Impact Investments
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation uses grantmaking, convening, advocacy, evidence building, and impact investing to address barriers to health and wellbeing.
Our impact investments—deposits, loans, equity investments, and guarantees—help bring capital to communities that have been overlooked by the mainstream financial system, seek to address the root causes of health inequities, and help lead the way toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
We envision flourishing communities where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to thrive, including access to clean, safe drinking water and safe, stable housing. Since 2010, RWJF has committed $625 million to impact investments to help advance this vision alongside other public and private-sector investors.
We set a goal to attract or “leverage” $1 billion for health and racial equity from other investors like banks, insurance companies, and private investors by 2025. We are thrilled to have surpassed that goal in 2024. This is a powerful example of philanthropy extending its impact by harnessing capital from other investors and helping direct it toward issues and places that need it most.
Our Strategies
Our impact investments focus on three areas:
Advancing Racial Equity Through Homeownership Preservation and Economic Inclusion:
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.
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. Learn more about this strategy.
Program-Directed Investments:
Complementing grantmaking portfolios across the Foundation with program-linked investments, such as to improve a community’s water infrastructure and investing in New Jersey. Learn more about this strategy.
Featured Content
How We Drive Capital to Communities that Need it Most
RWJF uses impact investments to advance racial equity, strengthen the community development finance system, and complement our grantmaking work, helping ensure everyone, no matter their ZIP code, has what they need to live their healthiest lives.
Case Studies
Community Foundations Spur Local Development for Health and Wellbeing
Building Generational Wealth and Greater Wellbeing through New and Better Homes
Housing and Economic Development Agency Removing Barriers to Homeownership in Wisconsin
Investing in New Jersey
We drive investment to our home state of New Jersey to strengthen the community development finance system. By doing so, we hope to help communities that lack the essentials that help residents thrive tap the power of financial tools to develop them.
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.
From the Blog
Using Impact Investments to Boost Economic Growth in Latino Communities
Who Finances Healthy Communities?
How We’re Investing to Advance Racial Equity
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.