DHF BNY Mellon High Yield Strategies Fund

PROPOSAL 1: ELECTION OF TRUSTEES

The Board is divided into three classes with the term of office of one class expiring each year. It is proposed that shareholders of the Fund consider the election of two Class I Trustees to serve for three-year terms and until their respective successors are duly elected and qualified. The individual nominees (the “Nominees”) proposed for election are Francine J. Bovich and Stephen J. Lockwood. Each Nominee currently serves as a Trustee of the Fund and a board member of certain other funds in the BNY Mellon Family of Funds, and has previously been elected by the Fund’s shareholders. Mr. Lockwood has served as a Trustee since the Fund’s inception and Ms. Bovich has served as a Trustee since 2011. Each Nominee was nominated by the Fund’s nominating committee and has consented to being named in this proxy statement and has agreed to continue to serve as a Trustee if elected. Biographical information about each Nominee is set forth below. Biographical information about the Fund’s Trustees who are not standing for election at the meeting but who will continue to be Trustees of the Fund (the “Continuing Trustees”), information on each Nominee’s and Continuing Trustee’s ownership of Fund shares and other relevant information is set forth on Exhibit A. None of the Nominees or the Continuing Trustees are “interested persons,” as defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”), of the Fund.

Th persons named as proxies on the accompanying proxy card intend to vote each proxy for the election of the Nominees, unless shareholders specifically indicate on their proxies the desire to withhold authority to vote for elections to office. It is not contemplated that any Nominee will be unable to serve as a Trustee for any reason, but, if that should occur prior to the meeting, the proxyholders reserve the right to substitute another person or persons of their choice as nominee or nominees.

Board’s Oversight Role in Management. The Board’s role in management of the Fund is oversight. As is the case with virtually all investment companies (as distinguished from operating companies), service providers to the Fund, primarily BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc., the Fund’s investment adviser (the “Investment Adviser”) and its affiliates, have responsibility for the day-to- day management of the Fund, which includes responsibility for risk management (including management of investment risk, valuation risk, issuer and counterparty credit risk, compliance risk and operational risk). As part of its oversight, the Board, acting at its scheduled meetings, or the Chairman, acting between Board meetings, regularly interacts with and receives reports from senior personnel of service providers, including senior personnel of the Investment Adviser, the Fund’s and the Investment Adviser’s Chief Compliance Officer and portfolio management personnel. The Board’s audit committee (which consists of all the Trustees) meets during its regularly scheduled and special meetings, and between meetings the audit committee chair is

available to the Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm and the Fund’s Chief Financial Officer. The Board also receives periodic presentations from senior personnel of the Investment Adviser or its affiliates regarding risk management generally, as well as periodic presentations regarding specific operational, compliance or investment areas, such as cybersecurity, business continuity, personal trading, valuation, credit and investment research. As warranted, the Board also receives informational reports from counsel to the Fund or the Board’s own independent legal counsel regarding regulatory compliance and governance matters. The Board has adopted policies and procedures designed to address certain risks to the Fund. In addition, the Investment Adviser and other service providers to the Fund have adopted a variety of policies, procedures and controls designed to address particular risks to the Fund. Different processes, procedures and controls are employed with respect to different types of risks. However, it is not possible to eliminate all of the risks applicable to the Fund, and the Board’s risk management oversight is subject to inherent limitations.

Board Composition and Leadership Structure. The 1940 Act requires that at least 40% of the Fund’s Trustees not be “interested persons” (as defined in the 1940 Act) of the Fund (“Independent Trustees”) and as such are not affiliated with the Investment Adviser. To rely on certain exemptive rules under the 1940 Act, a majority of the Fund’s Trustees must be Independent Trustees, and for certain important matters, such as the approval of the investment advisory agreement or transactions with affiliates, the 1940 Act or the rules thereunder require the approval of a majority of the Independent Trustees. Currently, all of the Fund’s Trustees, including the Chairman of the Board, are Independent Trustees. The Board has determined that its leadership structure, in which the Chairman of the Board is not affiliated with the Investment Adviser, is appropriate in light of the specific characteristics and circumstances of the Fund, including, but not limited to: (i) the services that the Investment Adviser and its affiliates provide to the Fund and potential conflicts of interest that could arise from these relationships;

(ii) the extent to which the day-to-day operations of the Fund are conducted by Fund officers and employees of the Investment Adviser and its affiliates; and (iii) the Board’s oversight role in management of the Fund.

