Reimagining Land Use & Zoning for Health Equity

Introduction & Purpose

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Communities portfolio is working toward RWJF’s Generational Goal of working with others to build Healthy and Equitable Community Conditions that allow all residents to thrive. RWJF and its partners are facing the challenges of U.S. land use policies that were designed to intentionally maintain racial and economic segregation. Such regulations continue to result in the exclusion of real families from affordable housing, community assets, and opportunity, creating significant health inequities.

Land use and zoning are critical tools for improving community health. Healthy Communities seeks to provide grants to organizations and communities that are actively working to reimagine land use and zoning as tools for advancing healthy, thriving, and equitable communities. This call for proposals (CFP) is designed to identify and support existing and ongoing work that is in the demonstration (pilot), implementation, or evaluation stage, rather than concept, startup, or initiation phases. One focus of this work is creating equitable approaches to how communities are planned, revitalized, and built.

Although the adoption of a single policy tool (e.g., inclusionary zoning, by-right affordable housing, limiting single-family zoning) can be an important milestone in creating meaningful change, more is needed to create intergenerational, system-level change. To address and repair the continued harm and discrimination embedded in underlying community development and land use systems in the U.S., communities need to reimagine land use and zoning regulations—and the processes used to create them—as tools for reducing segregation; improving economic opportunity; increasing community-driven land uses; and ultimately protecting and improving the health and wellbeing of all residents. The CFP will result in project grants that support discrete activities addressing negative impacts of land use policies and that work to achieve health equity for all.

Eligibility & Selection Criteria

1. There is no restriction on the type of organization that is eligible, except for the cases specified in eligibility criteria #2 (below). Preference may be shown to nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charities and governmental entities. 
2. Any proposed program that (1) has—as a significant or primary focus—creating policy changes that are likely to include new legislation or budget appropriations at the federal, state, or local levels; and (2) seeks to achieve its goals, in whole or in part, through direct engagement with policymakers and/or the general public, and should: 
   • have a demonstrated history of managing funds, (e.g., foundation or government) to support nonlobbying advocacy efforts; have a strong previous or current relationships with legal counsel with expertise in the lobbying and political activity restrictions that apply to public charities and private foundations; be either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or nonfunctionally integrated Type III supporting organizations. The Foundation may require additional documentation. Applicant organizations must be based in the United States or its territories.
   • have a strong previous or current relationships with legal counsel with expertise in the lobbying and political activity restrictions that apply to public charities and private foundations;
   • be either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or nonfunctionally integrated Type III supporting organizations. The Foundation may require additional documentation. 
   • Applicant organizations must be based in the United States or its territories.

Key Dates & Deadlines

January 24, 2025 (1 p.m. ET) 
Optional applicant webinar. Registration is required.

February 6, 2025 (3 p.m. ET)  
Deadline for receipt of letters of intent submitted online.

March 18, 2025
Invitations sent to submit full proposals (to select applicants).

April 15, 2025 (3 p.m. ET)
Deadline for receipt of full proposals submitted online.

July 1, 2025
Grants begin.

Total Awards

Type of Award: Awards funded under this opportunity will be structured as grants.

Number of Awards: Up to 10 awards will be funded. 

Amount of Award: Each award will be $250,000.

Award Duration: Award period will be 18 months.