Responsive Grantmaking

Eligible projects are coordinated interventions that take place over a specified period of time to achieve quantifiable results. Under the Special Projects Fund, the Foundation gives preference to projects that:

  • Identify gaps in health systems or care delivery that disproportionately affect marginalized populations;
  • Respond to time-sensitive and emerging challenges;
  • Support and strengthen community-informed solutions to public health issues; 
  • Coordinate interventions that could improve the efficiency or effectiveness of local or statewide health systems; and
  • Improve quality of care in sustained and measurable ways.

When appropriate, projects should be sustainable beyond the grant period through other sources of financing and have strong potential for replication and scaling.

Learn about efforts to provide health care services for resettled refugees.

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For more information about this priority area, contact Program Officer

Program Officer

Sophia Silao

Sophia Silao

Program Officer

Sophia Silao

As Program Officer, Sophia Silao manages the New York Health Foundation’s (NYHealth’s) Special Projects Fund, a funding portfolio that allows NYHealth to respond to shifts in the health care environment, especially to innovative ideas that emerge from the health field.

Sophia has broad experience in philanthropy, nonprofit capacity building, and health care administration. Prior to joining NYHealth, Sophia was administrative director of the oncology service line, and later for pediatrics, at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens. She led teams to optimize clinical care coordination, expand patient engagement initiatives, and develop growth strategies and key performance indicators. Sophia was also manager of its grants program, helping to launch several hospital projects, including outpatient antibiotic stewardship, clinician trainings in advance care planning, and pediatric primary care screenings for social determinants of health. Sophia was associate director for Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and program officer for New York Women’s Foundation and North Star Fund. Her portfolios included workforce development, gender-based health and safety, youth programming, and community organizing.

Sophia holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Binghamton University and a Master of Public Administration degree from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service. She co-chaired the NY Chapter of Asian Americans Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.

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