reimagining land use and zoning for health equity – Feb 6

Posted by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on January 28, 2025

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invites applications for reimagining land use and zoning for health equity

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime.

The RWJF Healthy Communities portfolio is working toward RWJF’s Generational Goal of working with others to build Healthy and Equitable Community Conditions that allow all residents to thrive. RWJF and its partners are facing the challenges of U.S. land use policies that were designed to intentionally maintain racial and economic segregation. Such regulations continue to result in the exclusion of families from affordable housing, community assets, and opportunity, creating significant health inequities.

Land use and zoning are critical tools for improving community health. The Healthy Communities effort seeks to provide grants to organizations and communities that are actively working to reimagine land use and zoning as tools for advancing healthy, thriving, and equitable communities. This call for proposals is designed to identify and support existing and ongoing work that is in the demonstration (pilot), implementation, or evaluation stage, rather than concept, startup, or initiation phases. One focus of this work is creating equitable approaches to how communities are planned, revitalized, and built.

Although the adoption of a single policy tool (e.g., inclusionary zoning, by-right affordable housing, limiting single-family zoning) can be an important milestone in creating meaningful change, more is needed to create intergenerational, system-level change. To address and repair the continued harm and discrimination embedded in underlying community development and land use systems in the U.S., communities need to reimagine land use and zoning regulations—and the processes used to create them—as tools for reducing segregation; improving economic opportunity; increasing community-driven land uses; and ultimately protecting and improving the health and wellbeing of all residents. The call for proposals will result in project grants that support discrete activities addressing negative impacts of land use policies and that work to achieve health equity for all.

Up to 10 awards will be funded, with awards of up to $250,000 over an award period of 18 months

There is no restriction on the type of organization that is eligible. Preference may be shown to nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charities and governmental entities.

Letters of intent are due February 6, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. ET. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal, due April 15, 2025, at 3:00 p.m. ET.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website.

Deadline: February 6, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. ET (Letters of Intent)