OVERVIEW: The Arcus Foundation supports LGBTQ social justice and the conservation and protection of great apes and gibbons. This is now a time-limited funding prospect: Arcus plans to cease operations in 2029, continue making Social Justice grants through October 2028, and transfer its ape-conservation grantmaking to a new U.K. charity, WildLives Earth, in 2027.
IP TAKE: Arcus is one of the rare major foundations with sustained commitments to both global LGBTQ rights and ape conservation. However, its recently announced wind-down changes how grantseekers should evaluate this prospect. Social Justice funding is generally invitation-only and relationship-driven, and no current open call has been identified. The strongest route into this portfolio is through meaningful participation in the LGBTQ, trans, racial justice, faith, democracy and reproductive justice movements that Arcus already supports, including relationships with current grantees, regional funds and regranting intermediaries. What this foundation’s spend down will mean for the LGBTQ philanthropy space, remains to be seen.
Conservation applicants have historically had a more direct route: Prospective grantees could submit an Initial Funding Concept, after which Arcus might invite an LOI and full proposal. Applicants should verify that this process remains active as Arcus prepares to transfer the program to WildLives Earth in 2027. WildLives Earth is a newly registered grantmaking charity, but it has not yet published public application guidelines.
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.” Based in both New York City and Cambridge, United Kingdom, the foundation works globally to support its partners in “their pursuit of lasting change.”
In August 2026, Arcus announced that it would cease operations in 2029. Its Social Justice program will honor existing commitments and continue making new grants through October 2028. Jon Stryker plans to continue supporting social and environmental justice through other philanthropic vehicles, but Arcus has not publicly identified those vehicles or described how organizations might access them. Ape-conservation grantmaking will continue under Arcus’s current strategy before transitioning to WildLives Earth in 2027.
Grants for LGBTQ and Human Rights
Arcus’s Social Justice program seeks to advance a world in which LGBTQ people can live with dignity, safety and opportunity in inclusive communities. Its work has focused on strengthening LGBTQ movements, improving physical safety, advancing identity-affirming legal and policy protections, and increasing social inclusion and acceptance. Arcus has placed particular emphasis on people who experience marginalization based on gender identity, race, migration status, geography and other intersecting factors.
- Recent and recurring areas of support include:
- Direct services that are connected to advocacy, organizing or broader systems change.
- Trans-led organizing and movement infrastructure.
- Legal and policy advocacy.
- Community safety and anti-violence work.
- Support for LGBTQ migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
- Faith-rooted organizing and resistance to religiously framed discrimination.
- Civic engagement and democracy protection.
- Reproductive and gender justice.
- Arts, media, storytelling and narrative change.
- Coalition building and cross-movement organizing.
- Arcus’s current public communications highlight organizations such as Faith in Public Life, Las Reinas Chulas, Strong Families New Mexico and Taboom, whose work combines LGBTQ advocacy with faith organizing, reproductive justice, community leadership, cultural strategy and movement storytelling. These examples suggest that Arcus continues to favor work that is led by affected communities and connected to a broader movement or policy strategy.
- Arcus has historically concentrated its direct Social Justice grantmaking in selected parts of the United States, East and Southern Africa, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Because the foundation is winding down, grantseekers should verify that their location and proposed period of work fit the remaining grantmaking timeline rather than relying solely on previously published geographic lists.
- Past and recent grantees include the Transgender Law Center, National LGBTQ Task Force, International Trans Fund, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, UHAI EASHRI, The Other Foundation, Fondo Semillas, Borealis Philanthropy and Proteus Fund. Some of these organizations are regrantors or philanthropic intermediaries that support smaller, locally led or emerging groups.
- A warm introduction may help, but a referral does not substitute for close alignment with Arcus’s strategy. Organizations that are outside its issue and geographic priorities, have little connection to the relevant movement ecosystem, or propose stand-alone services with no advocacy or organizing component appear less competitive.
Grants for Animals and Wildlife
The Arcus Foundation conducts environmental grantmaking through its Great Apes and Gibbons program, which supports conservation and respect for great and small apes, including bonobos, chimpanzees, gibbons, gorillas and orangutans. Grantmaking will continue under the current strategy before moving to WildLives Earth in 2027. Dr. Katy Scholfield, vice president for species conservation, currently has responsibility for Arcus’s conservation grantmaking.
