About Us

Mission "To be the catalyst for performance excellence in all sectors of the Pennsylvania Economy. " Who Are We? The Keystone Alliance for Performance Excellence is a nonprofit, exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Federal internal revenue tax code and organized under Pennsylvania law. Our volunteers are committed to assisting Pennsylvania organizations with improvement of their results by using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The criteria are established by the U.S. government to improve performance and competitiveness and to recognize high performing organizations annually. To that end, KAPE also offers the Keystone Award for Performance Excellence that recognizes high performing organizations in Pennsylvania. Core Values The Keystone Excellence Award is based on the eleven Core Values that are the foundation of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. These values and concepts are the foundation for integrating key business and organizational requirements within a results-oriented framework. The core values and concepts are: Visionary leadership Managing for innovation Customer-driven excellence Management by fact Organizational and personal learning Societal responsibility Valuing workforce members and partners Focus on results and creating value Agility Systems perspective Focus on the future Keystone Alliance for Performance Excellence Goals Encourage Pennsylvania organizations to assess their practices and improvement processes using the Criteria Recognize organizations that practice outstanding processes and measurable continuous improvement toward performance excellence Disseminate information and encourage sharing of best practices Promote the understanding and requirements of customer-focused performance excellence Encourage partnerships among all organizations in business, education, health care and not-for-profit sectors toward performance excellence Improve the economic well-being and quality of life in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania