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About MBDI

Mission Statement and Program Goals

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
-Chinese Proverb

"Through education and advocacy, the Minority Business Development Institute's mission is to assist members of diverse and underrepresented communities to develop socio-economic parity by helping them overcome barriers to success. At MBDI we pledge to develop and implement a robust array of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, including assisting diverse business owners to achieve sustainable, and profitable growth in the public and commercial sectors by positioning them to access affordable capital and bonding; forging career paths that can lift underrepresented community members out of poverty and into the middle class; and, addressing bias and fraud in workplaces and in procurement."

MBDI firmly believes that education, not hand-outs, is key to creating minority-owned prime contractors. Other bond programs waive bonds for minority contractors or provide capital with no requirement that the contractor undergo sustainable systemic change. We see this as a myopic and unsustainable approach that can lead to contractor default and deplete available program funds. Empirical evidence shows that a contractor is not "helped" by being given access to a project that it lacks the infrastructure to support. If a firm is not ready to perform a project, it should not perform the project.

Broad Program Goals

  • Provide a workforce development educational program that will train contractor CEOs and management personnel to improve broad-based managerial, operational and financial functions, thereby increasing surety bond acquisition, productivity, profits and opportunities. Emphasis will be placed on financial literacy and community development.
  • Provide one-on-one advisory consulting services to those contractors seeking to improve business operations and acquire bonding for the purposes of economic development.
  • Assist growing contractors to prepare for their first contracts requiring surety bonding or for larger contracts requiring larger bonds.
  • Support the surety bond application and management process.
  • Establish a Capital Access Bond Fund that will address the issue of inadequate capitalization that has consistently hindered the emerging contractor.
  • Develop road maps for the continued growth and success of emerging contractors in order to create jobs, create wealth (and perhaps generational wealth), increase community tax bases and allow for sustainable systemic change.
Note: Click on numbered footnotes for detailed information