Special Projects Fund (New York Health Foundation) is sponsored by New York Health Foundation. Supports projects that address important health care or public health issues in New York State, particularly for people of color and others who have been historically marginalized, even if they are outside the foundation's targeted priority areas.

Special Projects Fund - New York Health Foundation Community health needs shift and evolve as new health issues arise, whether it is a global pandemic, policy changes, or an emerging health challenge. The Special Projects Fund provides adaptability and flexibility to support projects that respond to changing variables, enabling NYHealth to engage in timely and impactful grantmaking that seeks to improve the health of all New Yorkers.

The Special Projects Fund supports organizations and timely, evidence-based projects that address important and emerging health challenges and respond to the current moment. By issuing responsive grants and investing in new and innovative health approaches, the Fund supports a wide range of organizations to help improve health at the organizational, community, or statewide level.

The Fund focuses on several key elements when issuing grants: Projects that identify gaps in health systems or care delivery that disproportionately affect marginalized populations; Projects that respond to time-sensitive and emerging challenges; Projects that support and strengthen community-informed solutions to public health issues; Projects that coordinate interventions that could improve the efficiency or effectiveness of local or statewide health systems; Projects that improve quality of care in sustained and measurable ways; and Projects that extend beyond NYHealth’s current funding priority areas (Primary Care; Healthy Food, Healthy Lives; and Veterans’ Health).

Read about efforts to provide health care services for resettled refugees . See how parents, teachers, and lawyers worked to ensure NYC schools are safe and healthy. For more information about this priority area, contact Program Officer Sophia Silao Silao@nyhealthfoundation.

org 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 Art in Political Science from Binghamton University and a Master of Public Administration degree from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service. Check out all Special Projects Fund awardees.

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