- Arcus’s conservation grantmaking has focused on priority landscapes in Africa and Southeast Asia, as well as the treatment of apes held in captivity. Strong prospects include organizations conducting community-based habitat protection, Indigenous and local land-rights work, applied conservation science, policy advocacy, threat reduction, landscape coordination, sanctuary care and public campaigns addressing exploitation.
- Recent and recurring grantees include Save the Chimps, Forest Peoples Programme, PanEco, Re, Greenpeace Fund, Jane Goodall Institute, African Wildlife Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society and organizations working directly in ape-range countries.
- Arcus has also funded initiatives that pair conservation with economic opportunity and human well-being in communities living near ape habitats.
- Under Arcus’s most recently published process, organizations seeking conservation funding could submit an Initial Funding Concept on a rolling basis. Arcus staff would review the concept and, where there was sufficient alignment, invite an LOI and potentially a full proposal. This was not an open process for unsolicited full proposals.
- Because of the 2027 transition, prospective applicants should verify that Arcus is still reviewing new concepts and determine whether a proposed grant can be completed, renewed or transferred within the transition timeline. Organizations already working with current Arcus grantees, landscape consortiums, sanctuary networks or Indigenous and local conservation partners are likely to have the strongest route to staff awareness.
WildLives Earth
WildLives Earth is the planned successor to Arcus’s ape-conservation grantmaking. It was incorporated in the United Kingdom in June 2025 and registered as a charity in July 2025. Jon Stryker serves as chair. Its registered purposes include conservation, protection and improvement of the natural environment, and its Charity Commission entry states that it makes grants to organizations.
- Arcus says WildLives Earth will support endangered-species conservation, including great apes and gibbons. Recruitment materials for the new charity indicate a broader interest in endangered species and in long-term, equity-based conservation that includes international NGOs, local and community organizations, and Indigenous peoples’ groups.
- WildLives Earth has not yet published a public grant application process, deadlines or formal eligibility criteria. It should be treated as an emerging funder to monitor, not as a currently open opportunity.
Intermediary and Collaborative Funding Pathways
Arcus does not appear to operate its own fiscal-sponsorship program or donor-advised fund. It does, however, make substantial grants to philanthropic intermediaries, regrantors and donor collaboratives. These relationships may provide more realistic access for small, emerging, fiscally sponsored or locally led organizations than approaching Arcus directly.
Significant intermediary relationships include:
- Borealis Philanthropy, which received three separate grants totaling $1.75 million in Arcus’s 2024 grant list and approximately $8 million from Arcus between 2020 and 2024.
- International Trans Fund, a participatory fund that supports trans-led organizations globally.
- Proteus Fund, including Arcus’s support for the Rights, Faith & Democracy Collaborative.
- Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.
- UHAI EASHRI.
- The Other Foundation.
- Fondo Semillas.
- Funders for LGBTQ Issues.
The Rights, Faith & Democracy Collaborative is a particularly relevant pathway for state-based organizations working at the intersections of LGBTQ justice, reproductive justice, racial justice, democracy and faith. Arcus has supported the collaborative since its inception. RFDC makes grants to state-based cohorts and coalitions, but it has its own grantmaking priorities and is not an application portal for Arcus funding.
Important Grant Details:
Arcus makes grants across a wide range of sizes. Its 2024 Form 990-PF lists 365 grant entries totaling about $31.3 million. The median listed grant was $75,000, the average was about $86,000, and the largest exceeded $1.1 million. Large grants tend to go to established conservation institutions, movement funds and repeat intermediary partners, so grantseekers should not treat the average as a recommended request amount.
- Arcus makes domestic and international grants.
- General operating support, project support, advocacy, research, capacity building, movement infrastructure and multi-year work appear in its recent grantmaking.
- Social Justice grants are generally invitation-only, although Arcus has occasionally issued targeted open calls.
- Conservation applicants have historically been able to submit an Initial Funding Concept, but should verify the status of that process.
- Social Justice grantmaking is scheduled to continue through October 2028.
- Ape-conservation grantmaking is scheduled to transition to WildLives Earth in 2027.
- Arcus plans to cease operations in 2029.
- Arcus’s U.S. office is in New York City, and its U.K. office is in Cambridge. The foundation’s U.S. telephone number is (212) 488-3000.
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