American Productivity & Quality Center Inc
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
See Schedule O. The mission of the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) is to educate and broadly share information with people and organizations around the world to improve productivity and quality by:- Discovering, researching and understanding emerging and effective methods of both individual and organizational improvement;- Broadly disseminating our research findings through education, publications, online databases, advisory services and other services that can effectively put the information into the hands of as many individuals as possible, and - Connecting individuals to one another with the knowledge, resources and tools they need to successfully manage improvement and change.
- Income
- $20.6 million
- Spending
- $18.3 million
- Spent on programs
- 84%
- Reserves
- 16.1 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- fees for its services, 94%
- Employees
- 90
- Volunteers
- 16
- Highest pay
- $733,670, president & ceo
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Strong: 96 out of 100. Higher than 92% of charities in its peer group (community improvement, $10m to $100m).
Reserves
35 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 16.1 months of spending.
Debt
16 of 20It owes 19% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 11% of income.
Income trend
15 of 15Income rose 9% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1584% of spending went to programs.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 90 out of 100. Higher than 23% of charities in its peer group (community improvement, $10m to $100m).
Independent board
25 of 2516 of 16 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
0 of 10Did not give the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (6)
- $6.1 million spent. Research Projects and Benchmarking: APQC conducts research on what drives high performance inside specific processes that are core to organizational viability and found in both public and private sectors. This includes providing methodologies, know-how, data, infrastructure, oversight and management. As part of its research program, APQC maintains both qualitative and quantitative repositories, question libraries, and taxonomies that are accessed via apqc.org by hundreds of thousands of individuals each year. Continued on Schedule O In order to provide valid, reliable and trusted quantitative data at no additional cost to our members and the public at large, APQC maintains the Open Standard Benchmarking repository. The repository includes a library of industry process frameworks, maturity models and over 3,600 corresponding performance measures that cover activities and tasks performed in organizations throughout the world. The benchmarking repository houses data provided from over 50,000 organizations making up over 3,600 corresponding performance measures and 4,500,000 data points from which the benchmarks are derived and then provided back out to the public. APQC estimates that its reach within member organizations is over 38 million individuals that have access to and available use of the research findings and services we provide. Participants in this body of research complete detailed data collection instruments; data is then validated, analysis is performed and detailed reports are created reflecting the participating entities' gaps in performance against the data sets and their unique areas of improvement identified in order to reach optimal performance levels. Reporting includes performance gaps, trends, drivers behind high performance, and best practice insights. Reports are provided through Open Standards Benchmarking at no cost to the user and are valued at over $5,000 per report.In order to provide qualitative best practice information, APQC conducts hundreds of research projects annually that are designed to collect best practices and codify performance characteristics of high performing organizations in such a way that they can be shared broadly. The APQC Resource Library includes more than 6,300 content items and grows at a rate of 20% per year, including best practice reports, case studies, white papers, specific process trends and corresponding best practices, metrics, tools and templates.Additional dissemination of APQC's content, including Process Classification Frameworks, Maturity Models and Benchmarks, is done through partnerships with management consulting firms and trade and industry associations. Both management consulting firms and associations have a much broader reach, touching more individuals through their work than APQC is capable of achieving. Through these partnerships APQC is able to provide data to millions of individuals who ultimately apply the data for the purpose of improving in areas such as generating higher productivity, improved quality of products and services and deriving cost savings inside organizations at no additional cost to the end user. Further dissemination is conducted via the publishing of reports, publications, white papers, speaking engagements and web-based events designed to share knowledge broadly.
- $6.8 million spent. Member Services: Development and ongoing maintenance of Process Classification Frameworks, research methodologies, infrastructure to support broad data collection and dissemination of benchmarks and best practices used to improve productivity and quality across public and private sectors. APQC maintains databases and provides easy access to the public of over 3,600 process measures, over 4,500,000 benchmark data points, 19 Industry Process Classification Frameworks and 1 Cross Industry Process Classification Framework, 46 industry maturity models, over 6,000 best practices and numerous methodologies, tools and templates that reflect the needs of public and private sectors throughout the world. Additionally, APQC provides support and customized data and frameworks to meet the needs of its members.
- $1.6 million spent. Education: The education group within APQC is involved in transforming education across the United States and throughout the world by addressing waste and inefficiencies throughout the educational system. The group focuses on helping K-12 and Higher Education leaders, superintendents, principals, faculty and administrators identify and implement best practices that will result in more available resources to dedicate to student achievement. Through the Education Group, APQC teaches thousands of educators how to be more efficient and effective. The Education Group has helped over 120 districts save over $120M on completed projects. All findings and project exemplars are collected and then stored in a searchable database available to educators throughout the country. (Continued on Schedule O) Additional dissemination occurs when findings are presented and discussed in detail at education conferences throughout the world.
- $463,008 spent. Conferences and Events: A variety of conferences and events are held each year to teach methods for improving productivity and quality, share benchmarks and best practices, and enable attendees to improve using proven methodologies and demonstrated results. Thousands of members and non-members benefit annually by attending open seminars, web events, conferences, trainings and other public forums designed to facilitate improvement of individuals, their organizations and the industries they represent.
- $13,457 spent. Information Services: APQC provides research assistance for individuals at no additional cost via APQC's "Ask Us" program that searches APQC databases for the appropriate information and then provides it back to the requestor. In addition, Information Services maintains the nation's largest publicly accessible research library of quality and productivity materials, including research reports of current productivity.
- $310,415 spent. Scholarships: APQC launched the C. Jackson Grayson Scholarship Program in honor of the company's late founder. The goal is to award scholarships to children who might otherwise not financially be able to go to school. Each year, scholarships are awarded to Houston area high school seniors in an amount totaling $100,000 per student over the course of a four-year college education.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2024.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since January 1976.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.