David Rodriguez takes his 2 year old son Oliver to the 24th Street Trolley and Transit Station in National City, California to look at the trolleys and buses pass by.
Impact Investments

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation uses grantmaking, policy change, and impact investing to address barriers to health and wellbeing.

To see that everyone in the U.S. has the opportunity to live their healthiest life possible, capital must flow equitably to communities that have faced a lack of investment through the impact of generations of racist policies and structural racism. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime. We make impact investments—deposits, loans, equity investments, and guarantees—and partner with public and private sector investors to bring more capital to these communities.


We envision flourishing communities where everyone has access to clean, safe drinking water and safe, stable housing; where jobs pay a living wage; and where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to thrive. Since 2010, RWJF has committed $625 million to impact investments to help advance this vision, aiming to address the structural barriers that have shaped the health inequities we see today. These include the historical and present lack of investment in housing, jobs, water, infrastructure, and other community conditions.  

We work to improve health and economic opportunity for communities, small business owners, and households that historically have experienced a lack of investment—such as rural communities, communities of color, and communities with low incomes. Our 2020–2025 goal is to attract or “leverage” $1 billion from other investors, including banks, commercial lenders, insurance companies, and private investors to help advance progress toward a U.S. where everyone—no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make—has the resources they need to live their healthiest lives possible. At the end of 2023, we were halfway to that goal.

Our Strategies

Our impact investments focus on three areas:

Advancing Racial Equity: 

Reducing the racial wealth gap by increasing and preserving Black and Brown homeownership as a lever to strengthen financial wellbeing and fostering intergenerational wealth transfer. 

 

Strengthening the Community Development Finance System:

Strengthening the community development finance system with a focus on communities that historically have experienced a lack of investment, especially communities with low incomes and communities of color.

Program-Directed Investments:

Complementing grantmaking portfolios across the Foundation with program-linked investments, such as to improve a community’s water infrastructure.

Featured Content

Family strolling in the late afternoon in a city park.

Bending the Arc Toward Racial Equity

RWJF is using impact investing to advance racial equity—along with grantmaking, strategic communications, and policy change efforts—so everyone and their children can achieve their best health.

Case Studies

Featured Resources

From the Blog

Related Content

Contact Us

RWJF Impact Investments staff:

Kimberlee Cornett
Senior Director, Impact Investments
kcornett@rwjf.org
(609) 627-7686

Elías Enenbach 
Senior Communications Officer, Impact Investments
eenenbach@rwjf.org
(609) 627-7686

Zoila Jennings
Impact Investment Lead
zjennings@rwjf.org
(609) 627-7686

Claire Morduch
Senior Impact Investment Operations Analyst
cmorduch@rwjf.org
(609) 627-7572