Robert Wood Johnson was a General who had interests in many things. In the many years that he lived, his interests spanned flying, sailing, politics, activism, writing, and philanthropy. He had an immense devotion to egalitarianism that could only be equaled with his commitment to enterprising, albeit his big acts of benevolence. ( Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2008) Through his many years, he built an international family business empire, Johnson and Johnson, and did well for himself by amassing a huge fortune that he would give basically all to philanthropy. This he did by establishing one of the biggest private philanthropy organizations in the world, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which was the beneficiary of his fortune.
To affirm his service to the public, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was founded in the year 1974 and is based in Princeton, New Jersey. The feeling of wanting to help those who were less fortunate in the society and after many interactions with the hospital conditions, the kind of care the sick were given, the wanting state of administration in the healthcare institutions, he made numerous efforts towards changing these, and he epitomized his desire to see change by establishing the biggest foundation in the United States that is devoted to ensuring that the American citizens have an opportunity to receive decent and better health and health care. ( Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) To achieve this objective, the foundation aims at making changes to the existing systems, inspire other individuals and organizations to join in their endeavor, influence the implementation of new and better policies, and generally change for the better some communities.
Some of the great achievements it has been that it was instrumental in the development and popularization of what is currently the most famous and used emergency medical response services in America, the 9-1-1. RWJF brought forward new techniques for researching, preventing, and treating the use of tobacco in America, and these efforts have paid off with tremendous positive results, thereby making better public health and save the lives of millions of people annually. End-of-Life care was initially ignored by many health care institutions but is a very important aspect of healthcare that RWJF greatly contributed to developing in terms of the guidelines, teaching the health care experts the numerous families, and also put into place officials to help in the implementation of the policies all over the US(Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).
These are just a few of the areas it has been involved in. other major problems of health and health care in the US it tackles include: working to reduce obesity in childhood, ensuring there is less inequality in the healthcare provider, and also making its the quality better, increasing the accessibility, efficiency and the ability to handle an emergency of the American health care system, and also working to avail to all Americans a dependable healthcare coverage that is within their means.
For the organization to meet its objectives on a larger and more efficient level, it partners in various ways with many other organizations and individuals who evaluate projects to be funded by RWJF, and the projects must be dealing with areas to do with Developing human capital: their funds can be put into training experts in leading, doing research into health strategies, motivating more people to take health occupations and ensuring there is variety in the workforce of the health workers to be in tandem with the diverse and dynamic nature of America.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is very supportive of innovative researchers into healthcare. It helps in the development of policies to improve and safeguard the public of all Americans regardless of who they are or where they are. There are diverse populations in America, and there are hurdles that exist to deny the susceptible in our society the chance to get better health, RWJF works to help them to overcome these hurdles.
To finance all these activities, the foundation uses its assets worth $10.5 billion in assets which can generate grants up to $500 million annually. (Wikipedia). Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships was also established by the organization in order to help in establishing working relationships between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and grantmakers in local areas so as to fund capable, unique projects which have the possibility of appreciably make better the health of those who are susceptible in their respective neighborhoods (Taking Initiative,2008).
The funding partners are usually very instrumental in helping fund the projects after they have been identified and approved. They usually match the grants by dollar for dollar to completion and also help the foundation in the selection of the projects to be funded and give advice on the implementation of the projects also. (The Future of Philanthropy,2008). The funding partners which usually work together with the Robert Wood Johnson foundation are usually diverse in nature in terms of ownership. There are private nonprofit organizations, private for-profit organizations, families just making grants, philanthropic organizations, charitable individuals, and so on. The common ground usually is the desire to improve the health and health care of all Americans and the less fortunate.
Works Cited
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Foundation Funding. RWJF. 2008. Web.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. About RWJF. 2008. Web.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Our Founder. 2008. Web.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Program areas. 2008. Web.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships. 2009. Web.
Taking Initiative. Local Funders Offer Strategic Support. 2008. Web.
The Future of Philanthropy. New Brokers, their Stories, The Art of seeing the Small Picture. 2006. Web.
Wikipedia. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 2008. Web.