Arca Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Arca Foundation supports organizations working on the front lines of social change to achieve racial and economic justice, democratic inclusion, a clean environment, and peace and security.
IP TAKE: Arca is a smaller funder with about $50 million in assets, but its unique approach to hyper-local organizing and engaging in policy debates makes it an important foundation to know about. Its domestic funding program is currently focused on supporting “racial and economic justice and democratic inclusion” in Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Current grantee selections closely align with this aim, including funding for national organizations working in these states. In 2017, reporting at IP characterized Arca as a rare risk-taking progressive funder willing to support organizations that “blend policy clout with the energy of an engaged grassroots.” This stripe of movement building has since become more common, and Arca continues to support it.
This funder hosts a cyclical call for grant applications in the spring and fall, so interested organizations should check Arca’s easily navigable website for updates. Arca’s international grantmaking portfolio is comparatively small and has been closed to new unsolicited grant proposals since 2021.
PROFILE: Established in 1952 by tobacco heiress Nancy Susan Reynolds, daughter of R.J. Reynolds, the Arca Foundation fights for social equity and justice by supporting “the development of networks as they work to engage the excluded, foster debate among the silenced, promote transparency and drive social change.”
Arca makes grants at both the domestic and international levels:
Domestic grantmaking centers on the U.S. South (Florida and North Carolina) and in the U.S. Midwest (Michigan and Wisconsin) and benefits organizations that:
Support local people of color and working-class leadership.
Engage in issue education and organizing in communities of color and other underrepresented communities.
Work in regions with a more limited funding base, such as rural communities.
Systematically integrate pressing environmental concerns with pressing racial and economic concerns.
Pull back the curtain on corporate power and those who control money and power in America, creating greater transparency around the interests behind public policy and inequality.
Work to shift the policy debate on democratic inclusion, wealth, poverty and race.
International grantmaking is primarily concerned with human dignity and building peace over militarization. From 2019–2021, the foundation’s international grantmaking worked to address inhumane and militaristic U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf and its far-reaching influence in political, academic and corporate spheres. This focus is likely to change in 2024 under new Executive Director Jennifer Pae.
The foundation conducts grantmaking through a racial justice lens, so proposals should reflect this priority.
Grants for Democracy and Civic Engagement, and Work Development
The Arca Foundation’s domestic grants aim to promote the “equitable engagement of historically underrepresented communities in shaping the public policy debate” through “issue education, grassroots organizing and other forms of nonpartisan civic participation.” In the realm of civic engagement, it prioritizes local projects benefitting the working class and people of color, as well as engaging in and “organizing in communities of color and other underrepresented communities.” The foundation also supports work that aims to “shift the policy debate on democratic inclusion, wealth, poverty and race.” Past grantees include the Liberty Hill Foundation, Center for Media and Democracy, and Center for Popular Democracy.
Grants for Racial and Criminal Justice
Though Arca does not appear to fund organizations directly combatting criminal justice in their local communities, it does support a wide range of groups and social movements responding to entrenched social and economic equality and the rise in corporate power in the United States and abroad. Domestically, the foundation supports organizations working to “advance greater economic and racial equity, specifically by addressing the impacts of financialization on an inclusive economy, democracy and the environment.” Past grantees of this program include People’s Action, which received funding for its work fighting for injustice, racism and corporatocracy; Color of Change, which received support for its work ending practices that hold back people of color.
Internationally, the foundation awards grants to support advancing U.S. foreign policymaking that “prioritizes human rights and peace over security and militarization. Past grantees include the Project on Government Oversight and IfNotNow.
Grants for Global Security and Human Rights
The Arca Foundation’s International grantmaking is less robust than its Domestic program, but it provides modest grants to organizations that advocate for “a more just U.S. foreign policy that prioritizes human dignity and building peace over militarization.” At the moment, the foundation is prioritizing efforts to address “inhumane and militaristic U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf and its far-reaching influence in political, academic and corporate spheres.” International grantees include the Win Without War Education Fund, the Peace Development Fund, National Iranian American Council, National Security Archive Fund, and the Center for International Policy.
Important Grant Details:
Grants typically range between $25,000 and $50,000, but can go slightly above this range.
Past grantees vary widely and can offer more insights. The Arca Foundation accepts grant applications by invitation only.
The Arca Foundation awards three types of grants: general operating support, project-specific requests and “fiscally sponsored project” requests for organizations that are not nonprofits, but have “secured a 501(c)3 organization as a fiscal sponsor” or intend to forward the funding to another organization or project.
It runs two grant cycles per year, with deadlines generally falling on February 1 and August 1.
PEOPLE:
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