Development Co-operation Profiles

Arcadia Fund

Introduction

The Arcadia Fund is a charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom, co-founded in 2001 by Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.

The Arcadia Fund supports work to preserve endangered cultural heritage, protect endangered ecosystems and promote access to knowledge. It aims to defend the complexity of human culture and the natural world so that coming generations can build a vibrant, resilient, green future.

Private development finance

The Arcadia Fund provided USD 38.1 million for development in 2022 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2021, this amount represents a decrease by 25.4% in real terms.

 

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Support to Ukraine

In 2022, the Arcadia Fund provided USD 1.9 million of gross development finance to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s war of aggression.

Bilateral and multilateral allocations

In 2022, the Arcadia Fund channelled its development finance mostly through universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 23.4 million), and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society (USD 14.7 million).

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 14.7 million of the Arcadia Fund’s gross development finance. Of this, 52.6% was allocated to CSOs as core support, while 47.4% was earmarked to specific projects or programmes. Most of this financing was provided to international NGOs.

Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.

 

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Geographic and thematic focus

In 2022, the Arcadia Fund’s development finance was primarily focused on Latin America and the Caribbean and ODA-eligible countries in Europe. USD 6 million was allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean and USD 1.9 million to Europe, respectively, accounting for 15.7% and 4.9% of gross development finance. A sum of USD 27.7 million (72.7%) was unspecified by region in 2022, mainly including multi-regional programmes, core support and research grants.

Figure. Bilateral private development finance by recipient country

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In 2022, 20.7% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably Mexico, Ukraine, Colombia and Brazil.

 

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The Arcadia Fund allocated the highest share (15.7%) of its development finance to upper middle-income countries in 2022, followed by lower middle-income countries (4.9%), noting that USD 30.2 million (79.3%) was unallocated by income group.

 

Notes: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Sectors

In 2022, 3.3% of the Arcadia Fund’s contributions were allocated to social infrastructure and services whereas 96.7% to multi-sector and cross-cutting issues such as general environmental protection and preservation of unique sites and objects.

 

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Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022, the Arcadia Fund committed the largest shares of its contributions to life on land (SDGs 15), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) and partnership for the goals (SDG 17) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

 

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Additional resources

Official website: https://www.arcadiafund.org.uk

The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, the Sustainable Development Goal focus of private development finance, channels of delivery, unspecified/unallocated allocations, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.