Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
$500,000 won
Sustainability Plan
Verified Win

The RWJF sustainability play: how to frame your funding exit strategy

RWJF does not fund indefinite service delivery — they fund interventions that become self-sustaining or policy-embedded. Your sustainability section must show a 3-year exit from RWJF funding, not a request for renewal.

Robert Kim

Director of Development

Northern California Health Equity Network

42 upvotes

The Strategy

RWJF reviewers read the sustainability section first for many proposals. If it says 'we will seek renewed funding from RWJF,' you've signaled dependency, not sustainability. The winning framing shows three distinct pathways to post-RWJF funding. Pathway 1 — Policy embedding: your intervention gets written into a state Medicaid waiver, a local health department contract, or a school district budget. Name the specific policy vehicle and the timeline. 'By Year 3, our CHW model will be reimbursable under California's CalAIM Enhanced Care Management benefit' is a sustainability claim. 'We will…

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rwjf
sustainability
calaim
policy-embedding
health-equity

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