Established in 1972, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is America’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. Its founder, Robert Wood Johnson, Jr., spent thirty-one years as President and Chairman of the Board for Johnson & Johnson, during which time he grew that company into the world’s largest health and medical products manufacturer. Robert E. Campbell, who is the retired Vice Chairman of Johnson & Johnson, now chairs RWJF.

RWJF’s grant-making is divided into the following interest areas:

Addiction Prevention & Treatment: “… increasing the number of treatment settings employing approaches that have been proven to work.”

Building Human Capital: “… attracting, developing and retaining high-quality leadership and workforce to improve health and health care.”

Childhood Obesity: “… halting the increase in prevalence of overweight among children.”

Disparities: Viewing the United States as a racist nation that does not sufficiently value the well-being of minorities, the Foundation identifies “racial and ethnic disparities” in health care as one of its chief concerns.

Health Insurance Coverage: Advocating the implementation of a taxpayer-funded, government-run health-care system, this program supports “efforts to achieve stable and affordable health care coverage for all Americans.”

Nursing: “… reducing the shortage in nursing staff and improving the quality of nursing-related care by transforming the way care is delivered at the bedside.”

Pioneer: “… promoting fundamental breakthroughs in health and health care through innovative projects.”

Public Health: “… improving the strategic use of information and accountability measures by leaders to enhance performance and raise the visibility and impact of public health.”

Tobacco Use & Exposure: “… recruiting new funding partners to sustain the state and national tobacco policy change infrastructure and maintain policy gains and momentum through targeted grantmaking.”

Vulnerable Populations: Founded on the premise that various segments of the U.S. population are denied access to proper health care, this program supports “promising new ideas that address health and health care problems that intersect with social factors—housing, poverty and inadequate education—and affect society’s most vulnerable people, including low-income children and their families, frail older adults, adults with disabilities, the homeless, those with HIV/AIDS, and those with severe mental illness.”

Among RWJF’s grantees are the following: the American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education; the Aspen Institute; the Brookings Institution; the Childrens Defense Fund; Columbia University; Cornell University; the Council on Foundations; Duke University; Greenpeace International; Harvard University; the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy; National Public Radio; the Natural Resources Defense Council; Physicians for Human Rights; Public Citizen; the Rockefeller Family Fund; the Tides Foundation and the Tides Center; UC Berkeley; UCLA; the Urban Institute; and Yale University.

To view a list of additional noteworthy grantees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, click here.

RWJF has also given money to the Black Lives Matter affiliates People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) and the Movement Strategy Center (MSC), both of which have close ties to the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

(Information on grantees and monetary amounts courtesy of The Foundation Center, GuideStar, ActivistCash, the Capital Research Center and Undue Influence)