Information About Each Nominee’s and Continuing Trustee’s Experience, Qualifications, Attributes or Skills. Nominees for Trustee of the Fund, together with information as to their positions with the Fund, principal occupations and other board memberships for the past five years, are shown below. The address of each Nominee is 240 Greenwich Street, New York, New York 10286. Specific information about the Continuing Trustees, information on each Nominee’s and Continuing Trustee’s ownership of Fund shares, and other relevant information is set forth on Exhibit A.

Mr. Lockwood has been a BNY Mellon Family of Funds board member for over 20 years, and Ms. Bovich has been in the asset management business for over 40 years. Additional information about each Nominee follows (supplementing the information provided in the table above) that describes some of the specific experiences, qualifications, attributes or skills that each Nominee possesses which the Board believes has prepared them to be effective Trustees (this information for Continuing Trustees is set forth on Exhibit A). The Board believes that the significance of each Trustee’s experience, qualifications, attributes or skills is an individual matter (meaning that experience that is important for one Trustee may not have the same value for another) and that these factors are best evaluated at the Board level, with no single Trustee, or particular factor, being indicative of Board effectiveness. However, the Board believes that Trustees need to have the ability to critically review, evaluate, question and discuss information provided to them, and to interact effectively with Fund management, service providers and counsel, in order to exercise effective business judgment in the performance of their duties; the Board believes that its members satisfy this standard. Experience relevant to having this ability may be achieved through a Trustee’s educational background; business or professional training or practice (e.g., medicine, accounting or law); public service or academic positions; experience from service as a board member (including the Board of the Fund) or as an executive of investment funds, public companies or significant private or not-for-profit entities or other organizations; and/or other life experiences. The charter for the Board’s nominating committee contains certain other factors considered by the committee in identifying and evaluating potential Trustee nominees. To assist them in evaluating matters under federal and state law, the Trustees are counseled by their independent legal counsel, who participates in Board meetings and interacts with the Investment Adviser and also may benefit from information provided by the Investment Adviser’s counsel

and counsel to the Fund; both Board and Fund counsel have significant experience advising funds and fund board members. The Board and its committees have the ability to engage other experts as appropriate. The Board evaluates its performance on an annual basis.

Francine J. Bovich — Ms. Bovich currently also serves as a Trustee for The Bradley Trusts, private trust funds, and as a Director of Annaly Capital Management, Inc. She is an Emeritus Trustee of Connecticut College, and served as Trustee from 1986 to 1997. She currently serves as a member of the Investment Committee (formerly, the Investment Sub Committee) for Connecticut College’s endowment fund and served as Chair of the Investment Sub Committee until June 2020. From April 1993 until September 2010, Ms. Bovich was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, holding various positions including Co-Head of Global Tactical Asset Allocation Group, Operations Officer, and Head of the U.S. Institutional Equity Group. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Ms. Bovich was Principal, Executive Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager at Westwood Management Corporation, where she worked from 1986 until 1993. From 1980 to 1986, she worked at CitiCorp Investment Management, Inc. as Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager. From 1973 to 1980, Ms. Bovich was an Assistant Vice President and Equity Portfolio Manager at Bankers Trust Company. From 1991 to 2005, she served as U.S. Representative to the United Nations Investments Committee, advising a global portfolio of approximately $30 billion.

Stephen J. Lockwood — Mr. Lockwood’s business experience of over 40 years includes being a board member and/or officer of various financial institutions, including insurance companies, real estate investment companies and venture capital firms. Mr. Lockwood serves as Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Stephen J. Lockwood and Company LLC, a real estate investment company. Mr. Lockwood was formerly the Vice Chairman and a member of the Board of Directors of HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange-listed insurance holding company.

Fund Board Committees. The Fund has standing audit, nominating and litigation committees, each comprised of the Fund’s Independent Trustees. The Fund also has a compensation committee comprised of all members of the Board.

