
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has appointed Michael Sedillo as the executive director of the Mayor's Office of Nonprofit Services, a move announced alongside a slate of new initiatives intended to speed up payments to nonprofit providers. Sedillo's brief is to streamline service delivery for city contractors, with a focus on bolstering a culture of customer service and data-driven performance management, in an effort to ease the way nonprofits do business with the city.
The mayor's office shared that over $1 billion had been disbursed and more than 3,700 invoices were processed in the past three months, as part of a concerted effort to tackle outstanding payments dating back to the fiscal year 2023. This initiative is a part of a broader reform agenda launched in summer 2024 that has dramatically reduced the average time for processing discretionary contracts from 366 days in FY24 to just 46 days in FY25, an almost 90 percent reduction, according to a statement on the Official City website.
Speaking to the city's commitment, Mayor Adams said, "Nonprofit workers never hesitate to answer the call from our city... The last thing they should have to worry about is getting paid on time." He hailed the recent advances as evidence that reforms are effectively cutting through bureaucracy, as detailed by the City of New York. In an earlier reform, nonprofits that receive City Council discretionary spending were allowed to enter into multi-year contracts, bypassing the need for an annual re-registration process, potentially saving up to nine months of contracting process time annually.
Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar, who will lead the newly launched Nonprofit FOCUS (Facilitating On-Time Contracting & Urgent Solutions) Working Group, emphasized the administration's dedication to on-time payments and agency accountability in an official statement on the city's website. The Nonprofit FOCUS initiative represents a high-level commitment to addressing nonprofit payment delays through regular oversight and data assessment.
Previously, Sedillo served as a senior advisor within the Adams administration and led the push to pass community hiring legislation, in addition to conducting a campaign to address a significant backlog of unregistered contracts. His efforts reportedly unlocked more than $6 billion for providers. His diverse background includes work as a Teach For America corps member and extensive government experience, with a Bachelor’s in Political Communication from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Endorsements for Sedillo's appointment have come from various quarters, including New York State Senator Roxanne J. Persaud and New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, both expressing eagerness to work with him to continue improving payment processes for nonprofits. Ester Fuchs, a professor of public affairs and political science, called nonprofits one of New York City's best-kept secrets and commended Sedillo as an advocate who carries not just the belief in their value but the ability to turn that belief into expedited action and support.