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
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 (link is external) (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 (link is external) (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.”