RWJF - President's Message 2000

EARLY EFFORTS

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Although my comments only pertain to our Foundation’s role, I think our efforts track philanthropy’s course in this field. Grantmaking is only as good as the understanding of an area—its gaps, opportunities, leadership, and levers for change. The investment choices philanthropies make reflect the understanding of significant opportunities.
    RWJF began to recognize substance abuse as a target for philanthropic investment in the late 1980s. In 1988, when Leighton E. Cluff, MD, became our second president, 10 new specific areas of priority were adopted; alcohol and drug abuse were included under the priority of “reducing destructive behavior.” Tobacco, however, was not included.
    Our first significant effort was Fighting Back^®: Community Initiatives to Reduce Demand for Illegal Drugs and Alcohol, a multisite program authorized in 1988. The $26.4-million investment was not only RWJF’s largest program to date, but at that time it was the single largest commitment of private funds in this country to combat drugs. In fact, it equaled the combined funding for drug and alcohol abuse from all other foundations in 1987.
    In 1989, RWJF provided $3 million to help launch The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a national media campaign aimed at taking the glamour out of illegal drug use. We are still funding Fighting Back and the Partnership.
    These were big steps for RWJF and for philanthropy. But from my perspective as a clinician not yet working for the Foundation, these concerns were hardly a match for the destruction wrought by substance abuse. Like every clinician, I saw alcohol and illegal drugs ravage the health of patients. I also watched with dismay as tobacco industry marketing continued to reel in new smokers. And my years as an epidemiologist at The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also dramatized for me the public health impact of substance abuse on our nation. So when I interviewed with the Board of Trustees for the job of president at RWJF, I said that I would like to see the Foundation consider a greater presence in the substance abuse field, including tobacco.

FORMALIZING THE GOAL
In 1991, after I joined the Foundation, we held a retreat with our Board of Trustees to discuss adopting a new goal area. Among the three proposed goals was one that would target substance abuse. While there was no disagreement about the strength of the public health case, the discussion was spirited. Our trustees had serious concerns about what a commitment to substance abuse would mean for the Foundation.

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