Overview
You may notice that some suppliers classified as Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) have blank or null values in the ethnicity field. This article explains why this occurs.
Why Ethnicity Data May Be Missing
supplier.io aggregates data from over 300 publicly available and several authorized private certification sources. Some agencies, especially at the state or local level, do not capture ethnicity data for MBEs.
These agencies maintain directories of actively certified MBEs but do not collect or publish details about the specific ethnicity of the business owner. As a result, when we receive data from these sources, the MBE designation is present but ethnicity is not available.
How to Get Ethnicity Data for These Suppliers
If ethnicity data is important for your reporting, you can:
- Invite the supplier to register through SupplierOne
- Contact the supplier directly to request their ethnicity classification
- Check if the supplier holds certifications from agencies that do capture ethnicity