Health & Education Access

Sheng-Yen Lu Foundation believes that health care and education are basic human rights. The primary focus of our Health and Education grantmaking is to provide equitable access to health care and education to immigrants and refugees.

As with all our grantmaking, we prioritize programs that are rooted in community and that recognize the wisdom and resources to be found in immigrant and Black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) leadership.

Health Grants

Our health care grants are focused on achieving equitable access to quality health care and the reduction of health disparities created by racism, xenophobia, classism, sexism, homophobia, and other injustices. We prioritize programs that reduce systemic barriers to care and connect people to critical health and medical services.

Equitable Access to Quality Healthcare

Reduction of Health Desparities

Education Grants

Our education access grantmaking recognizes the historic barriers to educational equity. Our funding aims to assist community-based organizations in dismantling systemic racism in the education system, and focuses on:

Early Learning (From Birth Through Age 5)

We believe that preparing young children so they are ready for school emotionally, intellectually, and socially leads to better academic achievement down the road.

High School

We partner with organizations that work to close the opportunity gap so that students graduate from high school academically prepared to pursue higher education.

Postsecondary Education

We support increased access to quality postsecondary education and explore how we can raise enrollment, retention, and completion of postsecondary degrees by immigrant and refugee students.

Our Health and Education Access grants are for multi-year, general operating support. Most grants will be between three and five years in duration. While our grantmaking is rooted in the principles of trust-based philanthropy, we do require annual reporting – the primary intent of which is to help us learn how to better support our community partners. As we recognize the value of nonprofit organizations’ staff time, we accept applications by invitation only. In our decision-making process, preference is given to:

Smaller, community-based organizations;

Programs serving low-income immigrants and refugees;

Organizations with a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and with significant leadership from immigrant and BIPOC communities;

Organizations that work toward racial, social, and immigrant justice; and

Organizations that address specific, well-defined needs of the immigrant and refugee community, and that work toward measurable outcomes.