Our History
As we look to RWJF’s future, we are making significant changes to our work to join others in paving the way to a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right. To get there, we must work to dismantle structural racism and other barriers to health.
Today, we are much clearer about the barriers we need to confront and the systems through which change is possible—and we also know we have more work to do before we can be the best possible partners to communities facing the greatest injustices.
Our past is not behind us—it lives in the decisions we make, the values we hold, and the systems we operate within.
That’s why we’re working to tell a more complete story of our history as an institution and our impact as a grantmaker, investor, employer, and partner to communities most impacted by the barriers to health.
We have a lot to be proud of from the Foundation’s impact over the years. However, there are parts of our institutional history that are more complex and haven’t been included in our public narratives in the past. We’re working to be more transparent so we can be more effective in meeting our mission: achieving a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.
Reckoning With RWJF's Historical Truths
To continue our efforts to dismantle the barriers to opportunities for health, we need to look critically at our legacy as an organization.
RWJF is embarking on a Truth, Repair and Transformation (TRT) process to acknowledge and address past harms and develop a plan to do better in the future.
Through this work, we are examining the origins of our wealth, our grantmaking impact, our internal culture, our actions and inactions, and the ways our practices have neglected or harmed communities most impacted by health inequities. By learning from our past, we can work to repair trust with communities and ensure we are better partners to grantees as we collectively work toward a future where health is a right for all.
Organizations are far more likely to know about and celebrate successes than to uncover and learn from failures. That’s why our historical analysis through the TRT process is by design focused on our missteps—not to negate our good work, but because ultimately, the goal is to guide more equitable strategies and decision-making in the future.
Understanding the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) origin story—the way we gained power and wealth—is a fundamental component of our TRT work. The way RWJF was founded shaped who we listened to or benefited, who influenced our decisions, and what issues we were willing—or unwilling—to take on.
Learn more about RWJF's origin story and why it matters today.
RWJF's Origins
RWJF’s Founding in 1936, Interdependence with J&J
RWJF was founded in 1936 by Robert Wood Johnson II, former president and chairman of Johnson & Johnson—then called the Johnson New Brunswick Foundation. The Foundation was originally conceived as a local charity based in New Brunswick, NJ, and focused on a modest level of emergency support for surrounding communities. During the Great Depression, the Foundation’s focus included assisting employees of Johnson & Johnson and other members of the community as they coped with the challenging economic conditions.
From the outset, RWJF was structurally interconnected with J&J. When RWJ II established the Foundation, its principal office location was Johnson & Johnson world headquarters and there were no Foundation staff members during his lifetime. The Foundation was run by its Board of Trustees, composed of J&J executives appointed by RWJ II.
Over several decades, RWJ II made periodic gifts of J&J shares to the Foundation throughout his life, with a final bequest of 10.4 million shares following his death. Upon settlement of his estate in the early 1970s, the Foundation held nearly 143 million shares of J&J common stock (adjusted for stock splits), representing approximately 21.2 percent of the Company and making RWJF its largest shareholder.
In both Foundation Board Minutes and in his final will from 1968, RWJ II expressed his expectation that the Foundation—and by extension, his trusted group of J&J executives on the Foundation’s Board—would maintain this dominant shareholder position at J&J indefinitely. From this perspective, the Foundation would keep all J&J shares and use dividends from these shares to finance its grantmaking work. By placing these shares within a Foundation governed by J&J executives he had selected, RWJ II sought to preserve ownership and influence over the Company.
National Expansion and Focus on Health
After RWJ II’s death in 1968, the Foundation shifted from a locally oriented, emergency-focused charity to a national, US-focused philanthropy dedicated to addressing Americans’ health and healthcare needs. While we have often described this national expansion as a part of a renewed mission and vision, in reality, historical documents indicate that regulatory pressures from the Tax Reform Act of 1969 (TRA69) played a major role in augmenting the Foundation’s role as grantmaker. TRA69 required private foundations to distribute a minimum percentage of funds for charitable purposes and limited Foundation ownership of corporate stock holdings. As a result, RWJF had to reduce its concentrated J&J holdings and significantly increase its annual charitable spending—pressures that directly influenced the timing and direction of the Foundation’s expansion.
During this period, RWJF sought to distance itself publicly from J&J while privately remaining deeply connected, with company executives playing a central role in shaping the Foundation’s transformation in the early 1970s and laying much of the groundwork for its identity today.
Why The Past Matters Today
These truths about the Foundation’s history matter today because they molded patterns of decision-making that tended to reinforce existing systems of power rather than dismantling systemic barriers to health.
Our Home: New Jersey
In our own backyard, there is a lot to be proud of when it comes to health—but there also are wide, persistent gaps in health across the state of New Jersey. We redouble our commitment to improving health and advancing health equity for all in New Jersey and beyond.
As we continue our grantmaking focused on our home state, we’re also exploring our history of grantmaking in New Jersey to better understand—and remedy—our missteps and where we could have done better. We’ll share more on from our TRT process about our analysis of our work in New Jersey as it becomes available.