purchasing agreements with cooperative language – can provide a legitimate, fully competitive alternative that gets your agency to contract faster and with less risk.
Most procurement professionals know cooperative purchasing exists for basic goods and things like equipment, but they may not be using it strategically or for larger, more high-value contracts. And almost none have mapped out which cooperative options are available in their highest-risk categories as a safety net before they need them.
Cooperative purchasing works best as a planned fallback, not a scrambled emergency response. When you know which contracts are available, which cooperative agreements your agency is eligible to use, and how they apply to your specific categories, you can move quickly when a competitive solicitation falls short, without having to worry about figuring out if they’re compliant and relevant.
Cooperative purchasing allows your agency to purchase goods or services through a contract that was competitively bid by another agency or a purchasing cooperative on behalf of multiple agencies. The lead agency runs the initial competitive process, and your agency piggybacks on the resulting contract, typically at the same pricing and terms, without running its own solicitation.
The competitive requirement is satisfied because the contract was competitively awarded. Most state laws and local procurement policies explicitly authorize cooperative purchasing under specific conditions, though the specific rules — which contracts are eligible, what documentation is required, whether board approval is needed — vary by jurisdiction.
The piggybacking agency can contract with speed and certainty. A cooperative contract in a category where your vendor pool is thin gives you a competitive price, a vetted vendor, and a defensible process, without the time and staff cost of running a solicitation that may come back thin anyway.
Most states maintain master contracts for commonly purchased goods and services that local agencies can access directly. These cover a wide range of categories, like technology, office supplies, vehicles, professional services, or construction materials.
State contracts are typically negotiated at significant volume, which means pricing is often competitive even for smaller agencies. Your state's purchasing office maintains the list of available contracts and the terms under which local agencies can access them.
When another public agency such as a county, a city, a school district, or a special district has run a competitive solicitation and awarded a contract, your agency may be able to use that contract directly if the original solicitation included cooperative purchasing language allowing other agencies to participate. Piggyback contracts are often available from peer agencies in your region and can cover categories where your own vendor pool is thin.
PlanetBids’ digital procurement solution offers a repository of contracts from the more than 550 public agencies within their network for you to search. Need a contract fast or not sure exactly how to create the solicitation for what you want to buy? Find a contract you can use as a template to build your own specifications and scope of work, or just find a piggyback contract and skip the solicitation process altogether.
National and regional purchasing cooperatives like TIPS, NASPO ValuePoint, Sourcewell, OMNIA Partners, and others — run competitive solicitations on behalf of member agencies and maintain libraries of contracts available for member use. Membership is typically free or low-cost for public agencies, and the contract libraries cover a broad range of categories from office supplies to equipment to technology and more. For agencies that struggle with depth in certain categories, a cooperative contract may provide better pricing and more vendor options than a direct solicitation would produce.
Cooperative purchasing is not a substitute for building a healthy vendor pool, especially in those categories your agency sources regularly. But it is a strategic tool for specific situations where it provides a better outcome than a direct solicitation.
When your vendor pool in a category is genuinely thin. If a category consistently returns one or two responses and outreach has not moved the needle, a cooperative contract may produce better pricing and more options than another round of direct solicitation. Use the competitive solicitation to test the market, and use the cooperative contract when the market test consistently comes back inadequate.
When a need is time-sensitive and a full solicitation cycle is not practical. Not every emergency is truly an emergency procurement situation. When a need arises quickly and there is a competitive cooperative contract available in the relevant category, using it is faster and more defensible than a sole-source award. Your agency gets competitive pricing and a clean procurement record without the compliance questions that accompany emergency contracting.
When the contract value does not justify the cost of a full solicitation. For lower-value purchases in categories with thin local vendor pools, the staff time cost of running a solicitation may exceed the savings from running one. A cooperative contract in these categories is a practical efficiency measure that gives you competitive pricing without the administrative overhead.
When you want to test a vendor or category before investing in a full solicitation. Using a cooperative contract to engage a vendor for an initial project gives your agency practical experience with their performance before committing to a longer-term competitive award. If the performance is strong, the next solicitation in that category may attract better competition because a qualified incumbent is now known to the market.
The best time to research cooperative purchasing options in your highest-risk categories is before you put out a solicitation with a thin response. It should be done regularly as part of your category risk assessment and your vendor pool health monitoring.
For each of your highest-criticality, lowest-participation categories, your agency should be able to answer the following:
Is there a state contract available in this category your agency is eligible to use? Check your state's purchasing office contract list. Note the contract number, the awarded vendor, the pricing, and the expiration date. If a state contract exists and is competitive, document it as your fallback for this category.
Are there cooperative purchasing agreements available through organizations your agency belongs to or is eligible to join? Review the contract libraries of the major purchasing cooperatives and any regional cooperatives that serve your area. Identify contracts available in your high-risk categories and evaluate whether the pricing and terms are competitive for your agency's typical purchase volumes.
Are there piggyback contracts available from peer agencies in your region? Connect with procurement professionals at peer cities, counties, or districts that source similar categories, and ask whether they have recently awarded contracts with cooperative purchasing language. Regional peer networks are an underused source of competitive contracts in categories where direct solicitation consistently comes up short.
What does your agency's policy require to use a cooperative contract? Know your authorization requirements before you need them. Does using a cooperative contract require board approval above a certain threshold? Is there documentation required to demonstrate that the cooperative contract represents a competitive value? Understanding your policy requirements in advance means you can move quickly when the situation calls for it.
Cooperative purchasing is a sourcing tool, not a substitute for a healthy vendor pool. If your agency uses cooperative contracts because its own vendor pool is consistently inadequate, the underlying problem isn’t being addressed. These issues indicate that your pool is not broad, current, or well-matched enough to produce competition. Working around that reality won’t fix it.
The goal is for your agency to maintain a vendor pool that produces genuine competition in your primary categories, with cooperative purchasing available as a planned fallback when direct solicitation falls short for specific situations. Both have a role, and neither replaces the other.
When your vendor pool is healthy and your direct solicitations produce strong competition, cooperative contracts are a convenience tool for lower-value purchases and time-sensitive needs. When your vendor pool has gaps that outreach has not yet closed, cooperative contracts bridge those gaps while the underlying pool development work continues.
Used strategically, cooperative purchasing expands your sourcing options without reducing your incentive to build the vendor market your agency needs for the long term.
If your agency has not recently mapped out its cooperative purchasing options, the best place to start is by looking at your sole-source and single-bid history from the past two years.
Identify the categories that appear most frequently. For each of those categories, spend an hour researching whether a state contract, a cooperative agreement, or a peer agency piggyback contract exists. Document what you find, like contract name, vendor, pricing structure, expiration date, and your agency's authorization requirements for use.
That list is your cooperative purchasing inventory for your highest-risk categories. Keep it current, review it annually, and make sure the procurement staff who manage those categories know it exists.
The next time a solicitation in one of those categories comes back thin, the response is a decision rather than a scramble.