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Results with Baldrige in Nonprofit

(links are to organizational profiles)

Donor Alliance

  • Donor Alliance consistently ranked as one of the top 10 organ procurement organizations in the nation due to its high rate of organ donor conversions, which exceeded 80 percent in 2018 when the organization received the Baldrige Award.
  • Donor Alliance consistently performed above the top 25 percentile among organ procurement organizations for the percentage of registered donors. Its results for this measure improved from 64 percent to 74 percent for donors of organ over the four years preceding its 2018 Baldrige Award, while its results improved from 65 percent to 68 percent for donors of tissues (e.g., skin, bone) during the same period.
  • The organ procurement organization achieved 100 percent levels of customer satisfaction among all four local transplant centers that it serves, as well as with the tissue processors that prepare, preserve, store, and distribute final tissue grafts for transplantation. 

City of Fort Collins

  • City of Fort Collins achieved rankings in the top 10 percent of cities nationally for the following measures: best place to live, best place to work, quality of culture and recreation, availability of job opportunities, air quality, and visual attractiveness, while ranking in the top 1 percent for quality of drinking water and emergency preparedness.
  • The city earned a credit rating from Moody’s Investors Service of “Aaa,” a rating maintained by only 4 percent of governments, which allows it to pay less interest on its debt issuances.
  • Despite population growth of 7 percent during the three years leading to the city’s 2017 Baldrige Award, Fort Collins decreased its community’s energy use by approximately 12 percent annually during that period.

Mid-America Transplant

  • In 2001, Mid-America Transplant built the nation’s first stand-alone organ recovery facility, a system that has significantly reduced the expense of procuring organs compared to the cost of in-hospital organ procurement. Since 2012, the cost-per-donor for in-house cases has decreased from approximately $7,000 to under $4,000, compared to approximately $20,000 when the process is completed in the hospital.
  • Several “industry-first” innovations of Mid-America Transplant—including three fully equipped operating rooms, cardiac catheterization capabilities, and a CT scanner at its headquarters to support in-house organ, tissue, and cornea recovery—have led to more viable organs and tissues being available for transplant recipients. The organization ranks fourth in the nation for the number of total organs transplanted per 1 million people, ranking first in the nation for lungs transplanted, second for kidneys transplanted, 11th for livers transplanted, and in the top quartile for hearts and pancreases transplanted.
  • For all deaths reported in the organization’s primary service area, only 0.7 percent are eligible for organ donation and only 14 percent are eligible for tissue donation, which makes conversion from eligible donors to actual donors critical. Mid-America Transplant has maintained top-quartile conversion rates of 75 percent for organ donation and 47 percent for tissue donation.
  • Mid-America Transplant’s operating reserves have increased since 2012 to almost $30 million and exceed industry best-in-class levels. In addition, the organization’s net margin of approximately 25 percent of its gross revenue has exceeded industry best-in-class rates since 2012.

Elevations Credit Union

  • The largest credit union mortgage lender in the state of Colorado, Elevations Credit Union (ECU) increased its mortgage market production volume from 1,123 loans in 2011 to 2,307 in 2014 (annualized). The credit union produced more mortgage volume in its county than any of its competitors in 2013; the following summer, it captured one-third of all mortgages closed in its county.
  • ECU strategically leverages social media to build stronger relationships with its members, ranking 16th in the world in social media use by credit unions, according to The Financial Brand's Power 100 Score. ECU has the 11th most-watched YouTube channel and the 29th most-liked Facebook site for all credit unions worldwide.
  • ECU was voted "Best Financial Institution" by readers of the Boulder Daily Camera for 15 of 16 years preceding its Baldrige Award. The credit union also received repeated honors such as "Best Bank," "Best Mortgage Company" or "Best Customer Service" recognition by readers of the local publications Colorado Daily, Boulder Weekly, Longmont Times-Call, and Loveland Reporter-Herald.

City of Irving 

  • This 2012 Baldrige Award-winning city maintained an AAA credit rating from Standard and Poor's (S&P) and Moody's over the five years starting in 2007 during the worst recession in U.S. history.
  • Residents' ratings of Irving's overall quality of service (74 percent) outperformed the state of Texas (46 percent), county government (37 percent), and the U.S. government (38 percent).
  • Overall violent crime per 1,000 persons decreased 35.5 percent from 2006 to 2011, compared to an 8.6 percent increase in neighboring cities during the same time period.
  • The city's tax rate is the second lowest in its Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan area, and its overall cost of service was less than those of four comparable cities in the area from 2007 through 2012. Irving realized cost savings of $44 million from 2008 to 2012 through a focus on process efficiency.

Concordia Publishing House

  • Concordia Publishing House (CPH) earned overall customer satisfaction scores above 98 percent, exceeding levels set forth by the annual Purdue University Benchmark Study of U.S. Call Centers.
  • By maintaining state-of-the-art technologies to deliver new and innovative products, this nonprofit publisher increased the number of electronic products from 457 in 2008 to 1,927 in 2010, the year it won the Baldrige Award.
  • CPH's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization as a percentage of net sales were at plus-5 percent in 2010, compared with minus-10 percent for comparable church publishers the same year.
  • CPH's workforce satisfaction with senior leaders exceeded the national benchmark from 2007 to 2010, and overall workforce engagement exceeded the AAIM benchmark in 7 out of 8 categories.

City of Coral Springs(PDF)

  • The city received an AAA credit rating from all three of the nation's largest bond-rating agencies.
  • The crime rate decreased by nearly half over 10 years.
  • The percentage of residents who are satisfied with city services has been 95% or higher since 1999.
  • Business satisfaction rose from 76% in 2004 to 97% in 2008.

ARDEC (PDF)

  • Lean/Six Sigma improvements in quality, cost, schedule, and risk resulted in a cost avoidance of $3.22 billion between 2001 and 2007
  • Customer satisfaction ratings increased from 3.48 (on a 4-point scale) in FY2001 to 3.75 in FY2007.
  • Job satisfaction increased from 85% in FY2004 to 90% in FY2007.
  • Development cycles shortened, costs fell, and the volume of armament releases more than doubled as a result of the adoption of world-class modeling, simulation, and prototyping design tools.

VA Cooperative Studies Program Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center (PDF)

  • Budget for new studies grew 143% from 2002 to 2008, compared to 58% for Veterans Affairs.
  • In 2008, productivity (as measured by revenue/employees) of $221,000 compared favorably to that of eight top competitors, with the highest competitor at approximately $195,000.
  • Over three years, the program benefited more than 90,000 patients at approximately 1,600 sites using nearly 300 drugs.
  • Overall customer satisfaction increased: the percentage of customers rating the program "good-excellent" increased from 83% in 2003 to 100% in 2009. Customer complaints were consistently fewer than 3.4 per million units shipped from 2001 to 2009.

Resources

Baldrige Excellence Framework
Testimonials From Nonprofit
Baldrige Case Study

Contacts

  • Baldrige Customer Service
    (301) 975-2036
    NIST/BPEP
    100 Bureau Drive, M/S 1020
    Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1020
Created March 25, 2010, Updated November 15, 2019