Arcus Foundation

The Arcus Foundation is a left-leaning grantmaking foundation associated with billionaire medical device heir Jon Stryker which, since its founding in 2000, has focused on promoting ethnic minority and LGBT interests and conserving great ape populations. In 2019, it prioritized all of its left-leaning social justice initiatives to focus on issues related to the LGBT movement. ¹²

The Foundation funds LGBT-interest and environmentalist organizations across the globe. Its offices are located in New York City and Cambridge in the U.K. ¹ Funding goes to efforts on every continent except Europe and Antarctica. ³ Its LGBT activism funding was the largest in America as of 2012. ⁴

Funding

The Arcus Foundation brought in almost $38 million in 2017, including over $30 million from the group’s founder and board president Jon Stryker and the JLS Global Opportunity Fund care of Greenleaf Trust: Stryker was a founding board member of Greenleaf Trust, and his personal donation was in his family’s company’s stock. ⁵⁶ Stryker’s 2017 donations are consistent with past giving. ⁷⁸

The Foundation’s only other funder is the Collingwood Foundation, a LGBT advocacy funding group. The Arcus Foundation received a $10,000 donation in 2017, consistent with past donations from the Collingwood Foundation. ⁹

Initiatives

The Arcus Foundation’s two overarching missions are to protect apes through environmentalist funding and to promote LGBT activism. It gave 181 grants in 2018 which totaled over $28 million. ¹⁰

LGBT Interests

In 2013, Arcus gave initial donations to two religious-based groups to convince church-goers and pastors to support same-sex couples having the legal right to marry. The funding supported efforts in a number of African nations as well as the United States. In 2019, Arcus consolidated its social justice initiatives to more directly focus on groups which address LGBT issues. ¹¹²

Examples of Arcus’ LGBT-related funding in 2017 include $75,000 to Advocates for Informed Choice, an advocacy group for transgender and other gender-nonconforming people. ⁶¹² The American Psychological Association received over $100,000 for the “International Psychology Network for LGBT issues” so that the Association could increase its education, media, and policy goals. ¹³

The Astraea Foundation received eight grants for multiple LGBT initiatives which totaled approximately $2 million. ¹⁴ Reconciling Ministries Network received $221,528. ⁶

Great Ape Conservation

Ape conservation-related funding went to a number of environmentalist organizations in 2017. The African Wildlife Foundation received over $224,000 to help apes in Congo. Greenpeace Fund received $175,188 for ape conservation related to industrial agriculture and illegal logging, while the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education, and Conservation received $999,329 for its Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Great Apes Conservation Action Plan. ⁶

Save the Chimps received almost $1.6 million from the Arcus Foundation in 2017. ⁶

Leadership

Jon Stryker is the founder and board president of the Arcus Foundation. He has given more than $500 million to Arcus, and has given more than any other Michigander who donated between 2000 and 2017. ¹⁵¹⁶

Stryker is also a board member of Save the Chimps and other environmental groups, his alma mater Kalamazoo College, and a park maintenance non-profit called Friends of the High Line. His wealth comes from his family, which made billions through a medical device company. ¹⁷¹⁸ His sister, Pat Stryker, is also a major liberal political donor.

Annette Lanjouw and Jason McGill are Co-Executive Directors of the Arcus Foundation.