Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Offers Buyouts to 40 Percent of Employees
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Offers Buyouts to 40 Percent of Employees
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey, is offering buyouts to 40 percent of its employees as it grapples with a significant decline in the value of its assets, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. The news follows word last week that the Ford Foundation is offering a voluntary severance package to a third of its staff.
According to RWJF vice president for communications David J. Morse, the foundation, the third-largest in the country, has offered 105 of its 250 staff members an "early retirement incentive program." The foundation, which saw the value of its assets drop 27 percent last year, has offered to buy out employees whose age and years of service add up to 70, and will add five "years of credit" so that employees who would qualify for the program by 2014 are eligible now. Employees have six weeks to decide whether to accept the deal.
"We needed to try and make sure we and our grantees could continue to have impact and to get our administrative costs and expenses in line with our being a $7 billion foundation in terms of assets as opposed to a $10 billion-plus foundation," said Morse.
The foundation, the nation's largest healthcare philanthropy, expects to award $450 million in grants in 2009 and hopes to award the same amount in 2010. Given President Obama's pledge to reform national healthcare policy, the foundation wants to ensure that it can continue to make large grants while capitalizing on the political opportunity represented by the Obama administration's healthcare initiative. "We need to...make sure we can deploy as much in terms of resources as possible toward the work of changing health and health care," said Morse.
Wilhelm, Ian.
“Robert Wood Johnson Offers Buyout to 40 Percent of Its Employees.”
Chronicle of Philanthropy
6/15/09.
Primary Subject: Philanthropy and Voluntarism
Secondary Subject(s): Health, Economic Crisis
Location(s): New Jersey, Princeton
FC013529
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