About the LIFP Program

Program Reauthorized for $27 Million

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships (LFP)
to continue annual matching grants and begin a new grantmaking partnership program.

February 2008 - “I am pleased to announce the $27 million reauthorization of our highly successful partnership program with local grantmakers, which will now be known as Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships," says Foundation senior program officer Jane Isaacs Lowe, Ph.D. “The success of the program is a tribute to the dynamic new initiatives brought forward by local grantmakers. We are proud to partner with them to address some of society’s most daunting health problems at the community level.”

To apply for a traditional $200,000–$500,000 LFP grant, projects must first be nominated by a local funder such as a community or family foundation, a corporate or independent foundation or other philanthropy. Then, over the three- or four-year life of an LFP grant, coalitions of local grantmakers contribute to achieve the total required matching dollars.

Twentieth Anniversary
As we mark the program’s 20th anniversary,” notes Pauline M. Seitz, LFP director, “we thank more than 1,200 grantmakers who have served as funding partners. We also appreciate the visionary project directors and collaborating community partners who have created meaningful change to improve health for vulnerable people.”

Seitz continues, “These community leaders recognize the need to think outside of the conventional health sector. To solve complex problems they must also focus on social factors such as poverty, violence, inadequate housing or education.” To see examples of innovative LFP projects go to Featured Projects.

New Partnership Program Planned for 2009
The new authorization also calls for the development of special interest partnership grants to award $50,000 to $200,000 matching grants in small, diverse, high-need communities. “As we plan this additional grantmaking program, we hope to be responsive to the interests of funders from newer philanthropies—giving circles, rural funders’ collaboratives, and diversity-focused funds such as. Native American, Hispanic, African-American, and women’s affinity groups,” explains Lowe.

Calls for Proposals
LFP deputy director Curtis Holloman points out that the Call for Proposals for the annual Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships program opened in February 2008 with an application deadline of July 8, 2008. “Funders and nonprofit leaders are always welcome to call us to discuss an idea they may be considering,” Holloman says. Complete details are posted under How to Apply including Frequently Asked Questions.

2009 LFP Call for Proposals The Role of Funding Partners

The Art of Seeing the Small Picture

Local Initiative Funding Partners was featured on The Future of Philanthropies website. Read about "how one of the nation’s largest national foundations found new ways to connect with local partners" in The Art of Seeing the Small Picture, authored by Andy Goodman.

Brief Program Description
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships (LFP) is a partnership program between the Foundation and local grantmakers that supports innovative, community-based projects to improve health and health care for vulnerable populations.

LFP provides grants of $200,000 to $500,000 per project, which must be matched dollar for dollar by local grantmakers such as community foundations, family foundations, corporate grantmakers, and others. The total award is paid out over a three-year or four-year period. Grants are awarded after a competitive process that begins when a project is nominated by a local funder according to the guidelines specified in the Call for Proposals. In 2009, up to $6 million will be awarded under the program.

Through LFP, a local grantmaker proposes a funding partnership with RWJF to support a community-based project that addresses the health or health care problems of people who are not reached by traditional health and social services or for whom existing services are fragmented and insufficient.

For the most vulnerable among us, factors outside the health care system such as poverty, violence, inadequate housing or education contribute significantly to poor health. RWJF is interested in projects that address complex health and social factors as a single challenge. To find effective solutions agencies that typically do not work together often join forces with funders, public entities, and established and emerging community groups. Such collaborations may stimulate ideas and forge ambitious approaches resulting in new national models to improve health and health care.

RWJF Program Direction

Jane Isaacs Lowe, Ph.D. is a Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) where her work includes responsibility for the Local Funding Partnerships program. She serves as the Team Leader for the RWJF Vulnerable Populations Portfolio, a program staff group focused on improving social-health outcomes for low-income children, families, and older adults. Currently she is also a fellow at the New York Academy of Medicine and President of the Board of Grantmakers in Aging.

Lowe came to the Foundation from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work where she served as member of the faculty from 1989 to 1998. She was the recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Award in 1992 and 1997. From 1976-1989, she worked at the at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, NY where she served as a faculty member in the medical school’s Department of Community Medicine and as a hospital social work administrator. She has extensive experience in chronic illness, community based health, and program planning.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology and education from Cedar Crest College, her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University, and her doctorate in social welfare policy and planning from Rutgers University.

Ann E. Christiano is the Senior Communications Officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Vulnerable Populations portfolio which includes the Local Funding Partnerships program, Children's Futures, and Community Partnerships for Older Adults. She also directs the Connect project at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). This effort is successfully building relationships between RWJF grantees and their members of Congress through visits to Capitol Hill, briefings by RWJF grantees and Congressional site visits.

Further program direction and technical assistance is provided by numerous staff at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Joann Baquilod serves as Grants Administrator.