Local Data for Equitable Communities is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute.
Through our annual grant program, we help nonprofits use data to catalyze local action, address inequities, and ensure all residents can live their healthiest lives.
Our goal is to support community-based nonprofits in:
- informing public policy and improving the physical, social, and economic conditions of places;
- building local capacity to use and apply data now and in the future;
- ensuring their data practices include the people most affected by racial, economic, and geographic inequities; and
- documenting their successes so other communities can apply what they’ve learned.
The Urban Institute serves as the national coordinating center for the program and provides grantees with technical assistance.
Applications will reopen in February 2026.
Meet the team
Kathryn L.S. Pettit
Senior fellow, Urban Institute
Codirector, National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership
Leah Hendey
Principal research associate, Urban Institute
Codirector, National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership
Gabe Samuels
Research analyst, Urban Institute
Jake Cowan
Independent consultant
About
The Urban Institute
The Urban Institute is a nonprofit research organization founded on one simple idea: To improve lives and strengthen communities, we need practices and policies that work. For more than 50 years, that has been our charge. By equipping changemakers with evidence and solutions, together we can create a future where every person and community has the opportunity and power to thrive.
Urban conducts research and provides technical assistance on many issues including housing policy and programs, climate change and community resilience, and land use and transportation.
For almost 30 years, the Urban Institute has served as a partner of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP). With partner organizations in more than 30 cities, NNIP helps local communities use data to shape strategies and investments so that all neighborhoods are places where people can thrive. Our work with NNIP inspired us to create the Local Data for Equitable Communities grant program.
Subscribe to NNIP’s newsletter to receive resources about and examples of how communities are using data to advance local priorities.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime. To get there, we must work to dismantle structural racism and other barriers to health.
Through funding, convening, advocacy, and evidence-building, we work side-by-side with communities, practitioners, and institutions to achieve health equity faster and pave the way, together, to a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.
Learn more about RWJF’s grant opportunities.
This program and website are funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of Urban experts. Further information on the Urban Institute’s funding principles is available at urban.org/fundingprinciples.