Community Development System
We’re working to ensure every community has the conditions people need to flourish—like a safe, affordable place to live, and easy access to healthy food, clean water, and good job opportunities.
RWJF believes every community in every ZIP code should be a place
where the people there can live their healthiest lives. While there is no
single vision for what a healthy community looks like, community
development—the work of creating the conditions so all residents can thrive—is key to reaching this vision.
To get there, we must uproot the structural racism firmly planted in the ways our country develops, governs, and finances community conditions, from water to broadband and beyond.
Community Development Evolution
What happens when the health and community development sectors realize they’re working toward the same goal of enabling people to live their healthiest lives?
Watch this video to learn how the field of community development evolved in the past decade to help communities meet residents’ needs and address the effects of racism embedded in policies and practices.
The Future of Community Development
What are opportunities for the future of community development? We asked six experts.
Featured Initiatives
TEST RWJF funds many initiatives to create opportunities that improve health equity. For this area of focus, these initiatives were selected to demonstrate grantmaking that is helping us achieve the greatest impact.
Impact Investments for Community Development
The community development finance system (infographic)—made up of mission-driven lenders (infographic)—is a main driver of capital for essentials like affordable housing, clean water, and small businesses that create jobs and generational wealth in communities that historically have experienced a lack of investment, especially communities of color and those with low incomes. Our impact investments and related grants focus on strengthening the community development finance system.
Increasing Economic Opportunities—Supporting Financial Institutions
To boost financial opportunity in communities with economic and racial segregation, RWJF dedicated a $10 million investment to the Opportunity Finance Network for its Finance Justice Fund.
Investing in Latino Communities
A $4 million investment from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) will increase access to capital for Latino communities.
Advancing Financial Inclusion by Strengthening Credit Unions
A $4 million guarantee from RWJF will increase Inclusiv’s capacity to provide capital to community development credit unions that serve communities of color.
Increasing Investments in Underserved Communities
To increase investment to address the social determinants of health in low-income
and communities of color, RWJF provided a guarantee of up to $10 million to the Community Investment Guarantee Pool.
Creating Economic Opportunity in Central Appalachia
RWJF has made a $5 million investment in the Invest Appalachia Fund (IA Fund) to spur inclusive economic growth and health equity in Central Appalachia
Increasing Lending to Small-Business Owners of Color
The 10-year, $18 million guarantee will help development finance agencies in the United States remove some of the lending barriers experienced by people of color when seeking business loans, unlocking more capital to grow their businesses.
Improving Community Water Infrastructure
A $5 million loan from RWJF to Communities Unlimited, a nonprofit community development financial institution, is enabling them to provide loans to water utilities in seven Southern states.
Improving Quality of Life in New Jersey Through Local Investment
A $4 million program-related investment from RWJF to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation will seed the creation of the New Jersey CDFI Capital Growth Fund, a program aimed at attracting funding from corporations and financial institutions to invest in small, New Jersey–based CDFIs and similar entities that prioritize hyper-local lending to meet community needs.
Catalyzing Finance for Racial Equity
A $5 million loan from RWJF to the Nonprofit Finance Fund supports programs in N.J. to better enable organizations focused on racial equity to acquire, develop, rehabilitate, and operate affordable housing and community facilities in communities that historically have experienced a lack of investment.
Supporting the Indigenous Finance System on the Mountain Plains
An RWJF loan will support the Mountain Plains Regional Native Coalition’s efforts to shift the paradigm of community development finance by creating equitable systems of capital and resource allocation and building resilient Native economies.
Increasing Community Resilience for Climate-Related Events
Green infrastructure, like parks, street trees, and shrubs on rooftops, improves air quality, reduces flooding and heat islands, improves water quality, and promotes community resilience in the face of extreme weather.
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A Future Where Health Is for Everyone
Infrastructure
Promoting health equity through public infrastructure is a critical step toward creating communities and regions where all residents may participate in, and benefit from, decisions that shape the places they call home.
Impact Investing
Impact investing expands our toolkit and builds on our decades-long work changing systems and policies to improve health, especially for those facing the greatest obstacles.
Building Community Power
RWJF supports research and organizing to increase grassroots capacity to shape conditions for healthier communities, especially in low-income communities and communities of color.