NASPO - The National Association of State Procurement Officials - is a non-profit association dedicated to strengthening the procurement community through education, research, and communication. It is made up of the directors of the central purchasing offices in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of the United States. NASPO is an organization through which the member purchasing officials provide leadership in professional public purchasing, improve the quality of purchasing and procurement, exchange information, and cooperate to attain greater efficiency and economy.

In 1993, the 15 states from NASPO's western region came together to establish a means by which states may join together in cooperative multi-state contracting in order to achieve cost-effective and efficient acquisition of quality products and services. This group is better known as WSCA, the Western States Contracting Alliance. States included in this group are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. WSCA is a national leader in facilitating cooperative purchasing that benefits the states, cities, counties, public schools, and institutions of higher education. These contracting initiatives are administered by a western region state and follow a review process managed by the state directors from the western region.

As a result of the great success in the western region, NASPO leaders initiated the NASPO Cooperative Purchasing Committee in 2002 to assist member states both in and outside of the western region in establishing cooperative multi-state contracts. Similar to the original WSCA model, NASPO assists member states in all regions in establishing cooperative multi-state contracts.

All authorized governmental entities are welcome to use WSCA/NASPO approved agreements.