Compensation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2019)

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is one of the largest, if not the largest philanthropy in the US focused solely on health. The foundation’s goal, through the use of grants, is “to improve the health and healthcare of all Americans.”

The most recent Form 990 (2019) submitted to the IRS reports the RWJF is a private non-profit, tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) foundation based in Princeton, New Jersey with 17 trustees, 9 of whom are female; 8 are male.

At year-end 2019, the organization had more than $11 billion in net assets, most of which were in investments.

RWJF reported total revenue of $1.166 billion in 2019, $577 from operations and $589 million from investments. In operations, most of the revenue came from the sale of assets (i.e. securities) while investment income came primarily from capital gains and dividends.

Expenses totaled $717 million (61% of revenue), $397 million (34% of revenue) of which were grants. The remaining $320 million (27% of revenue) was primarily spent on other expenses which can be loosely described as miscellaneous office expenses ($153 million), compensation ($79 million) and fees for services ($58 million).

RWJF employed approximately 400-500 employees who received $79 million in compensation in 2019, which equates to an average compensation of $158,000-$198,000.  263 employees received more than $50,000 with the 11 most highly compensated employees reported to be:

• $2,539,446:  Brian O’Neil, CIO
• $1,093,768:  Michael Aswald, Mgr Director, Private Investments
• $1,046,521:  Warren Stock, Mgr Director, Public Investments
• $  947,275:  Joshua Stern, Director, Private Investments
• $  889,281:  Richard E Besser, President and CEO
• $  691,165:  Robin Muckenhaupt, SVP, Strategy and Initiatives
• $  656,430:  Katherine Hatton, VP, General Counsel, Secretary
• $  647,295:  Qi Feng, Director, Investments
• $  636,132:  Margaret Einhorn, CFO and Treasurer
• $  619,026:  Karen Candelori, Director, Investment Opportunities
• $  372,176:  Julie Morita, EVP (eff 6/24/2019)

The 11 most highly compensated employees received $11 million in compensation. 6 of the 11 most highly compensated employees are male while 5 are female. The 5 most highly compensated employees (who received $6.4 million) are male.

The five most highly compensated independent contractors are reported to be:

• $5.6 million:  Burness Communications of Bethesda, MD for communications consulting
• $2.9 million:  McCabe Message Partners of Washington, DC for communications consulting
• $2.8 million:  General Atlantic, of Greenwich, CT for investment fund management
• $2.0 million:  Metropolitan Group, of Portland, OR for communications consulting
• $1.6 million:  GMMB of Washington, DC for communications consulting

As illustrated above, more than $12 million was spent on communications consulting.

To read the Form 990 (2019), click here.