Arcus Foundation is a private foundation in the United States, that supports groups working globally to promote great ape conservation as well as supporting human social justice causes, including sexual orientation, gender, racial equality and rights, and pluralism[1], particularly through the awarding of grants.[2][3]
The foundation's named is derived by its founder from "arc" or "arch", in order "to portray the bridging of a gap, the offer of shelter, and rainbows as a symbol of diversity".[4]
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44 West 28th Street, 17th floor, New York, NY 10001
Arcus Foundation's mission is "to achieve social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes."[5]. Given this dedication to two hominid clades, the Foundation has refused to support AIDS research on behalf of human treatment when the research might involve chimpanzees.[6]
Arcus Foundation was founded by Jon Lloyd Stryker, a U.S. architect, philanthropist, social and species cause activist, billionaire stockholder,[7] and heir to the Stryker Corporation medical supply company fortunes of grandfather Homer Hartmen Stryker, M.D.[8] 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.[9]
In 2006, the foundation's donation of US $450,000 went to establishing the Jane Goodall Institute's advocacy department. Primatologist Jane Goodall noted that this development "has enabled me to get a higher profile in the [U.S.] Senate and the House".[10]
In May, 2010, Urvashi Vaid's departure as Executive Director of the foundation was announced, and Fred Davie, a former member of the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and already involved with the foundation, became its Executive Director.[11]
Through a biological survey supported by the Arcus Foundation, in 2010 the Myanmar Snub-nosed Monkey was given the binomial name Rhinopithecus strykeri, in honor of the foundation's president, Stryker, upon its discovery during an Arcus Foundation co-funded study of Hoolock Gibbons in Myanmar.