Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pledges Loans to Charities Totaling $100-Million

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is putting $100-million into loans to charities, adding to the growing number of grant makers making sizable commitments that go beyond typical grant making.

From 2011 to 2013, the Princeton, N.J., fund’s new Impact Capital Initiative will spend $100-million beyond its regular grant making on loans and other mission-related investments that will further its goal to improve health and medical care.

Last year, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation set aside $400-million for loans, investments, and other financial vehicles to further its charitable mission.

One area of focus for the new Robert Wood Johnson investments will be helping promising organizations and programs flourish.

“In these harsh economic times, it’s really very true that no one grant maker, no one business is going to be able to take things to scale,” Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, the foundation’s chief executive, said when she talked about the new program at a conference last month where grant makers and charities discussed how to help successful nonprofit groups expand.

“No matter how noble our objectives, it’s going to take the best kind of exchange of ideas,” she says.

Collaborations Sought

The foundation hopes to collaborate with other grant makers as it seeks organizations to support. While the majority of expenditures will be in the form of loans or other investments, some of the money might go into grants.

The foundation will appoint an Impact Capital Committee to work with its program officers and outside consultants to identify organizations that would benefit from loans and other support.