July 17, 2006
Contact: Bev Pfeifer-Harms
Director of Communications
314.345.5500 office

Foundation Funds Six Strategic Development Projects

St. Louis -Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) has awarded $128,572 to assist six nonprofit organizations in strategic planning and evaluation development. These grants were made available through MFH's Strategic Organizational Development (SOD) funding program.

SOD funding is designed to help organizations improve their decision-making, program efficiency, and managerial performance in order to better implement their missions.

Those organizations receiving grants are:

Community Health Center of Central Missouri, Linn, $14,440. Comprehensive strategic planning is being funded to enable the organization to improve its ability to meet service demands, plan for future growth and insure financial stability.

Community Vision of St. Charles County, St. Charles, $26,168. The organization will establish program evaluation standards and practices for three of its Healthy Communities projects, in order to improve the credibility of those projects and better establish them as a benefit for St. Charles County residents.

Missouri NEA Charitable Fund, Jefferson City, $28,389. Through the Missouri Coordinated School Health Coalition, funding will provide strategic planning assistance to support schools in establishing and sustaining coordinated school health programs.

Ozark Tri-County Healthcare Consortium, Inc., Neosho, $29,575. Recent significant increases in the number of clients being served in this three-county area have created collection management issues. The consortium will improve its operational procedures, training and revenue cycle management strategies, thus increasing its ability to collect debts.

Ranken Jordan Home for Convalescent Crippled Children, St. Louis, $17,500. Funding will help the organization improve the quality of its decision-making, program efficiency and managerial performance, in coordination with a recent major expansion of its services and facilities.

St. Louis For Kids, St. Louis, $12,500. The focus is on improving the organization's Youth Development Provider Network, in order to help the Network's member organizations with strategic program development and capacity building.

Established in 2000 through the for-profit conversion of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri, MFH is the largest non-governmental funder of community health activities in the state. The Foundation is in its fourth year of grantmaking, issuing more than $167 million in grants and awards to date. It is dedicated to serving the uninsured and underserved in 84 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis.

# # #

View other releases.