Baldrige Foundation Applauds Launch of Renewed Baldrige Award Program

Applications are now being accepted for the 2024 award cycle.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Baldrige Foundation is celebrating the recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of a renewed Baldrige Performance Excellence Award Program, focused on identifying and recognizing organizations that are role models of resilience and long-term success.

"For more than 35 years, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program has helped businesses and other organizations improve their performance and long-term success in part through the Presidential Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The reinvigorated Baldrige Award will recognize role-model manufacturers, small businesses, and organizations that demonstrate success and sustainability and that want to share their best practices to enable other organizations and their communities to become more resilient," said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

"The renewed Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award retains the rigor that made the Baldrige Framework the pre-eminent leadership and management tool in the world," said Al Faber, President and CEO of the Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Inc., "while expanding the emphasis on organizational resiliency and long-term success."

"I am very pleased that the Baldrige Reimagined proposal has been approved. We are fully supportive of the changes and look forward to a new class of Baldrige Award recipients in 2024. NIST and the Department of Commerce appreciate the robustness of the external review, the engaged and constructive participation of the Baldrige community, and the thoughtfulness of the Baldrige Program's proposal to address the recommendations. I am excited for the work and opportunities ahead of us," said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Dr. Laurie Locascio.

The redesigned award program features a streamlined, results-focused evaluation process using a tailored set of new Baldrige Award criteria derived from the literature on organizational resilience and the Baldrige Excellence Framework®. The new criteria are intended to help organizations adapt, innovate and thrive in a dynamic environment where change and disruption are constant.

The application for the renewed 2024 Baldrige Award is now open for organizations in six categories covering the U.S economy: manufacturing, services, small business, health care, education, and the nonprofit sector. Community will be added in future award cycles as the newest category of the Baldrige Awards. Applicants must complete the eligibility portion of the application process by 6 p.m. Eastern Time, March 12, 2024. The award application deadline is April 2, 2024, at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.

Baldrige Award recipients will be recognized during a formal ceremony in the Washington, D.C. area in the spring of 2025. The ceremony will be followed by the premier Quest for Excellence® Conference, where Baldrige Award recipients share their nonproprietary best practices and innovations. The conference is attended by health care organizations, educational institutions, large and small businesses, manufacturers, and other entities that contribute to our nation's economic vitality.

"The next chapter of Baldrige has begun," remarked Faber. "For more than 30+ years the Baldrige Framework has helped organizations of every size, and from all sectors of the economy, improve their performance. Now, we look to the future with great confidence in the Baldrige Framework's ability to continue driving performance excellence, and the new Baldrige Award, which will identify national role models for resiliency and long-term success. These role-model organizations will help to strengthen businesses of all sizes, education, health care, and nonprofit organizations, and government agencies in every community across the United States by sharing their best practices. The Baldrige Foundation is immensely proud to have been the private sector partner to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program over the past 30 years, and we look forward to our continued partnership over the next 30 years and beyond with great excitement and commitment. Now more than ever, Baldrige remains America's best investment!"

About The Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Inc.
The Baldrige Foundation was created as the private partner to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program in 1988. Its mission is to ensure the long-term financial viability of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and to support organizational performance excellence throughout the United States and the world. We would like to especially thank Mac Baldrige Society members Stellar Solutions and Freese and Nichols for their continued support to the Foundation. The Baldrige Program, located at NIST within the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a separate entity and is solely responsible for managing and administering the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. For more information on the Baldrige Award process please visit: https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/baldrige-award.

Contact:
Mark Wayda,
[email protected]

SOURCE Malcolm Baldrige Foundation