Faq

NVBDC certification provides access and opportunity for Certified SD/VOBs to access a $96 Billion supplier diversity marketplace

frequently asked questions

General Questions

How Much Will It Cost?

Your cost to submit an application for our review is determined by your company’s total sales per year as follows:

Sales up to $999,999 – $350
$1 Million to $4.9 Million – $600
$5 Million to $9.99 Million – $900
$10 Million to $49.99 Million – $1,200
$50 Million to $99.99 Million – $1,500
$100 Million and up – $2,500

Why should SD/VOB seek NVBDC Certification?

An NVBDC certification provides the opportunities for the SD/VOB and assurance to the supplier diversity professional and organizational buyer.It opens access to supplier diversity managers who have asked for a reliable means of assessing the status of a business. A NVBDC certification is reliable, repeatable and rigorous which means it can withstand external scrutiny. An NVBDC certification is repeatable in that it has a process which it follows to ensure that the outcome meets the rigorous standards of NVBDC and its corporate partners. Finally, the NVBDC certification is rigorous like that of hospital accreditations or university accreditations. Why is that? The process is rigorous because the public, including veterans and supplier diversity managers need to know that who they are partnering with meets the legal requirements to conduct business. A NVBDC SD/VOB certification is accepted by the Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR) members as its only certification to meet their veteran owned business “audit standards” to qualify for inclusion in diversity spend.

What are the advantages of the NVBDC certification for SD/VOBs?

The NVBDC value proposition for the SD/VOB is to provide a certification that will be recognized and accepted by industry so that a SD/VOB may access diversity spend opportunities. The NVBDC provides certification that creates access to States, Federal Agencies, major corporations and Billion Dollar Roundtable members, to aid and incentivize the SD/VOB to pursue the certification. The NVBDC offers on going opportunities for the SD/VOBs to participate and meet with the NVBDC members and educational partners. The NVBDC continues to expand corporate membership, partnering with new major corporations on a continual basis.

What is the value proposition of NVBDC membership for corporate supplier diversity professionals?

NVBDC certification provides the assurance to corporate members that the veteran suppliers that they intend to contract with have gone through a rigorous vetting process. Corporate members will be provided access to a database of certified SD/VOBs. The NVBDC will participate in and co-sponsor networking and educational events with our corporate members. The organization commits to launching a strong outreach campaign to grow its membership to ensure success in finding the best qualified SD/VOBs.

When did Veteran Owned Small Businesses become formally recognized?

Prior to 1999 there was no formal recognition or requirement of any veteran owned small business (VOSB) or service disabled veteran owned small businesses (SDVOSB) by the US Small Business Administration (SBA).

In August 1999, the US Congress formally established two additional socioeconomic categories in Public Law (PL) 106-50, “Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act of 1999”. This law provided formal recognition to the VOSB and SDVOSB categories and established formal contract spend goals for the US Federal Government which was to be managed and reported to the US Small Business Administration.

In December 2006, the US Congress passed Public Law 109-461, “Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006”, also referred to as Veterans First. In this legislation it placed VOSB and SDVOSB’s higher in the level of consideration when contracting with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and charged VA with creating a VOSB/SDVOSB verification program. Regrettably, the legislation only applied to the VA and not to the other executive agencies of the Executive Departments of the U.S. Federal Government. After PL 109–461 was passed, the veteran small business community felt there had been clarity brought to federal contracting veteran and service disabled owned small businesses, however such was not the case.

Introductory Questions

What is a Veteran?

NVBDC defines a “Veteran” has a person who served full-time (24/7) “Active Duty” service in the United States “Armed Forces” for a minimum of 180 Consecutive Active Duty Days, less training and breaks there within according to the following statuary and regulatory Legislation:

Title 5 USC § 2108; Title 38 USC § 101(21)(22), Title 38 USC § 1965 (1)(5), Title 38 CFR § 3.6; Title 38 USC §4211 (4)

What is the criteria for SD/VOB certification?

A SD/VOB is a business owned, (51% ownership or greater) by a Veteran who has met the definition of a veteran. The following represents the criteria that NVBDC uses in determining ownership:

Ownership: Fifty-one percent ownership by a Veteran or Veterans. The applicant must share in all risk and profits commensurate with their ownership interest.
Control and Management: Proof of active management of the business. Veteran must possess the power to direct or cause to direct the management and policies of the business.
Contribution of Expertise and Capital: Contribution of capital and/or expertise by Veteran owner(s) to acquire their ownership interest shall be real and substantial and be in proportion of the interest acquired.
Independence: The Veteran owner(s) shall have the ability to perform in their area of specialty/expertise without substantial reliance on non-Veteran-owned businesses.

What are the challenges faced by SD/VOBs?

Visibility of all the Veteran Owned Business (VOB), includes Service Disabled. As the statistics show there is a disparity between those businesses that self-report to the US Census Bureau (2,521,682) and those businesses that are listed in SAM.gov and CVE.gov (14,300 averaged). Since registration with SAM.gov is necessary for business to contract with the US Federal Government that would suggest there are OVER 2.5 million SD/VOBs that don’t do business with or are not registered with the federal government.
Recognition and Acceptance of the Certification by government entities and business/industry. Currently there is only one verification that is mandated by law and only applies to the Department of Veterans Affairs and that is the CVE program at VIP.gov. Since it only applies to the Department of Veterans Affairs other federal agencies do not have to (many do not) use the VA verification. The CVE program clearly does not meet Corporate best practice standards. This would suggest there is a need for an independent third-party certification body to certify veteran business status. This would apply to not only other federal agencies but to major federal prime contractors, and to business to business contracting and purchasing.
Understanding the opportunities: Veteran owned businesses offer goods and services that benefit companies that buy from them, unfortunately, these same businesses are unaware of opportunities that they may have to leverage their veteran status with the diversity spend requirements of companies.

Why should a SD/VOB pursue third-party certification?

The benefit of being a certified veteran owned business is two-fold. First it provides the veteran owned business with access to opportunities that are available only to CERTIFIED veteran owned businesses to participate in diversity spend opportunities. Secondly, it enables connection to supplier diversity managers who have asked for a reliable means of assessing the true status of a SD/VOB business. NVBDC certification is reliable, repeatable, and rigorous which means it can withstand external scrutiny.

Who is the Billion Dollar Roundtable?

The Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to drive supplier diversity excellence through best practice sharing and thought leadership. The BDR currently represents twenty-seven major corporation partners that spend over $1 Billion per year with Women, Minority and now Service Disabled and Veteran owned businesses. Due to the support of many of their members and the advocacy of the NVBDC, the BDR members have incorporated the NVBDC certification for their diversity spend. These corporations have a strong interest in the veteran owned business community and have made the NVBDC certification the only acceptable SD/VOB certification for Primes, as well as their Tier I and Tier II suppliers.