The function of the audit committee is (1) to oversee the Fund’s accounting and financial reporting processes and the audits of the Fund’s financial statements and (2) to assist in the Board’s oversight of the integrity of the Fund’s financial statements, the Fund’s compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and the qualifications, independence and performance of the Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm. A copy of the Fund’s Audit Committee Charter, which describes the audit committee’s purposes, duties and

responsibilities, is available at www.bnymellonim.com/us in the “Closed-End Funds” section under “Investments.”

The Fund’s nominating committee is responsible for selecting and nominating persons as members of the Board for election or appointment by the Board and for election by shareholders. In evaluating potential nominees, including any nominees recommended by shareholders, the committee takes into consideration the factors listed in the Fund’s Nominating Committee Charter and Procedures (the “Nominating Committee Charter”), including character and integrity and business and professional experience. The nominating committee may consider whether a potential nominee’s professional experience, education, skills and other individual qualities and attributes, including gender, race or national origin, would provide beneficial diversity of skills, experience or perspective to the Board’s membership and collective attributes. Such considerations will vary based on the Board’s existing membership and other factors, such as the strength of a potential nominee’s overall qualifications relative to diversity considerations. The committee will consider recommendations for nominees from shareholders submitted to the Secretary of the Fund, c/o BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. Legal Department, 240 Greenwich Street, 18th Floor, New York, New York 10286, and including information regarding the recommended nominee as specified in the Nominating Committee Charter. The Nominating Committee Charter is not available on the Fund’s website or the Investment Adviser’s website, but was attached as Exhibit B to the Fund’s proxy statement for the 2019 annual shareholders meeting (filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on June 28, 2019).

The function of the compensation committee is to establish the appropriate compensation for serving on the Board.

The litigation committee seeks to address any potential conflicts of interest between the Fund and the Investment Adviser in connection with any potential or existing litigation or other legal proceeding relating to securities held by the Fund and held or otherwise deemed to have a beneficial interest held by the Investment Adviser or its affiliate.

The Fund also has a standing pricing committee comprised of any one Trustee. The function of the pricing committee is to assist in valuing the Fund’s investments.

Compensation. Each Nominee also serves as a Board member of certain other funds in the BNY Mellon Family of Funds. Annual retainer fees and meeting attendance fees are allocated among the Fund and those other funds on the basis of net assets, with the Chairman of the Board, Mr. DiMartino, receiving an additional 25% of such compensation. The Fund reimburses Trustees for travel and out-of- pocket expenses in connection with attending Board or committee meetings. The Fund does not have a bonus, pension, profit-sharing or retirement

plan. Each emeritus Trustee is entitled to receive an annual retainer of one-half the amount paid as a retainer at the time the Trustee became emeritus and a per meeting attended fee of one-half the amount paid to Trustees.

The amount of compensation paid to each Nominee by the Fund for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021 and the aggregate amount of compensation paid to each Nominee by all funds in the fund complex (which comprises registered investment companies for which the Investment Adviser or an affiliate of the Investment Adviser serves as investment adviser) for which the Nominee was a board member during 2020, was as follows†:

^† Amounts shown do not include expenses reimbursed to Trustees for attending Board meetings.

For the Fund’s most recent fiscal year, the number of Board and committee meetings held and the amount of compensation paid by the Fund to each Continuing Trustee and the aggregate amount of compensation paid by all funds in the fund complex (which comprises registered investment companies for which the Investment Adviser or an affiliate of the Investment Adviser serves as investment adviser) for which each such person was a board member in 2020 are set forth on Exhibit A. Certain other information concerning the Fund’s Trustees and officers also is set forth on Exhibit A.

Required Vote

The election of each Nominee requires the approval of a majority of shares of the Fund represented in person or by proxy and entitled to vote at the meeting, if a quorum is present.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Selection of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

The 1940 Act requires that the Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm (the “independent auditors” or “auditors”) be selected by a majority of the Independent Trustees. The audit committee has direct responsibility for the appointment, compensation, retention and oversight of the Fund’s independent auditors. At a meeting held on April 29, 2021, the Fund’s audit committee approved and the Fund’s Board, including a majority of the Independent Trustees,

ratified and approved the selection of KPMG LLP as the independent auditors for the Fund’s fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. The audit committee’s report relating to the Fund’s financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2021 is attached as Exhibit B to this proxy statement.

Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm Fees and Services

The following chart reflects fees billed by KPMG LLP in the Fund’s last two fiscal years. For Service Affiliates (i.e., the Investment Adviser and any entity controlling, controlled by or under common control with the Investment Adviser that provides ongoing services to the Fund), such fees represent only those fees that required pre- approval by the audit committee, except the Aggregate Non-Audit Fees amounts, which include all non-audit fees billed by KPMG LLP to the Fund and Service Affiliates. All services provided by KPMG LLP were pre-approved as required.

¹ For the Fund’s fiscal years ended March 31, 2020/March 31, 2021.

2

Services to the Fund consisted of one or more of the following: (i) agreed upon procedures related to

compliance with Internal Revenue Code section 817(h), (ii) security counts required by Rule 17f-2 under the 1940 Act, (iii) advisory services as to the accounting or disclosure treatment of Fund transactions or events and (iv) advisory services to the accounting or disclosure treatment of the actual or potential impact to the Fund of final or proposed rules, standards or interpretations by the SEC, the Financial Accounting Standards Boards or other regulatory or standard-setting bodies.

3

Services to the Fund consisted of review of U.S. federal, state, local and excise tax returns.

4

Aggregate non-audit fees billed by KPMG to the Fund and Service Affiliates are shown under the

Service Affiliates column.

Audit Committee Pre-Approval Policies and Procedures. The Fund’s audit committee has established policies and procedures (the “Policy”) for pre-approval (within specified fee limits) of KPMG LLP’s engagement for audit and non-audit services to the Fund and non-audit services to Service Affiliates without specific case-by-case consideration. The pre-approved services in the Policy can include pre-approved audit services, pre-approved audit-related services, pre-approved tax services and pre-approved all other services. Pre-approval considerations include whether the proposed services are compatible with maintaining KPMG LLP’s independence. Pre-approvals pursuant to the Policy are considered annually. In addition, proposed services requiring pre-approval but not covered by the Policy are considered from time to time as necessary.

Auditor Independence. The Fund’s audit committee has considered whether the provision of non-audit services that were rendered to Service Affiliates that did not require pre-approval is compatible with maintaining KPMG LLP’s independence.

A representative of KPMG LLP will be available to join the meeting, will have the opportunity to make a statement and will be available to respond to appropriate questions.

Service Providers

BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc., located at 240 Greenwich Street, New York, New York 10286, serves as the Fund’s investment adviser.

The Bank of New York Mellon (“BNY Mellon”), an affiliate of the Investment Adviser, located at 240 Greenwich Street, New York, New York 10286, acts as Custodian for the assets of the Fund.

Computershare Inc., located at 480 Washington Boulevard, Jersey City, New Jersey 07310, acts as the Fund’s Transfer Agent, Dividend-Paying Agent and Registrar.

Voting Information

To vote, you may use any of the following methods:

Shares represented by executed and unrevoked proxies will be voted in accordance with the specifications made thereon, and, if no voting instructions are given, shares will be voted “for” a proposal.

If a proxy is properly executed and returned accompanied by instructions to withhold authority to vote or represents a broker “non-vote” (that is, a proxy from a broker or nominee indicating that such person has not received instructions from the beneficial owner or other person entitled to vote shares of the Fund on a particular matter with respect to which the broker or nominee does not have discretionary power), the Fund’s shares represented thereby will be considered to

be present at the meeting for purposes of determining the existence of a quorum for the transaction of business, but will not constitute a vote “for” a proposal and will have the effect of voting “No” for the proposal.

The Fund will bear the cost of soliciting proxies. In addition to the use of the mails, proxies may be solicited by telephone. Authorizations to execute proxies may be obtained by electronic transmission or by telephonic instructions in accordance with procedures designed to authenticate the shareholder’s identity. In all cases where a telephonic proxy is solicited (as opposed to where the shareholder calls the toll-free telephone number directly to vote), the shareholder will be asked to provide or confirm certain identifiable information and to confirm that the shareholder has received the Fund’s proxy statement and proxy card in the mail. Within 72 hours of receiving a shareholder’s solicited telephonic voting instructions, a confirmation will be sent to the shareholder to ensure that the vote has been taken in accordance with the shareholder’s instructions and to provide a telephone number to call immediately if the shareholder’s instructions are not correctly reflected in the confirmation