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Baldrige Award
Are You Ready to Apply | Award Criteria | How to Apply | Award Cycle Overview | Is Your Organization Eligible | Award Process Fees | Application Format
Demonstrate Your Organization’s Resilience and Be Recognized as a National Role Model
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award® is the highest level of national recognition that a U.S. organization can receive for performance excellence, particularly in relation to resilience and long-term success. The 2025 Baldrige Award Criteria focus on nine sections:
- Organization Description
- Leadership and Governance
- Operations
- Workforce
- Customer and Markets
- Finance
- Strategy
- Organizational Learning
- Community Relationships
To receive the award, an organization must demonstrate organizational resilience and long-term success through favorable performance levels and trends, comparisons to competitors and industry benchmarks (as appropriate), and relevant metrics. Organizations do not receive the award for specific products or services.
Benefits of Applying
Whether the organization is a national role-model, a finalist, or an applicant for the award, all will receive an evaluation report from the Baldrige examiners. There is much value in being recognized, including
- Presidential and U.S. Department of Commerce recognition as a national role model
- Competitive advantage when you can identify your organization as a national role-model of resilience and long-term success
- Special recognition related to your core business/values and aligned with your organization’s purpose
- Unique insights related to your performance, innovation, and readiness for disruption
- Brand enhancement with customers, partners, shareholders, stakeholders, workforce members, and others
- A leading-edge, proven model for long-term success
About the Award
Up to 18 awards are given annually across six eligibility categories: manufacturing, service, small business, education, health care, and nonprofit. Award recipients that are nominated for a subsequent award are not included in the total cap of 18.
Award recipients must share information about their exceptional performance practices with other U.S. organizations, but they don't need to share proprietary information, even if they included this information in their award applications. The principal mechanisms for sharing information are The Quest for Excellence® Conference, and the Baldrige Fall Conference (held in collaboration with state local Baldrige-based programs). Sharing beyond the Quest for Excellence® Conference is voluntary.
The Baldrige Program keeps the identity of all applicant organizations confidential unless they receive the award or special recognition. We treat all information submitted by applicants as strictly confidential, and we have numerous protocols and processes in place to protect applicants and ensure the integrity of the award.
What People Are Saying
Baldrige application process provided…invaluable feedback
that will help shape our future efforts
Brian Coltharp, President and Chief Executive Officer, Freese and Nichols Inc.
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Contacts
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Baldrige Customer Service(301) 975-2036NIST/BPEP
100 Bureau Drive, M/S 1020
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1020