August 2009–Schultz & Williams (&W) is pleased to begin working with Health Literacy Missouri (HLM) to develop a comprehensive and strategic business plan.

Health Literacy Missouri was founded as an initiative of the Missouri Foundation for Health, the largest health care foundation in the state with current assets of more than $800 million. The Foundation, based in St. Louis, is dedicated to improving the health of people in communities throughout Missouri. HLM's mission is to make health care easy to understand for citizens throughout the state. They accomplish this by providing access to plain language health care information; offering educational resources that help providers effectively communicate with patients; and strengthening the evidence base for health literacy. As a result, HLM is fast becoming a leader in raising awareness of and creating programs for improving health literacy.

Over the next several months, Schultz & Williams will develop a plan to launch HLM as an independent, self-sustaining, nonprofit entity. S&W will create a Board/governance structure and an innovative business model to ensure long-term success. Our approach will help HLM evaluate and quantify various revenue, products and service opportunities. S&W will also conduct market and competitive assessments, build appropriate cost and pricing models, identify alternative funding sources and define communication strategies.

Throughout our engagement, S&W will work closely with leadership from the Foundation and with health and academic experts in St. Louis and across Missouri to ensure that HLM will realize its vision and become recognized as the national leader in Health Literacy.

Founded in 1987, Schultz & Williams is a national consulting firm headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today S&W works with nonprofits throughout the United States and continues to exemplify its legacy as one of the first firms in the country to combine the principles of development, management and marketing into our consulting services—an approach that proves successful for nearly every client challenge.