Frequently Asked Questions
What is ONESM?
ONE is an acronym for “Organizations of Noteworthy Excellence.” The ONE Award recognizes noteworthy nonprofit organizations in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region for their organizational performance.
The program offers nonprofit organizations the tools for self-examination of their approach, deployment and results achieved through their business processes. Feedback reports by independent examiner teams are provided all applicants. Honorees are examples of organizations excelling in one or more of the key focus areas of People, Process, Principles and Performance.
Who oversees the ONE process?
The ONE Award is a team effort, presented by the Business Courier and presenting partner The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and ONE’s additional sponsors: The Ralph V. and Carol A. Haile/US Bank Foundation, Clark Schaefer Hackett & Co., The Daniel & Susan Pfau Foundation, Smith Beers Yunker & Company, and the United Way of Greater Cincinnati.
Each of the partners and sponsors appoints a Selector. This panel of Selectors identifies applicants to receive a site visit, reviews site visit examiner reports, identifies award finalists, and determines the overall and category winners.
Marie Gemelli-Carroll of Starboard Strategy Corp. and Jim Lay of J.F. Lay & Associates, LLC handle ONE process and program management.
Marcie Taylor of Clark Schaefer Hackett & Co. produces ONE Applicant and Examiner orientation sessions.
Lisa Muhlenkamp, Marketing Events Director of the Business Courier, produces the ONE Honorees luncheon.
Who can submit an application?
A nonprofit organization with tax-exempt status from the IRS under section 501 c(3)—and operating in one or more of the 15 counties in the southwest Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana region—may submit a ONE application. Because the ONE Criteria are non-prescriptive, organizations of any size can respond to the Criteria and submit an application and receive valuable feedback.
What are the ONE Award Criteria?
The ONE Award criteria are the basis for the examination of applicants. The ONE Award criteria include prompts (“how” questions and “what” questions to guide self-examination) in four categories—People, Principles, Process and Performance.
What do honorees receive in recognition for their excellence?
An overall ONE honoree is recognized for excellence across the four categories, and receives an unrestricted grant of $10,000. An honoree is selected for each of the four categories for demonstrating excellence within that category. Each category level honoree receives a $2,500 unrestricted grant.
Why should a nonprofit apply for ONE?
The ONE application development process accelerates organizational improvement through a self-assessment conducted using rigorous, objective, best-practice criteria.
When conducted as a team effort, it unifies organizational focus and energizes the organizational team.
Every applicant receives a feedback report including both strengths and opportunities for improvement from a team of trained examiners. This feedback provides outside perspective and is based upon the objective requirements of the criteria framework. There is no direct cost to apply and receive this outside feedback; only investment of time is required to gain this high quality input.
Organizations that utilize the criteria framework as a long-run development tool typically experience increases in customer satisfaction, market share, productivity and efficiency, and staff satisfaction, as well as improved service delivery. In addition, these organizations typically experience decreases in process variability, errors, rework and costs.
Earning a ONE honor can be the icing on the cake, but it is the organizational development and improvement that make this a valuable investment. That being said, ONE honorees will tell you that the impact of the ONE application process on commitment and motivation of the workforce (employees, volunteers and board members) takes their organization to a new level of commitment to excellence.
What are other benefits of the ONE process?
On the macro level, the ONE process helps develop the entire pool of applicants, and for that matter, has the potential to raise the quality of the community’s nonprofit organizations. Benefits are not just limited to the honorees; there is a real, cross-cutting impact on the community of nonprofit organizations.
How does the ONE process work?
The ONE process follows an annual cycle:
| January/February | Orientation sessions are held to familiarize potential applicants with the process, timeline, criteria and application development. |
| May | Applicants submit 12-page application in response to criteria by end of May. |
| June | Examiners conduct independent review of applications; two or more examiners per application, one application per examiner preferred. Examiner teams develop consensus feedback report to submit to selection panel by late June. |
| July | Selection panel, comprised of sponsor representatives and community leaders, identifies applicants to receive a site visit in early July. |
| July-August | Examiner teams conduct site visits mid-July to mid-August to verify and clarify strengths and opportunities for improvement identified in the consensus process and develop a revised feedback report based on what is learned in the site visit. Final site visit reports are completed by third week in August. |
| September | Site visit reports are reviewed by selection panel to identify award finalists and determine the overall winner as well as the category winners by September 1. Finalists are announced in early September. |
| October | Winners are announced and recognized at recognition banquet/ceremony in mid-October. Feedback reports for all applicants, whether they receive a site visit or not, are delivered by October 31. |
What is the 2009 ONE timeline?
January 15—Application kit available
January 27, January 29 and February 4—Applicant Orientation sessions
April and May—Examiner training sessions on April 23, May 5, May 7
May 22 at 5 p.m.—Application submission deadline
June—Site visit orientation for Applicants and for Examiners
July 8—Notification of site visit candidates
July 20 through August 12—Site visits conducted
First week of September—Announcement of finalists
October 15—ONE Award luncheon
October 31—Feedback Reports sent to all applicants
Is there a fee to submit an application?
There is no fee to submit a ONE application.
Where do applicants send their submission?
Applicants—nonprofit organizations with IRS tax exempt status under section 501 c(3)—should submit their responses to the ONE Criteria by 5 p.m. on Friday, May 22, 2009. Only electronic submissions will be accepted. E-mail all submissions to <submit@one-center.com> by the deadline.
Where is more information available about the Baldrige Quality Award criteria, the basis for the ONE Award?
Visit www.baldrige.nist.gov.