North Carolina Benchmarking Project Report 2025: Outcomes and Strategies

The North Carolina Benchmarking Project was established thirty years ago so that participating municipalities could compare service data and performance trends. It relaunched in 2022 as Benchmarking 2.0 with a new emphasis on collaboration, an online dashboard for streamlined data collection, and annual in-person performance strategy sessions. This year’s report focuses on outcomes and strategies, featuring information and ideas exchanged during the Benchmarking 2.0 Performance Strategy Sessions in November 2024. Its purpose is to help local governments use performance metrics and management strategies to make their service departments more efficient and effective.

Current Partners: Apex, Asheville, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Concord, Gastonia, Goldsboro, Greensboro, Hickory, Holly Springs, Raleigh, Rocky Mount, Salisbury, Wake Forest, Wilson, and Winston-Salem.

Services: Asphalt Maintenance, Building Inspections, Emergency Communications, Fire Service, Fleet Maintenance, Human Resources, Parks and Recreation, Police Service, Solid Waste, Wastewater Service, and Water Service.

Interactive Dashboard: The dashboard, which is accessible through the Benchmarking 2.0 website, includes extensive features that make it possible to apply data normalization and calculate percentages, averages, and confidence intervals across comparison units. Detailed graphs can be downloaded as PDFs.