You may already be familiar with the journey. It begins by listening, gathering meaningful community input and shaping a shared vision. Specifications take form, proposals are invited, reviews and approvals move forward and details are refined with care. When everything aligns, the process can take about 18 months. When it needs more conversation and consideration, it can take longer.

Progress does not have to feel rushed to move with purpose. There are thoughtful ways to keep momentum strong, center people's diverse needs and build outdoor spaces the community is proud of.

Cooperative purchasing offers a different path — one where government or lead agencies have already handled the competitive bidding, vendor qualification and pricing negotiations. You maintain full compliance and quality standards while working within timelines that actually serve your community's needs.

Here's how it works, and how to find the approach that fits your agency.

How It Works

When a cooperative purchasing organization conducts a competitive solicitation, evaluates vendors and negotiates contract terms, those contracts become available to thousands of participating agencies. You're not bypassing procurement requirements; you're benefiting from procurement that's already been done.

Cooperative purchasing consolidates the procurement work into a complete framework. The compliance validation, pricing negotiations and vendor qualification standards have been verified through a competitive solicitation process.

Traditional procurement processes protect taxpayer investment, maintain competitive integrity and verify vendor quality. Cooperative purchasing preserves these essential safeguards while compressing timelines. For smaller agencies or those juggling multiple playground projects simultaneously, these contracts deliver rigorous vetting without requiring staff to build evaluation frameworks repeatedly.

Your local Burke representative still provides the same project support — site evaluation, design consultation and installation coordination. The difference is simply a more efficient procurement pathway from the start.

Your Contract Options

Burke partners with cooperative purchasing programs across North America — serving state and local governments, federal agencies and Canadian municipalities. One of these programs may already be available to your agency.

Your Burke representative can help you find the right fit, or you can explore our purchasing contract partners to see which options align with your procurement process.

Why It Matters

Here's what compressed procurement timelines can mean: more projects completed within current budget cycles, staff time redirected to other priorities and pre-vetted vendor confidence from the start rather than building evaluation frameworks from scratch.

The families asking questions at community meetings see their local government responding with the urgency their children's development deserves. Kids benefit from play equipment sooner. This matters because play is key to child development. Play builds physical literacy, emotional resilience and social connection during the developmental windows when children need them most.

Playgrounds create the gathering spaces where neighbors meet, communities strengthen and memories form across (and for) generations. When budget dollars stretch further because administrative costs decrease, more of those spaces become possible. When staff capacity is freed from lengthy procurement cycles, agencies can focus on other community priorities and serve their communities more completely.

Cooperative purchasing keeps the focus where it belongs — on people and communities. It does not change what playgrounds offer a community, but instead clears the path for those benefits to arrive sooner. When projects align with current budget cycles, communities can move forward with confidence and create spaces that support growth, connection and everyday moments of play.

Building more playgrounds today means more children developing skills, resilience and confidence right now. It reflects an optimistic investment in community life — one that values thoughtful design, shared experiences and environments that feel welcoming to everyone.

Your Next Step

The right cooperative purchasing contract depends on your agency structure, project scope and existing procurement relationships. Your Burke representative understands how these contracts work and can help you identify which pathway best serves your situation and community.

Ready to explore which cooperative purchasing option fits your agency? Visit our purchasing contracts resource page to compare contract structures, or connect with your local Burke representative to discuss your project timeline and procurement requirements.