Services
Let ACRE Help Your Nonprofit Meaningfully Reduce Costs
The Nonprofit Buying Network
There's Purchasing Power in Numbers
Most nonprofits don’t have enough purchasing power to push vendors to offer their lowest-price deals. The Nonprofit Buying Network is here to change that.
The Network leverages aggregate nonprofit demand over time. Vendors compete harder when they know a strong offer today can influence future nonprofit sales opportunities—giving you access to pricing that’s difficult to achieve on your own.
You tell us what you want, then the Network invites appropriate vendors to bid on your business, while emphasizing that the strongest bids secure priority status to bid on future nonprofit projects.
There’s no cost for nonprofits to participate, and no obligation to choose any vendor—you simply gain more leverage at the moment it matters most.
When you’re planning a purchase of $5000 or more, let the Nonprofit Buying Netwok know, and we’ll go to work to see how much we might save you!
The Discount Clearinghouse
ACRE actively manages the most comprehensive online repository of free and discounted offers specifically for nonprofits. 200+ offers from companies in 30+ categories are easily searchable and include the percentage discount, the dollar value the discount represents, and, in many cases, detailed information about the discounted item or service.
The Clearinghouse also offers exclusive bonus savings from ACRE when you take advantage of select vendor discount offers!
Exclusive low-cost nonprofit support services, many utilizing a hybrid mix of human expertise and AI administrative assistance, are also available in the Clearinghouse, to help you pay less for services you now provide or add services that may have been previously out of your price range.
Whatever you’re in the market for, from software to furniture to grant research to bookkeeping, check the Discount Clearinghouse first to see how much you might save!
When you’re looking to pay less for purchases:
Start with the Discount Clearinghouse to see what deals are already available.
Use the Nonprofit Buying Network when the purchase is big enough that real leverage matters.
Low-Cost Support Services
Leveraging Human Expertise and AI Support
Interested in heavily discounted options to handle some of your hands-on operational needs? ACRE offers several outsourced support services, most of which are led by human experts with low-cost AI tools providing administrative support. The combination means you get high-quality services for a fraction of the cost of other outsourcing options.
Use them for individual projects or on an ongoing basis. Here’s some of the low-cost, ACRE-managed outsourced services available to you:
Operations: Projects led by Operations Manager for an Association Management Company and an Associate Executive Director of Finance and Administration for a national nonprofit membership association. Projects include:
- Procurement
- Vendor management
- Functional support/optimization (HR, Finance, Legal, etc.)
- Program management
- Project management
- Write Board and committee reports, policies, backgrounders, white papers, etc.
- Board, committee, volunteer orientation guides.
- Annual report production
- Transcribe and format meeting minutes
Grants: Projects led by grants and RFP writer and supervisor for federal and private grants for national and state nonprofits. Services include:
- Regular or one-time targeted grant research
- Grant application creation and submission
- Wholistic review of HR/Staffing costs and program offerings
- Benchmark against model nonprofit HR practices and costs
- Identification of cost-saving alternatives that fit the individual needs of the organization
- “Healthy Alternatives”: Helping nonprofits get control of the runaway costs of health care benefits, while still providing meaningful assistance to employees.
Virtual Assistants:Take back up to 20 hours of your time or your staff’s time every week with either of two low-cost virtual assistance services. Let ACRE create a customized AI assistant to automate whatever processes or tasks you want that will help you devote more time and resources to what really matters. Of if you prefer personal interaction, ACRE contracts with fully vetted and supervised overseas assistants trained in whatever administrative skills you need. You’ll get timely and quality work at a fraction of the cost.
Data Research and Analysis: Projects led by a researcher of nonprofit advocacy initiatives and a corporate Government Affairs Director. Research projects include:
- Advocacy issue data collection
- Media mentions
- Donor survey development/analysis
- KPI measurement
- Benchmarking development/analysis
Operating Cost Reduction
Ensure you’ve maximized efficiency and eliminated any unnecessary administrative costs by using tools and programs developed by ACRE. The services are available to nonprofits for little or no cost, and include:
- Opportunity Analysis: Process Cost Optimization (Free)
- Opportunity Analysis: HR Cost Optimization
- Cost Benchmarking Against Similar Nonprofits (Free)
- Model Nonprofit Spending Practices (Free)
Nonprofits that are looking for ways to reduce spending in specific areas are invited to contact ACRE for free advice, cost analysis, and/or examples of how other nonprofits have found innovative ways to reduce spending in similar categories.
Interested In Saving Money On A Particular Program Or Expenditure? Just Want Some Ideas On New Ways To Reduce Overall Spending? ACRE Can Help With Free Guidance And Cost-Saving Services.