Development Co‑operation Profiles: Arcus Foundation
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Arcus Foundation is a charitable foundation with offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was established in 2000 by Jon Stryker.
It aims to ensure that people, valued in their diversity, can live in harmony with each other and the natural world. By focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) social justice and ape conservation, it promotes a vision of the world where social and environmental justice, respect, and dignity for all are a reality. It supports global movements for human rights and conservation through partnerships with experts and advocacy for change.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Arcus Foundation provided USD 20.8 million for development in 2024 through its cross-border funding. Compared to 2023, this amount represents an increase of 7.3% in real terms. Grants represented 100% of Arcus Foundation’s gross disbursements.
Arcus Foundation provided all of its development finance bilaterally in 2024.
In 2024, the Arcus Foundation channelled its bilateral development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (USD 17.6 million), public-private partnerships (PPPs) and private sector (USD 1.8 million) and universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 1.4 million).
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 17.6 million of the Arcus Foundation’s gross bilateral finance, of which 29.9% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 16.9% of total bilateral development finance was allocated to CSOs as core support, while 67.7% was earmarked to specific projects or programmes. From 2023 to 2024, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs increased as a share of bilateral philanthropic development finance, from 83.8% to 84.6%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2024, Arcus Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Africa and Asia (excluding the Middle East). USD 11.1 million was allocated to Africa and USD 5.4 million to Asia (excluding the Middle East), accounting respectively for 53.4% and 25.9% of gross bilateral development finance. A sum of USD 800 thousand (4%) was unallocated by region, mainly including multi-regional programmes and research grants. From this amount, USD 100 thousand was provided in support of refugees and asylum-seekers in donor countries.
In 2024, 48% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably Indonesia (14.9%), Democratic Republic of the Congo (13.3%), and Mexico (5.8%).
Least developed countries (LDCs) received USD 4.8 million (23.1%) of Arcus Foundation’s gross disbursements in 2024. Arcus Foundation allocated the highest share (27.6%) of its bilateral development finance to upper middle-income countries in 2024, followed by LDCs (23.1%), noting that USD 8.2 million (39.6%) was unallocated by income group.
Arcus Foundation allocated USD 600 thousand of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2024, and USD 1.2 million to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2024. The main SIDS recipients are Guinea-Bissau and Guyana.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 6.4 million in 2024, representing 30.6% of Arcus Foundation’s bilateral development finance. Of this, contexts with extremely fragility received a sum of USD 3.9 million.
Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest allocation (65.9% of bilateral contributions) by Arcus Foundation went to general environment protection (USD 15.5 million). The second largest sector was social infrastructure and services (USD 8 million), focusing on government and civil society (USD 8 million).
In the period 2023-2024, Arcus Foundation committed 36.9% of screened bilateral allocable development finance to gender equality and women’s empowerment, compared to 35.4% in 2021-2022 and a private philanthropic average of 33.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 8.4 million of screened bilateral allocable contributions in support of gender equality on average per year. In addition:
The share of screened bilateral allocable contributions committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal objective was 36.8% in 2023-2024, compared with the private philanthropic average of 11.9%.
Arcus Foundation screens all bilateral allocable contributions activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2023-2024).
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation.
In 2023-2024, Arcus Foundation committed 39.9% of its total bilateral allocable contributions (USD 9 million) in support of the environment, down from 64.5% in 2021-2022. The private philanthropic average was 12.4%. All screened bilateral allocable contributions focused on biodiversity (the private philanthropic average was 4.3%), down from 64.5% in 2021-2022.
Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
In 2024, Arcus Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to SDG 15 (life on land), SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
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, channels of delivery, bilateral unspecified/unallocated/allocable development finance, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
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