The Arcus Foundation is a charitable foundation with offices in the United States and the United Kingdom, established in 2000 by Jon Stryker.
The Arcus Foundation aims to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, as well as great apes and gibbons, thrive in a world where social and environmental justice, respect, and dignity for all are a reality. It partners with experts and advocates for change that supports global human rights and conservation movements.
The Arcus Foundation provided USD 21 million for development in 2022 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2021, this amount represents an increase of 2.9% in real terms.
In 2022, the Arcus Foundation channelled its development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society (USD 18.3 million) and universities, research institutes or think‑tanks (USD 1.6 million).
In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 18.3 million of the Arcus Foundation’s gross development finance. Of this, 14.4% was allocated to CSOs as core support, while 85.6% was earmarked to specific projects or programmes. More than half of this financing was extended to international NGOs.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2022, the Arcus Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Africa and Asia. USD 10.8 million was allocated to Africa and USD 4.3 million to Asia, accounting for 51.4% and 20.7% of gross development finance, respectively. A sum of USD 2.7 million (12.8%) was unspecified by region in 2022, mainly including multi-regional programmes and core support.
In 2022, 50.3% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Mexico and Congo.
Least developed countries (LDCs) received USD 5.1 million (24.5%) of the Arcus Foundation’s gross disbursements in 2022. Lower-middle income countries received USD 4.9 million (23.3%) and upper-middle income countries USD 3.3 million (15.5%), noting that USD 7.7 million (36.8%) 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.
Support to fragile contexts reached USD 7.4 million in 2022, representing 35.1% of the Arcus Foundation’s development finance. Of these, extremely fragile contexts received a sum of USD 4 million.
Notes: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral contributions that are allocated by country.
In 2022, 33.1% of the Arcus Foundation’s contributions were allocated to social infrastructure (human rights) and services and 65.7% to multi-sector and cross-cutting issues (biodiversity conversation).
In 2022, the Arcus Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to life on land (SDG 15), reduced inequalities (SDG 10). peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16) and gender equality (SDG 5) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Support for gender equality and women’s empowerment amounted to USD 6.7 million.
Official website: https://www.arcusfoundation.org/
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.