Robert Wood Johnson FoundationSearchHow We WorkOur Focus AreasAbout RWJFSearchMenuHow We WorkGrants and Grant ProgramsResearch, Evaluation and LearningBuilding a Culture of HealthOur Focus AreasHealth LeadershipHealth SystemsHealthy CommunitiesHealthy Kids, Healthy WeightAbout RWJFAnnual MessagesFinancialsJob OpportunitiesLeadership and StaffOur PoliciesNew Jersey: Our Home StateQuick LinksFunding OpportunitiesNewsroomBlogGrants MapContact UsView all items in this collectionRWJF Local Funding PartnershipsAn RWJF CollectionView all items in this collectionSHARETwitterFacebookEmailLinkedInGooglePlusPrintCollaborative Philanthropy: Results and Lessons LearnedA Special Report on Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding PartnershipsSeptember 26, 2015Author(s):Brown MH,Geisz MB, and Nakashian MLocal Funding Partnerships (LFP) operated for more than a quarter of a century and funneled more than $260 million in RWJF and local dollars into more than 300 community projects scattered across both the nation and the health spectrum.“I think the nutshell of LFP was to demonstrate how a national foundation could partner effectively with local funders to improve health and health care in communities, with the voice of the local funder driving the identification of the project.”—Jane Isaacs Lowe, PhD, MSW, RWJFWhile the goal of advancing community health through partnerships remained constant, LFP had to adjust to shifts in the health care system, the philanthropic field, and most significantly, RWJF’s own grantmaking strategy and organization. LFP was always—as Polly Seitz, MPA, MS, RN, the program’s long-time director, liked to say—“a work in progress.”The story of RWJF Local Funding Partnerships is a story of relationships based on shared visions for a vibrant and healthy society. A key ingredient has been its devotion to learning and its commitment to the belief that each partner has much to offer and much to learn.LFP offers several lessons for local and national philanthropies—lessons about relationships,  respecting differences in perspective, collaboration, and management and leadership.Lessons from the Local PerspectiveWhile RWJF brought to LFP knowledge, credibility, prestige, and broader resources,“local funders understand the politics and dynamics in local communities” and they offer a “depth of practical, how-things-get-done knowledge.”—Robert E. Eckardt, PhD, Cleveland FoundationLocal funders sometimes question whether national foundations understand how different grantmaking is at the local level.The local grantmaker gets feedback “in the supermarket, on the street corner, at the symphony.”—Robert Eckardt, Cleveland FoundationThe value of LFP collaboration extended well beyond the financial support it provided for local projects.“This ability to connect local and state work to a national agenda made us feel as a foundation that we were part of a health philanthropy movement.”—Mary Vallier-Kaplan, Endowment for Health, NAC ChairUnderstand that c