OVERVIEW: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is a large funder that supports a variety of health-related organizations and initiatives. It generally makes these gifts to organizations that serve at-risk and underserved populations, but it also supports projects in new and innovative research.
IP TAKE: This accessible funder seeks creative, novel and transformative approaches to improving the nation’s overall health and well-being on multiple levels. Some grantees advise that the foundation can be overly bureaucratic and difficult to work with as it can lack approachability.
PROFILE: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was founded by General Robert Wood Johnson II, son of a co-founder of Johnson & Johnson. The foundation seeks to build “a Culture of Health that provides everyone in America a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being.” It has four focus areas called Health Systems, Healthy Communities, Healthy Children and Families, and Leadership for Better Health.
Grants for Public Health
Public health is RWJF’s primary concern across all four of its focus areas:
Healthy Communities focuses on improving environmental and community determinants of good health, such as quality housing, access to healthcare, and safety. Subprograms in this area include Built Environment, Public and Community Health, Health Disparities and Social Determinants of Health.
Healthy Children and Families is concerned with improving childhood nutrition and promoting active life habits among children, with a view to preventing obesity and its attendant health issues later in life. Subprograms include Childhood Obesity, Early Childhood and Child and Family Well-being.
Leadership for Better Health supports the development of health policy and “connects change leaders nationwide who are working to build a Culture of Health.” It offers a variety of leadership development programs, such as Clinical Scholars, Culture of Health Leaders, Health Policy Research Scholars, Interdisciplinary Research Leaders, Summer Health Professions Education Program and the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program.
Health Systems is concerned primarily with improving the delivery of healthcare. Subprograms include Health Care Quality and Value, Health Care Coverage and Access, and Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Grants for Diseases
While RWJF does not have any specific disease interests, its Health Systems focus area has a subprogram dedicated to Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. This program aims to “help communities to identify critical gaps in health, and advance policy and system changes aimed at preventing illness and increasing opportunity for better health for all.” Recent grantees include the UC San Francisco Center for Vulnerable Populations, the UI Chicago Institute for Health Research and Policy, and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
Grants for Mental Health
RWJF makes its mental health grants through its Healthy Communities program, which prioritizes organizations that support minorities and children. However, some grants related to mental health projects do appear in some of its other program areas, such as the Leadership for Better Health program, which focuses on funding new and innovative projects, and the Health Systems program, which provides funding to organizations that extend healthcare to under-served populations. Innovative organizations and projects might have a better chance by soliciting funds through the Pioneering Idea program, but this program generally receives less funding than the foundation’s other areas of work.
Grants for Violence Prevention
Each of RWJFs principal grantmaking programs includes multiple subprograms that effectively expand the foundation’s focus areas to include crime and violence and their impact on people’s well-being. RWJF awards grants to organizations addressing issues such as the impact of adverse childhood experiences, sexual violence, violence prevention and acute crime among young people of color. One crime and violence initiative that received support from RWJF is Drexel University School of Public Health, which received a grant for its Healing Hurt People program. The program addresses trauma in victims of acute crime. The University of Chicago School of Social Services Administration also received a grant from RWJF for its study concerning the criminal justice and health impacts of the Chicago Police Department’s pre-arrest diversion strategy for opioid addicts.
Important Grant Details:
Grants typically range from $100,000 to $300,000, but are sometimes in the millions. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s Grants Database for more information on the work it has supported. RWJF does not generally fund basic biomedical research, drug therapy or device research or lobbying.
RWJF accepts applications to any of its Active Funding Opportunities, each of which may have a unique deadline. Grantseekers should review the foundation’s Grants Process page before applying.
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