About the Local Data for Equitable Communities Program
The Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will select 30 nonprofits to each receive a $50,000 grant to use data to improve local conditions and help residents live their healthiest lives.
The program helps nonprofits use data to catalyze local action and address inequities in the physical, economic, and social conditions of a place. These include housing, transportation, community safety, climate and environment, the built environment, and other local conditions. Grants are awarded annually.
To learn more, review the frequently asked questions below and register for our webinar on February 18.
Past Grantees
Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates
San Francisco, CA
Trained residents to track environmental pollution and contamination sites while building advocacy capacity around environmental justice.
Essex County Community Organization
Essex County, MA
Investigated housing security from the perspective of tenants and landlords who are immigrants to improve advocacy for housing supports.
Local Motion
Columbia, MO
Visualized walking and biking infrastructure needs to advocate for equity-focused transportation investments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Eligible organizations must be based in the United States or its territories.
Applicants must be either nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)4 of the Internal Revenue Code and that are not private foundations or nonfunctionally integrated Type III supporting organizations.
Organizations that are fiscally sponsored by an eligible tax-exempt 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 organization are also eligible. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation may require additional documentation.
Universities, whether public or private, are ineligible to apply, but are eligible to partner with an applicant who is a Section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) organization.
Individuals are not eligible to apply.
Application opens: February 4, 2025
Informational webinar: February 18, 2025
Application deadline: March 18, 2025
Award notifications: End of May 2025
Grants begin: July 15, 2025
Grants end: April 14, 2026
Grant funds can be used to collect, analyze, and use data to improve the physical, social, and economic conditions of a place, such as a neighborhood, city, or town. The local conditions grantees can focus on include but are not limited to the following:
- built environment
- child care access
- climate and environment
- community safety and policing
- healthy food access
- housing
- small business and economic development
- transportation
Projects should be timely and be designed to inform public discourse or program and policy solutions that reduce inequities within and across communities. Note, however, that the funding cannot be used to fund lobbying or political activities.
We do not fund the following:
- research disconnected from near-term decisionmaking and action
- programmatic evaluations
- community health needs assessments
- health impact assessments
- data analyses that address individual social or medical needs
- data collection to support grant writing
- national- or state-level projects
- lobbying or political activities
We define data as any collected statistics or information. Data may be quantitative, like counts or percentages based on information from surveys or the operations of governments, foundations, or nonprofits. They may also be qualitative, such as stories from lived experience or information collected through focus groups or interviews.