If you sell professional services, technology, facilities support, staffing, marketing, or printing, Goldman Sachs is the kind of buyer worth understanding. A global investment bank spends heavily on outside vendors, and it runs a formal supplier diversity program that has been in place in North America since 2000. The firm states the program supports the growth of minority, women, veteran, disabled, service-disabled veteran, and LGBT-owned businesses.
Here's the part most guides skip. You do not register on a public portal and get added to a buyer's list. Goldman's vendor registration questionnaire goes to vendors that already have a contract or an active conversation. So the real question isn't "where do I sign up." It's "how do I get in front of a Goldman buyer in the first place." This guide covers both: how the firm sources, and the on-ramp that actually works for a small diverse business.
What Goldman Sachs's supplier diversity program isGoldman's vendor diversity effort sits inside its broader sourcing and supply-chain function. The firm's stated goal is to give small businesses of all backgrounds a fair shot to compete for its business, on the theory that a more competitive supply chain produces better outcomes and more innovation. The program began in North America in 2000 and the firm has described expanding it globally over time.
Two things matter for a business owner deciding whether to pursue it:
- It supports diverse-owned businesses across several categories. Minority, women, veteran, service-disabled veteran, disabled, and LGBT-owned firms are all named in Goldman's public materials.
- It is a sourcing program, not a grant program. This is about winning purchase orders for goods and services Goldman actually buys, not philanthropy. Don't confuse it with the firm's 10,000 Small Businesses education program, which is a separate philanthropic initiative and not a procurement channel.
One caution on timing. In early 2025, Goldman, like many large companies, revised some of its public diversity language in response to legal and regulatory pressure. Reporting at the time noted changes to board-diversity requirements and to wording on its diversity pages. The vendor program itself was still described publicly, but if you're reading older articles, assume the marketing language may have shifted. Confirm the current state of the program directly before you build a strategy around it.
What certification helps, and which onesGoldman recognizes diverse status through third-party certification, which is standard for corporate supplier diversity programs. You'll want a certification that matches your ownership before you approach the firm. The common ones:
- Minority-owned: certification from the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) and its regional affiliates. As of September 2025, NMSDC consolidated regional applications into one national system, the NMSDC Hub.
- Women-owned: the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).
- LGBT-owned: the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).
- Disability-owned: Disability:IN.
- Veteran and service-disabled veteran-owned: the National Veteran Business Development Council (NVBDC) or NaVOBA, depending on the buyer's preference.
Certification doesn't win you a contract. It validates your ownership so a supplier diversity team can count your business in their reporting and route you to the right buyers. If you're weighing which certification fits and want to file once across multiple bodies instead of repeating the same paperwork five times, CertifyAll handles the filing for you.
A practical note on Tier 2. A lot of corporate diverse spend flows through Tier 2, meaning you become a subcontractor to one of Goldman's existing prime vendors rather than a direct vendor. If you can't land a direct contract yet, getting onto a prime's diverse-subcontractor roster is often the faster door. Ask any prime you talk to whether they track and report Tier 2 diverse spend.
How vendor registration actually worksGoldman uses SAP Ariba for vendor onboarding. Here's the sequence the firm describes:
- A contract or active opportunity comes first. The registration questionnaire is sent to vendors Goldman is already engaging. You don't cold-register and appear in a buyer's queue.
- You complete the Ariba registration questionnaire. It asks for contact information, banking details for payment, and tax information. Use your finance team's email so invoices and payment setup don't stall.
- You go through onboarding due diligence. New vendors trigger risk reviews: background and anti-bribery checks, information security review, and a financial-condition assessment. Budget time for this. For a small firm, the security and financial reviews are usually where onboarding slows down.
- Approved vendors get a dedicated Goldman contact and are onboarded onto the firm's platforms and processes.
So registration is the back half of the story. The front half, getting an opportunity in the first place, is what you actually have to engineer.
The realistic on-rampYou're not going to email procurement@ and get a meeting. Here's what tends to work for a small diverse business trying to break into a financial-services buyer like Goldman:
Get certified first. Have your NMSDC, WBENC, NGLCC, Disability:IN, or veteran certification in hand before you make a move. It's the credential that lets a supplier diversity team act on your interest.
Be findable. Corporate supplier diversity teams and their prime vendors search certification databases and supplier directories when they have a need. List your business where buyers look. Publish your supplier profile with clear NAICS or commodity codes, the regions you serve, and a one-line description of exactly what you sell.
Lead with a specific category, not "anything." Buyers source against a need: managed print, contingent staffing in New York, Spanish-language creative, data-center cabling. A capability statement that names a tight category beats a generic services pitch every time.
Work the certifying-body channel. NMSDC, WBENC, and NGLCC run matchmaker events, opportunity fairs, and regional councils where their corporate members, often including large banks, meet certified suppliers. That's the introduction Goldman's public portal won't give you.
Pursue Tier 2. If a direct contract isn't realistic this year, target Goldman's existing prime vendors as a subcontractor. Many large primes have their own diverse-supplier programs and report Tier 2 spend back to their corporate clients.
Build relevant past performance. A bank wants vendors that have already served regulated, security-conscious clients. Wins with other financial-services or large-enterprise buyers make your pitch credible. Stack those first if Goldman is a stretch today.
What buyers at a bank actually screen forIt helps to think like the person on the other side of the table. A sourcing manager at Goldman has a budget, a category, and a set of risk reviews she has to clear before she can sign anyone. Three things move a small vendor from "interesting" to "approved":
- Security posture. Financial-services buyers run information-security reviews on new vendors. If you handle any data, having basic controls documented, who can access what, how you store records, what happens if you have a breach, shortens the review. A vendor that can answer security questions fast looks lower-risk than one that scrambles.
- Financial stability. Goldman runs a financial-condition assessment. A bank is wary of a vendor that might fail mid-contract. You don't need to be large, but you do need to look durable: clean books, references, evidence you've delivered before.
- A clean, specific fit. The fastest yes is the vendor who solves a need the buyer already has, in a category the buyer is already sourcing. The slowest is the generalist asking the buyer to invent a use for them.
None of this is unique to Goldman. Every large regulated buyer screens on roughly these axes, which is why the prep you do for one bank carries to the next.
Where to point your energyGoldman Sachs is one buyer. The discipline that gets you into Goldman, certification, a findable profile, a tight capability statement, and working the certifying-body and Tier 2 channels, is the same discipline that gets you into every major corporate supplier diversity program. Build it once and it pays off across dozens of buyers, not one.
If you want to see which corporations run active supplier diversity programs and what each accepts, our corporate program directory lists them with the certifications they recognize and how to reach their teams. Start there, target the buyers whose spend categories match what you sell, and run the same play across all of them.
For the broader strategy behind getting into these programs, including how to position a capability statement and work matchmaker events, read how to get into corporate supplier diversity programs.
