How LGBTIQA+ supplier certification works in the United States and Canada
This explainer compares the supplier certification programs run by NGLCC in the United States and the Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce with the one Australian buyer definition that already recognises the category. It finds that fees, identity evidence and eligibility rules are central to how each scheme works, and that the open issue for Australia is whether buyers and owners would use a scheme.
Topic
Geography
Published
Sources checked
19 September 2026
Reading time
4 minutes
Published by
Pride in Business, an initiative of Just Gold. Disclosures and editorial principles
The overseas programs as a reference point
Overseas LGBTIQA+ supplier programs offer an owner verification of the business, a listing in a directory and introductions to buyers who are actively looking for LGBTIQA+ owned suppliers. The United States and Canada have run programs of this kind for years, and they are the reference point for any Australian discussion of the subject. Their experience shows that certification can be organised, sustained and used by buyers, although it says little about what Australian owners would need or what Australian buyers would use, and the features that most shape how a scheme operates, including fees, identity evidence and eligibility rules, are the ones least apparent to an outside observer.
The United States
NGLCC, which now describes itself as the National LGBTQ+ and Allied Chamber of Commerce, runs the LGBTBE certification. The process involves an application, supporting documents, a site visit and review by a national committee. The organisation’s wider programs also include allied businesses, so the certification pathway should be distinguished from membership of the broader network. Its 2024 information sheet specified majority LGBT ownership, United States citizenship or lawful permanent residency, independence from any non LGBT business and a United States legal entity, with certification fees waived for members of a local affiliate chamber. These are dated program terms, and they do not establish that a business operating only in Australia is eligible today.
The American model achieved its scale on the demand side. Certification gives a supplier access to corporate partners with diverse spend commitments, and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index has for years directed large employers towards supplier inclusion. The 2026 criteria list an inclusive supplier program as one of several ways a company can meet its outreach and engagement requirement, and it is no longer a mandatory item for a top score. The index therefore exerts less pressure on supplier inclusion than it once did while still influencing buyers, and Australian buyers have no comparable instrument.
Canada
The Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce, until recently known as CGLCC, operates a supplier diversity certification for businesses majority owned, operated and controlled by members of the communities it represents, together with Canadian eligibility requirements. The chamber’s most instructive feature is its membership of the Supplier Diversity Alliance Canada with other certifying councils, including the bodies that certify women owned, visible minority owned and Indigenous owned businesses, so its category is one of several recognised within a shared national system and is pursued alongside them. Australia has no equivalent alliance.
Certification in Canada is not funded solely by buyers. The chamber publishes an annual supplier fee and describes funding support that may cover the first year for eligible applicants. Applicants should confirm the applicable charge directly with the chamber, and the published fee shows that the real cost of verification is carried at least in part by suppliers.
Identity evidence in the application process
Both schemes ask for more than company records. The Canadian chamber’s document guide for incorporated businesses expressly requests proof that the owners belong to the communities it certifies, alongside ownership, financial and governance records, and NGLCC publishes status qualifiers for business owners. Both schemes also make clear that their assessment does not establish whether a business can deliver a particular contract.
The handling of identity evidence is a matter of scheme design, because an owner needs to know what is being requested, who will see it and whether another form of evidence is available. A person who is not publicly out will experience the same application very differently from someone whose identity already forms part of their professional profile. Any Australian scheme would have to settle this issue first, and the overseas models show that it can be settled in more than one way.
Similar ownership thresholds also do not make certifications interchangeable. Recognition depends on the buyer and the scheme, and the loss of a certification does not by itself end every associated contract, since that depends on the terms of each contract.
The Australian example
Macquarie’s published supplier definitions include LGBT Business Enterprises and name the overseas certifying bodies. No Australian certifier appears in that entry because none exists, and the same page allows other forms of verification to be considered case by case. The page therefore shows that a large Australian buyer has already created the category, and it supports neither the claim that Australia has no route into the category nor the claim that Australia has no LGBTIQA+ suppliers. It is not yet known what alternative evidence Macquarie accepts, whether any Australian business has used that route, or what purchasing has followed, and the Macquarie page is the reason these matters are included in the research.
Lessons for an Australian scheme
A certification scheme has to work for both parties to a transaction. Buyers need confidence in the information they are given, and owners need a process they can afford, trust and complete without harm to themselves. Fees, confidentiality, reassessment and access to buyers with genuine requirements all form part of that, and the overseas models have spent two decades learning how to manage them. The overseas experience indicates that a certification could be built in Australia, so the unresolved issue for Australia lies in demand from both buyers and owners: whether Australian buyers would use a certification and whether Australian owners would want to be part of one, which is what our research is designed to establish.
Sources
- NGLCC. LGBTBE certification process.
- NGLCC. Current organisation name and programs.
- NGLCC. LGBTBE certification information sheet, 2024.
- Human Rights Campaign Foundation. 2026 Corporate Equality Index rating criteria, section 4a.
- Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce. Supplier diversity: eligibility and certification.
- Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce. Frequently asked questions: fees, assessment and confidentiality.
- Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce. Document submission guidelines for incorporated businesses.
- Macquarie Group. Inclusive supply chains: definitions and verification.
Source pages last checked 19 September 2026.
Our explainers describe how business and procurement systems work in Australia. They are written for business owners and others who deal with those systems from the outside, as well as for people who work within them. We review each guide at least annually and update it sooner when a relevant rule changes. Check the linked source for current eligibility requirements before applying.
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