We often feature Baldrige Award recipients in blogs here because these national role models can provide inspiration and best practices for other organizations. Today I’m highlighting 25 additional U.S. organizations that have recently demonstrated high performance that may lead them to earn Baldrige Awards in the future.

That is, 25 organizations received top-tier awards in 2015 from the state-level, sector-specific, or regional programs that are partners of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program in cultivating and recognizing excellence in every sector of the U.S. economy.

The network of programs known as the Alliance of Performance Excellence ensures that organizations throughout the country can receive training, assessments, and other services that meet them where they are (e.g., in earlier phases of using Baldrige improvement and assessment methods)—and often close to where they reside—to help them improve their performance using the Baldrige Excellence Framework.

Organizations that have earned a top-tier award from an Alliance program have benefited from a rigorous examination process similar to that of the national Baldrige Program. This includes submitting an application in which the organization must describe how it addresses requirements in all seven categories of the Criteria for Performance Excellence (part of the Baldrige Excellence Framework booklets) and also report its related performance measures and results.

The Baldrige Program applauds these organizations for their 2015 achievements and hopes to see all of them continue their quests for excellence and join the ranks of recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Already, the Charter School of San Diego (California) and MidwayUSA of Missouri followed up their 2015 state-level awards by applying for and earning national Baldrige Awards in 2015. In addition, Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital of Texas achieved Category Best Practice recognition in the Baldrige Award process at the national level in 2015.

Following—in alphabetical order by the state in which each award program is based—are the first 21 Alliance award recipients for 2015. (Note that Alliance programs that did not have any top-tier award recipients last year are not referenced here; however, information on all programs can be accessed from the Alliance link above.)

2015 Alliance Top-Tier Award Recipients

The Arkansas Institute for Performance Excellence honored an education organization with its 2015 Governor’s Award for Performance Excellence:

• North Arkansas College (Harrison, AR)

The California Council for Excellence honored an education organization and a small business, respectively, with its 2015 Gold Level Eureka Awards for Performance Excellence:

• Charter School of San Diego (San Diego, CA)
• Momentum Group (Irvine, CA)

The Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence program (based in Colorado) honored three organizations (a small business, a health care organization, and a nonprofit organization, respectively) with its 2015 Peak Awards:

• AlloSource (Centennial, CO)
• Community Hospital (McCook, NE)
• Donor Alliance, Inc. (Denver, CO)

The Florida Sterling Council honored six organizations (one in education, two in government, two in health care, and one service business, respectively) with its 2015 Governor’s Sterling Awards:

• Orange County Public Schools, Human Resources (Orlando, FL)
• City of Tallahassee Underground Utilities (Tallahassee, FL)
• Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections (Tampa, FL)
• Cape Coral Hospital (Cape Coral, FL)
• Florida Department of Health in St. Johns County (St. Augustine, FL)
• Kids Central, Inc. (Ocala, FL)

The Excellence in Missouri Foundation honored four organizations (two education organizations, a health care organization, and a small business, respectively) with its 2015 Vision of Performance Excellence Awards:

• Park Hill School District (Park Hill, MO)
• Special School District of St. Louis County (St. Louis, MO)
• Jersey City Medical Center, Barnabas Health (Jersey City, NJ)
• MidwayUSA (Columbia, MO)

The Oklahoma Quality Foundation honored the following education organization with the 2015 Leadership in Excellence Award:

• Metro Technology Centers (Oklahoma City, OK)

The Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence honored a small business with its 2015 Excellence Award:

• Pal’s Business Excellence Institute (Kingsport, TN)

The Quality Texas Foundation honored three organizations (two in health care and one in education, respectively) with its 2015 top-tier awards:

• Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital (Sugar Land, TX)
• Methodist Health System (Dallas, TX)
• Palo Alto College (San Antonio, TX)

Finally, the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) honored these four long-term-care organizations with its 2015 Gold Awards:

• Effingham County Care Center (Springfield, GA)
• Highlands Lake Center (Lakeland, FL)
• Pacific Coast Manor (Capitola, CA)
• Skies Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center, LLC (Albuquerque, NM)

Together with the Baldrige Award recipients, these Alliance honorees in multiple sectors and states are building better businesses and nonprofit, health care, and education organizations throughout America.