NCTCOG, Alliance for Innovation Expand Cooperative Purchasing Access

The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) and the Alliance for Innovation have signed an agreement intended to broaden local government access to cooperative purchasing contracts through a shared procurement framework.

The agreement, announced June 25, gives member agencies nationwide access to more than 500 competitively awarded contracts through a single cooperative purchasing structure powered by Civic Marketplace. It connects NCTCOG’s TXShare program with the Alliance for Innovation’s cooperative purchasing program, allowing participating agencies to use contracts across both portfolios without executing separate interlocal agreements.

Civic Marketplace lists the combined portfolio at 279 contracts, 504 vetted suppliers and 14 service areas. The platform also says agencies with active membership in either TXShare or the Alliance for Innovation can access both portfolios through the reciprocity agreement.

The contract categories include technology, infrastructure, public safety, water and utilities and professional services. According to NCTCOG, the contracts have been competitively solicited and awarded under applicable procurement laws, with the agreement designed to preserve compliance and audit documentation for purchasing officials and governing bodies.

The agreement also extends to COGWORKS, the cooperative purchasing program of the East Texas Council of Governments. Through the East Texas Council of Governments’ existing TXShare membership, participating COGWORKS agencies gain access to the Alliance for Innovation contract portfolio at no additional cost and with no new paperwork.

Civic Marketplace serves as the platform behind the arrangement, allowing agencies to search the combined catalog, review compliance documentation and connect with awarded suppliers. The TXShare website says its contracts are competitively sourced through a sealed-proposal method and independently evaluated by subject matter experts.

The agreement follows earlier work among TXShare, Civic Marketplace and the Alliance for Innovation tied to artificial intelligence procurement. In 2025, TXShare awarded competitively bid, nationally accessible AI contracts for local government use in collaboration with Civic Marketplace and the Alliance for Innovation. That initiative covered more than 70 use cases and was designed to let agencies deploy vetted AI solutions and services without issuing new requests for proposals.

The new cooperative purchasing agreement operates under the Texas Interlocal Cooperation Act and applicable state procurement statutes, according to NCTCOG. The organization said TXShare membership is open at no cost to local governments and nonprofit entities across all 50 states, and that agencies can usually execute an interlocal agreement in one business day before using contracts.