The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving health and health care for all Americans. To help achieve its goals, the Foundation identifies and funds a variety of initiatives including: public education campaigns; research studies; surveys; and demonstration projects on a wide range of topics. The Foundation believes in supporting efforts that have a measurable impact and that create meaningful and timely change. We have chosen a group of issues to attack head-on by setting a specific objective, a time frame, a plan of action, and a budget to accomplish the objective.

These program areas include:

Building Human Capital: Fostering a diverse group of promising scholars and professionals through leadership development, training and research to ensure that our nation has a sufficient, well-trained workforce to meet our needs.

Childhood Obesity: Reversing the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015 by improving access to affordable healthy foods and increasing opportunities for physical activity in schools and communities across the nation.

Health Insurance Coverage: Ensuring that everyone in America has stable, affordable health care coverage through the development of policies and programs to expand health coverage and maximize enrollment in existing coverage programs.

Pioneer: Supporting innovative projects that may significantly accelerate critical breakthroughs in health and health care.

Public Health: Strengthening the practice of public health and the implementation of policies to ensure the system can fulfill its vital role in protecting the safety and health of Americans.

Quality/Equality: Helping communities set and achieve ambitious goals to improve the quality of health care in ways that matter to all patients and their families, and in particular to patients from specific racial and ethnic backgrounds who often experience lower-quality care.

Vulnerable Populations: Supporting promising new ideas that will help overcome longstanding health challenges for the people in society who bear an excess of the burden of disease.