The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Where the money goes

• State and federal health policy advocacy, Medicaid and coverage defense
• Racial equity and structural racism work across health, housing, economy
• Health data infrastructure, dashboards, county rankings, disaggregated data
• Research and leadership programs run through university national program centers
• Family economic policy: childcare, paid leave, progressive tax, food security
• New Jersey health equity, food security, and local institutions

Typical grant

Median grant is about $29,000, but the money is barely there: half of all grants sit between $1,250 and $150,000 while the top of the range runs $1M to $12M. The large checks go to national coordinating offices, university program centers, and multiyear general operating support for policy advocacy groups. Repeat giving is the norm, with organizations like Community Catalyst, PolicyLink, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Third Sector New England appearing multiple times in a single year.

Their words

Phrases from their own grant descriptions, worth speaking back to them.

• “health equity”
• “structural racism”
• “narrative change”
• “general operating support”
• “technical assistance and direction”
• “communities most impacted”

Positioning adjacent work

• Frame research as building the field, not producing a paper. Name the policy audience and the systems change sought.
• Connect to an existing named program (Evidence for Action, Policies for Action, Systems for Action) rather than proposing a standalone study.
• For a first university-based project, ask $1M to $3M over two to three years; that is their standard research center size.
• Center community leadership and lived experience in the design, and say who holds decision-making power in the project.