Making the Grade is an annual report that issues letter grades to City agencies based on their level of success spending with minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs). The grades are based on the framework of Local Law 1 of 2013 which set M/WBE participation goals for Mayoral agencies across various industries. Each year, the report assigns letter grades to 31 mayoral agencies plus the Comptroller’s Office. Unlike other M/WBE reporting produced by the City of New York, Making the Grade measures the actual spending of each agency in a fiscal year, not the registered value of contracts which may or may not result in actual spending and can often span multiple years.
The goal of Making the Grade is to shine a light on the City’s spending with minority- and women-owned firms and encourage all City agencies to increase M/WBE utilization. In order to further increase transparency, the Comptroller’s office has created a set of dynamic interactive maps that illustrate the City’s spending with certified M/WBEs by race, ethnicity and gender, by community district and borough, from Fiscal Year 2011 to Fiscal Year 2016. These maps highlight where M/WBE spending is and is not happening and can be used as a tool to better understand the M/WBE landscape in New York City.