Founded | 2000 |
---|---|
Founder | Jon Stryker |
Type | Private foundation |
38-3332791 | |
Focus | Conservation, social justice, LGBT rights |
Location | |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Method | Grantmaking |
Key people
|
Jon Stryker, founder and president Kevin Jennings, executive director |
Endowment | $144,526,442 (2013) |
Mission | "To ensure that LGBT people and our fellow apes thrive in a world where social and environmental justice are a reality." |
Website | www |
The Arcus Foundation is a charitable foundation focused on issues related to LGBT rights, social justice and conservation. The foundation's stated mission is "to ensure that LGBT people and our fellow apes thrive in a world where social and environmental justice are a reality."
The Arcus Foundation is the top LGBT-specific grant-making organization in the United States. The foundation was founded by Jon Stryker, heir to the Stryker Corporation medical supply company fortune. The foundation has offices in New York, New York, and Cambridge, England.
Arcus Foundation was founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 2000 by Jon Stryker, a U.S. architect, philanthropist, social and environmental activist, billionaire , and heir to the Stryker Corporation medical supply company fortune. As a teenager, Stryker kept a monkey as a pet, until keeping it domestically seemed inhumane, at which point he donated the monkey to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois.
The foundation’s great apes strategy funds projects that promote conservation of the world’s gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gibbons. The foundation also funds projects that advocate strengthening international protection of great apes and sanctuaries. Arcus advocates increased recognition of the rights of great apes to live free of abuse, exploitation and private ownership. Arcus has supported Jane Goodall's work.