Institute for Performance Excellence Launches National Assessment Center

New National Assessment Center offers more than 350 customizable self-assessments, digitizes the 2026 Baldrige Excellence Framework, and connects organizations with improvement and workforce development resources.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Performance Excellence today announced the launch of the National Assessment Center, a centralized digital platform that gives organizations across the United States and internationally access to more than 350 customizable self-assessments, immediate reporting, and improvement guidance.

The launch brings the new 2026 Baldrige Excellence Framework® into a digital self-assessment environment, completing a long-anticipated effort to make the Framework more accessible and actionable as America's leading quality and excellence framework. Organizations can gather input from their teams, evaluate organizational maturity, identify strengths and gaps, and prioritize opportunities for improvement.

"The National Assessment Center gives organizations a clearer way to understand where they are, where they need to improve, and what to do next," said Josh Racette, President and CEO of the Baldrige Foundation. "Digitizing the new Baldrige Excellence Framework advances a vision that began at NIST. Through our renewed partnership with NIST, we are advancing the Baldrige Program's mission by expanding the Framework's reach and making it easier to access and apply."

The National Assessment Center is designed for organizations of every size, sector, and stage of development, including businesses, manufacturers, health care organizations, educational institutions, nonprofits, and government agencies. It can also be deployed through partnerships with state and regional performance excellence programs, Manufacturing Extension Partnerships, economic development organizations, associations, chambers of commerce, workforce development organizations, foundations, and other groups. By making these tools broadly available, the Center aims to improve organizational performance, strengthen competitiveness, and increase the positive impact organizations have on the communities they serve.

Organizations using the National Assessment Center will also gain access to tools, resources, educational content, and a professional networking community through the Institute for Performance Excellence. They will also have access to partial scholarships for more than 370 online, self-paced training and certification courses. This connection helps organizations move from identifying performance gaps to building the organizational and workforce capabilities needed to address them.

The Baldrige Foundation partnered with Vessel, a veteran-owned organization, to develop the National Assessment Center through the Institute for Performance Excellence. The platform provides interactive reports, executive summaries, visual dashboards, recommendations supported by artificial intelligence, and structured 30, 60, 90, and 120 day improvement plans.

"Our goal is to transform self-assessment into timely organizational intelligence," said Derik Ellis, Founder and CEO of Vessel. "The National Assessment Center gives leaders and partner organizations a practical way to focus resources and accelerate improvement."

Organizations, partners, and potential funders can learn more at: www.nationalassessmentcenter.org

About the Baldrige Foundation

The Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award strengthens competitiveness and community well-being through performance excellence. Through its Institute for Performance Excellence, it provides organizations with education, tools, professional development, networking, and improvement systems, including the National Assessment Center, a platform for customizable self-assessments and organizational intelligence. As a nonprofit partner to the National Institute of Standards and Technology within the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Foundation supports revisions to and ongoing development of the Baldrige Excellence Framework® and produces the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards Ceremony and the Quest for Excellence® Conference.

About Vessel

Vessel is the creator of the Vessel Smart Assessment Platform, a cloud-based assessment and intelligence platform that enables organizations to transform assessments into actionable insights through AI-assisted analysis, interactive reporting, benchmarking, and continuous improvement tools. Vessel partners with organizations nationwide to modernize assessments and accelerate organizational performance.

Media Contact

LouAnn Scott
Marketing Office
Baldrige Foundation
[email protected]
202-559-9195

SOURCE Malcolm Baldrige Foundation