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. Learn more about this strategy here.
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
2023 Impact Investment Yearly Summary
In 2023, alongside a growing number of co-investors, RWJF made $48 million in loans, equity investments, and guarantees to eight organizations across the U.S.
Bending the Arc Toward Racial Equity
Opportunities for Impact Investing to Champion Reproductive Care After Dobbs
The Bridgespan Group shares research results to identify what opportunities exist for timely impact investments in the reproductive field.
Case Studies
Increasing Community Resilience for Climate-Related Events Through Green Infrastructure
2-min read
Scaling Community-Owned Real Estate for Affordable Housing
5-min read
Making Homeownership More Accessible for People Excluded From Opportunity
3-min read
Featured Resources
Impact at Work: An Examination of Corporate Impact Investing Strategies and Their Durability
The goal of this report is to examine corporate impact investing, or the leveraging of a corporate’s balance sheet or investment capital to advance positive social, economic and environmental outcomes alongside financial considerations.
Impact Investing Opportunities to Advance Water, Health, and Equity
There is an opportunity for philanthropic impact investors to align investment strategies toward an equitable water future. An RWJF-funded report from the Environmental Policy Innovation Center shares three recommendations that offer strategies for impact investors to support and finance improvements in water infrastructure.
Centering Racial Equity in Municipal Bonds
This framework was developed to support municipal bond issuers who want to leverage markets as a catalyst for changing racially inequitable conditions in their communities.
2022 Impact Investment Yearly Summary
In 2022, RWJF was proud to make strategic impact investments in organizations in collaboration with co-investors across the U.S. as part of our commitment to improving health and racial equity. As we look ahead to 2023, we are committed to increasing investments in communities that historically have experienced a lack of investment, using health equity as our North Star.
From the Blog
What Does Antiracist Community Development Look Like in Practice?
4-min read
Who Finances Healthy Communities
5-min read
How We’re Investing to Advance Racial Equity
4-min read
Related Content
Funding to Center Equity in Municipal Bonds
The $4 trillion municipal bond market is one of the largest pools of private investment capital flowing into America's states and localities, shaping the built environment in communities across the country and directly impacting health and equity. In a first-of-its-kind effort, a $4 million grant from RWJF aims to empower communities across America to leverage municipal bond market investments to disrupt historic systemic racial inequities.
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