Silvana Straw

Silvana Straw is a senior philanthropic leader with over 25 years’ commitment to the community and social justice. She serves as a philanthropic advisor to major donors and clients, facilitating their charitable giving and helping them invest strategically. She has developed and led major efforts focused on the safety net, homelessness/housing, youth development/civic engagement, arts and culture, nonprofit capacity building, and advocacy/systems reform. In 2014, her leadership resulted in a groundbreaking study on affordable housing prepared by The Urban Institute entitled, Housing Security in Greater Washington.

She served as lead staff for the Neighbors in Need Fund which invested in advocacy efforts to preserve the safety net, and emergency services for hundreds of thousands of people directly affected by the economic crisis. Her youth work has included the Greater Washington Youth Philanthropy Initiative—an award-winning youth civic engagement program. She also created and led the Creative Communities Initiative focused on advancing the work of artists in communities as catalysts for social change.