Q. What non-financial help can I get from RWJF to help me achieve the goals of my project?

If your grant is part of a national program, your national program office may have a number of consulting, training or research resources that can be applied to your project. You are encouraged to contact your NPO directly (you can use our online national program search).

If you are not part of a national program, contact your program officer. Please be aware that the Foundation has limited resources and cannot guarantee technical assistance to all projects.

Q. Are there specific initiatives or resources related to my national program?

A. National program-specific resources may be available through your national program office's Web site or through the national program office. You can use our online search to look up your national program office's Web site and/or contact information. Note: The national program offices often have information and technical tools available to organizations not funded by RWJF.

Q. How can I find out what other RWJF grantees are doing in subject areas similar to my own?

A. You can either view the Active Grants listed in each Program Area or use the grants advanced search which allows you to search for other grantees by program area, city and/or state. (Go to Search, put in your search term and when you get the results, click on the Grants tab.)

Q. Do you have information on planning for meetings?

If you need to plan for a meeting, the "Planning a Great Meeting" guide will help. You will find:

• Five main steps of the meeting planning process.
• Meeting format and content tips.
• A meeting planning time line.
• A sample conference site inspection checklist.
• Sample slide templates.
• A glossary of meeting terms.

Download the Planning a Great Meeting guide.

For guidelines when traveling for a meeting see our Travel section.

NOTE: For suggestions on planning healthier menus at meetings, download our Guidelines to Healthy Eating at Seminars.

The Community Tool Box™
You will find practical information about building healthy communities in the Community Tool Box.

Research Guidance
For grantees and others who need to perform a research-related task—but want guidance about our standards—the Foundation presents these resources, tools and tips.

Planning a Great Meeting
This detailed resource includes logistical tips, a meeting-planning time line, a useful checklist and a glossary of meeting terms.

Financial Glossary
This glossary defines financial terms for RWJF grantees.

Sustaining Success: Educating Key Audiences about Tobacco Prevention
This toolkit is designed to help state and local tobacco control program managers continually educate and inform the public, media and policy-makers about the tobacco control program and its accomplishments.

Q. What tools and resources are available for research-related tasks?
For grantees and others who need to perform a research-related task or self-evaluation but want guidance about our standards—the Foundation presents these resources, tools and tips.
A Guide to Evaluation Primers

Produced by the Association for the Study and Development of Community (ASDC) for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this document offers an orientation to handbooks and basic primers on evaluation. These resources are designed to meet the needs of the non-expert.

Q. What sources are available for planning and using survey research projects?

Survey research can be a powerful tool. This document, prepared by Diane Colasanto, Ph.D., of Princeton Survey Research Associates (PSRA), is intended for a general audience. If you want advice on designing your survey or hiring a survey expert, start here.

Q. How can I create more effective public interest print advertising?

To help you create more effective public interest print advertising the following article has been adapted from "Why Bad Ads Happen to Good Causes," by Andy Goodman, designed and published by Cause Communications, 2002.)

Capture the reader's attention like a stop sign and direct it like a road map.

• Keep it simple.
• Have an unmistakable focal point.
• Provide a clear "path" for the eye to follow from one element to another

Make an emotional connection before trying to convey information.

• People give their attention only to those things they care about.
• Facts fly by, but stories stick—so design ads that tell stories.

Write powerful headlines.

• A headline should make people want to read more. As advertising genius David Ogilvy said, five out of six people read the headline and nothing else. A headline should arouse curiosity, serve self-interest, or break news.
• Pay attention to how the headline and the picture play into each other; which comes first? Where do they lead the eye?

Use pictures to attract and convince.

• Color attracts, black and white explains, and monochromatics do neither.
• Don't put text over photos.

If you want people to read your text, make it readable.

• Subheads and short paragraphs enhance readability.
• Shorter is usually sweeter, but a powerful message will hold a reader's attention if it's presented in a powerful way.

Test before, measure after.

• Check with your target audience. And try to build in some way to measure response, whether through a dedicated Web site or phone number, a tear-off response card, or before- and after-surveys.

When everyone zigs, it's time to zag.

• Principles, like rules, are made to be broken. Just make sure that when you break the rules, you do so knowingly and with good reason.

View the publication