Creating Opportunity for LGBTQ+ Business Enterprises in California

by Mark Morales

As a convener of thought leaders in the Los Angeles community and in celebration of Pride Month, we are pleased to welcome the Chamber's partner and friend, Mark Morales, Chair of the California State Insurance Commissioner's Insurance Diversity Task Force, as the guest author of this week’s Business Perspective. 

Inclusion + Representation + Engagement = Measurable Results

In 2012 the California Department of insurance started collecting information from insurance companies requiring them to report how much they spent with diverse owned California businesses, which included LGBT Business Enterprises. The Insurance Diversity Task Force, which advises the Department of Insurance, consists of members of the communities tracked in the survey, and in 2015, I became the first LGBT representative to the task force.  
   
In my first year on the task force, I reached out to CA LGBT Chambers of Commerce and the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce and was able to increase LGBT Business Enterprise representation at the 2015 Insurance Diversity Summit by 700%. We redesigned the Insurance Diversity Summit and provided webinar training to all attendees prior to the event to get them ready with properly formatted capability statements and prepared for their matchmaking appointments, and worked with the legislative committee to ensure that SB534 included LGBTBEs in the language of the bill. 
 
The result? California LGBTQ+ Business Enterprise spend by nationwide insurance companies has increased from $150,000 in 2013 to $10.2 million in the last survey with an additional $49 million in signed contracts. This in part has to do with having representation and that representative reaching out to bring the word out to the LGBTQ business community and engaging insurance companies to do business with them.  
   
The work we do on the Insurance Diversity Task Force has meaning to our business owners and provides opportunity to grow wealth in historically disadvantaged communities. To find out more about the initiative and how to participate in the annual Insurance Diversity Summit please visit www.insurance.ca.gov/diversity. To find out more about LGBT Business Enterprise certification, visit the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce or the local Los Angeles and Long Beach LGBTQ+ Chambers at www.laglcc.org or www.lbglcc.org.

Diversity is good business!