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President Signs Baldrige Nonprofit Funding, Pilot Program Slated for 2006

Washington, DC, December 7, 2005 — It’s official: President Bush has approved funding for a nonprofit category of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

A “pilot” program for the new category will be held next year, and the full-fledged program is slated to begin in 2007.

“The President’s signature caps several years of intense grassroots efforts by ASQ members and other individuals and organizations to extend the benefits of the Baldrige Award to the large nonprofit sector,” said ASQ President Jerry Mairani.

Organizations that will qualify under the new nonprofit category include:

  • Public agencies of government (federal, state, local).
  • Independent sector, private, not-for-profit organizations operating outside the authority of government agencies, such as educational, human service, religious, cultural or trade and professional associations.
  • Private quasi-public organizations created by legislative authority, such as public utilities, cooperatives, mutual insurance companies and credit unions.

Additional information on the nonprofit award is available on the Baldrige Web site: www.baldrige.nist.gov/Nonprofit/

“With the addition of a nonprofit category, the Baldrige program now will have categories that cover all sectors of our economy,” said Harry Hertz, director of the Baldrige National Quality Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

NIST plans to conduct a pilot nonprofit program in 2006, to train the private-sector examiners who will review applications and to determine the readiness of nonprofit organizations to participate. No awards will be presented to nonprofits during the pilot program, but NIST expects the full-fledged award program to begin in 2007.

For the pilot, NIST will accept applications from eligible nonprofit organizations that have already received a top-level award in a state or local quality award program.

In November, House and Senate negotiators agreed on a spending package that included the funds necessary to fund the nonprofit award. The package was included in P. L. 109-108, which President Bush signed into law on Nov. 22.

Sellery Associates, ASQ’s Washington representatives, assembled the broad coalition of Baldrige supporters that worked to establish the nonprofit category and to make the case for funding.