OVERVIEW: The Arcus Foundation supports global rights groups that connect human rights to LGBTQ rights. The foundation tends to focus on regions of the world where discrimination, homophobia, and abuses are among the most egregious. Arcus is also a leading supporter of work to protect great apes; however, it gives a wide array of grants to different kinds of organizations involved with primates in the United States and abroad.
IP TAKE: Arcus supports both large and small funders. While its grants may be substantial, its funding priorities are highly targeted. Grantees should make sure that both their mission and their operating region align with the foundation’s grantmaking goals.
While this foundation only makes grants by invitation, it still accepts Initial Funding Concept. Contact this foundation to get on its radar and to see if it will consider an IFC from your organization. It may invite you to send a LOI and go from there, especially in the ape conservation space.
PROFILE: The Arcus Foundation was established in 2000 by architect Jon Stryker, an heir of the Stryker medical supply company. His foundation is dedicated to "the idea that people can live in harmony with one another and the natural world." Originally organized around LGBTQ and human rights causes, the foundation expanded its grantmaking into wildlife conservation in 2016. Based in both New York City and Cambridge, United Kingdom, the foundation works globally to support its partners in "their pursuit of lasting change." The foundation oversees a Social Justice program, which concentrates on LGBTQ rights, and a Great Apes and Gibbons program.
Grants for LGBTQ and Human Rights
The Arcus Foundation’s Social Justice program works toward “a world in which all LGBTQ people live with dignity, safety, and opportunity in inclusive communities and societies.” The three main goals of this program are increased safety, identity-affirming protections, and increased inclusion and acceptance of LGBTQ people. In seeking grantees, the foundation prioritizes those that value collaboration, strong networks, the “inclusion of those most marginalized in decision-making,” and leadership by “faith, trans, and other groups with less access to resources and who are marginalized within LGBTQ communities.” This program operates in twelve key regions—namely, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Central California, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, and South Africa. Past grantees include Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, California Rural Legal Assistance, Campaign for Southern Equality, COMCAVIS TRANS, Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, and Funders for LGBTQ Issues.
Grants for Animals and Wildlife
The Arcus Foundation conducts environmental grantmaking through its Great Apes and Gibbons program, which promotes the conservation of great and small apes by working to ensure that “viable populations of great apes and gibbons are protected from extinction and living in habitats that are managed sustainably and integrated with economic development objectives.” Commencing in 2016 and headed by Dutch primatologist Annette Lanjouw, this program has a threefold strategy: to “reconcile socio-economic development and conservation activities in priority ape landscapes,” “build an effective movement of institutions and leadership addressing current and emerging threats to apes,” and “increase respect for the intrinsic value of apes.” While the majority of the foundation’s grantmaking is targeted at eighteen key countries in Africa and Asia, it also funds programs in the United States to address apes held in captivity. Grantees include ape-focused conservation giants, such as Jane Goodall Institute, Save the Chimps, and the Center for Great Apes as well as conservation organizations that are not primarily focused on apes, but whose conservation work aids ape populations around the world, such as the Zoological Society of London, Canopy Planet Society, Fauna & Flora International, and Global Wildlife Conservation.
Important Grant Details:
Grants typically range from $100,000 to $750,000. The foundation awards grants domestically in both of its program areas. Outside of the United States, its social justice grantmaking centers around key regions in Africa and Latin America, while its conservation funding goes to countries across Africa and Asia. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s grants database for more information on the type of organizations it supports.
Grantseekers working in the field of ape conservation may start the application process with an Initial Funding Concept (IFC); based on the foundation’s interest it may then invite the applicant to submit a Letter of Inquiry (LOI), followed by a full proposal. The foundation’s social justice grantmaking is currently accepting applications by invitation only.
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