Get Ready to Apply for the 2018 Baldrige Award!

Is your organization already using the Baldrige Excellence Framework (including the Criteria for Performance Excellence) to guide improvement efforts and support high performance? If so, consider submitting an application for the 2018 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Whether you are eager to earn the nation’s highest honor for organizational excellence or are more focused on receiving the cost-effective, comprehensive feedback to sustain your organization’s success, you cannot truly lose by becoming a Baldrige Award applicant.

2018 Baldrige Award application forms and guidance are now available online to help U.S. organizations (in business, nonprofit, health care, and education sectors) become familiar with how to apply and begin preparing to submit eligibility materials and a complete application by the 2018 deadlines.

All applications must be postmarked by April 24, 2018; eligibility packages must be postmarked by February 14, 2018. (Those dates are about a week earlier than in 2017, but they are dates by which materials must be postmarked rather than dates by which the mailings must be received.) Application fees will remain the same as in 2017.

To learn more about applying for a Baldrige Award in 2018, read about the process and download the forms on the following web pages:

• How to Apply
• Award Cycle Overview
• Is Your Organization Eligible?
• Award Process Fees
• Application Content and Format
• Eligibility Form Word
• Award Application Form Word

2018 Baldrige Award applications are to be written in response to the assessment questions of the 2017-2018 Criteria for Performance Excellence. Applicants in the health care sector should use the 2017-2018 Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence, and those in education should use the 2017-2018 Education Criteria for Performance Excellence.

For more information on the Baldrige Program and the Baldrige Award, see https://www.nist.gov/baldrige.