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Blogrige

The Official Baldrige Blog

See How Baldrige Strengthens America, State by State

Baldrige Program’s benefits for the U.S. economy 820 to 1, 111 Baldrige Award winners, 2010­–2017 award applicants represent 611,689 jobs, 366 Baldrige examiners volunteered, State Baldrige-based examiners volunteered around $29 million in services.
Credit: alexmillos/Shutterstock, Pyty/Shutterstock, Yurii_design/Shutterstock

Newly Updated Data, Searchable by State

Did you know that data about Baldrige impacts are easily accessible and updated annually? For example, choose Baldrige in Colorado from the drop-down menu.

Colorado Participants in the Baldrige Award Process

The state of Colorado is home to five organizations that have received Baldrige Awards since 2000. Those organizations represent nearly every sector of the U.S. economy. They include a business, a health care organization, an education organization, and two nonprofits, with one being a municipal government.

What’s more, between 2005 and 2017, 21 organizations that participated in the annual Baldrige Award process have been based in Colorado. Two applicants from Colorado in 2017 alone represented 1,503 jobs, 17 work locations, about $241 million in revenues/budgets, and more than 158,000 customers. 

Through the rigorous performance evaluations provided as part of the Baldrige Award process, all applicant organizations from Colorado over the years have received comprehensive feedback reports to help them improve work processes and results. Of course, the Baldrige evaluation feedback ultimately promoted the Colorado organizations’ long-term success and, in turn, the state economy.

Spotlight on 2017 Baldrige Award Winner: City of Fort Collins

People gaithering in front of building getting ready to ride bicycles in the City of Fort Collins, Colorado.
City of Fort Collins

2017 Baldrige Award Recipient

Nonprofit
Credit: City of Fort Collins
The latest Baldrige Award recipient from Colorado is the City of Fort Collins. The fourth-largest city in its state, it is located about an hour north of Denver, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The City of Fort Collins provides a full spectrum of municipal services to its residents, including parks and recreation, roads, transit, and police services, as well as all four major utilities (water, wastewater, storm water, and electric power). Most recently, the city added broadband service to enable high-speed Internet access for all households and businesses. With about 2,400 employees today, the high-performing government is actively preparing for its current population of 170,000 to grow to 250,000 in the years ahead.

A few achievements of the City of Fort Collins:

  • High citizen satisfaction, as reflected in residential survey ratings in the top 10% of U.S. cities for quality-of-life metrics that include “best place to live,” “best place to work,” quality of recreation and culture, availability of job opportunities, air quality, and visual attractiveness
  • Top 1% ranking among U.S. cities for the quality of its drinking water and for the status of the city’s emergency preparedness
  • High citizen engagement, as demonstrated by residents’ involvement in 27 advisory boards and commissions that provide input to the city government

Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence

Like most other Baldrige Award recipients, the City of Fort Collins first received a top-tier, state or regional award for its high performance in an evaluation based on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (part of the Baldrige Excellence Framework). In 2014, the city earned the Peak Award of Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence (RMPEx). The feedback report the city received through the RMPEx evaluation helped it improve its work processes and results.

As a partner program serving organizations in three Western states (Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming), RMPEx relies on the national Baldrige Performance Excellence Program to develop and distribute the Baldrige Excellence Framework and related resources that help organizations in its region improve their performance. In this way, the federal Baldrige Program and its private-sector partner programs in the nonprofit Alliance for Performance Excellence (of which RMPEx is a member) together help strengthen the entire U.S. economy. The journey to excellence of the City of Fort Collins, supported by evaluation services it received from both the national and state-level Baldrige programs, is just one example of how the Baldrige enterprise benefits America.

“Baldrige evaluation feedback ultimately promoted the Colorado organizations’ long-term success and, in turn, the state economy.”

Check out how your state or region benefits from the nationwide network of nonprofit programs that assist organizations of every size and sector in using the Baldrige Excellence Framework to improve and excel!


A Systems Approach to Improving Your Organization’s Performance

2019-2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework cover photo
 

Baldrige Excellence Framework

The Baldrige Excellence Framework has empowered organizations to accomplish their missions, improve results, and become more competitive. It includes the Criteria for Performance Excellence, core values and concepts, and guidelines for evaluating your processes and results.

Purchase your copy today!

Available versions: Business/Nonprofit, Education, and Health Care


 

About the author

Christine Schaefer

Christine Schaefer is a longtime staff member of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (BPEP). Her work has focused on producing BPEP publications and communications. She also has been highly involved in the Baldrige Award process, Baldrige examiner training, and other offerings of the program.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols Scholar and a double major, receiving highest distinction for her thesis in the interdisciplinary Political & Social Thought Program. She also has a master's degree from Georgetown University, where her studies and thesis focused on social and public policy issues. 

When not working, she sits in traffic in one of the most congested regions of the country, receives consolation from her rescued beagles, writes poetry, practices hot yoga, and tries to cultivate a foundation for three kids to direct their own lifelong learning (and to PLEASE STOP YELLING at each other—after all, we'll never end wars if we can't even make peace at home!).

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Comments

Christine, thank you for your continuing efforts to provide data to the Baldrige community. I have found this particular data set very useful to compare relative performance and to compute trends of state programs and to make presentations to potential applicants and to educate state and national government officials and legislators. Your services are greatly appreciated and very beneficial to the Program.

PS I lied about not being a robot.

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