Spring ascent2009 Recent expansion of industrial logging threatens the Congo Basin rainforest, which is critical for the survival of humans and our closest animal relatives—endan- gered bonobos, gorillas and chimpanzees. Art Direction & Design: © Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios / NYC / www.designEWS.com Printed on recycled paper. on recycled paper. Printed Studios / NYC www.designEWS.com Art Direction & Design: © Emerson, Wajdowicz cover and inside page © Greenpeace; Back Blue Diamond Society Photography: Front Global Impact In this issue: the Greenpeace “Green Heart of Africa” campaign, funded by the Arcus Foundation. The campaign is fighting to protect the CongoB asin rain- forest from illegal logging while supporting economic investment and forest conservation. The rainforest is the only place on earth the bonobo calls home. This issue of Ascent also highlights Arcus’ new International LGBT Rights Program. These featured initiatives share the opportunity to NOW AVAILABLE address urgent needs and impact millions of people around the globe. Arcus is pleased to announce three new The mission of the Arcus Foundation is to achieve social justice reports are now available to help funders that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and understand the issues facing LGBT people to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes. Consistent with in the Global South and East, and the this mission, the Arcus Foundation focuses its grantmaking in two challenges and opportunities in funding LGBT areas: LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights and rights. Download the reports from the Arcus the conservation of great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, Web site at www.arcusfoundation.org. gibbons and bonobos) and their natural habitat. Within each area, the Foundation supports organizations that advance its mission locally, nationally and globally. Arcus International LGBT Rights Program: Arcus’ International LGBT Rights program supports efforts in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. n Homosexual acts illegal n Homosexual acts punishable with death penalty TURKISH REPUBLIC UZBEKISTAN OF NORHTERN ANTIGUA & BARBUDA TUNISIA MOROCCO CYPRUS TURKMENISTAN ST. KITTS & NEVIS DOMINICA ALGERIA SYRIA LIBYA LEBANON IRAN AFGHANISTAN ST. LUCIA GAZA NEPAL NAURU ST. VINCENT & THE GREN. KUWAIT BAHRAIN PAKISTAN BHUTAN MAURITANIA KIRIBATI BELIZE BARBADOS SAUDI QATAR JAMAICA SENEGAL TOGO BENIN ERITREA U.A.E. BANGLADESH GRENADA ARABIA INDIA SOLOMON ISLANDS GAMBIA SUDAN MYANMAR/ TOKELAU TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO GUINEA-BISSAU GUINEA DJIBOUTI OMAN NIGERIA ETHIOPIA YEMEN BURMA TUVALU PANAMA SIERRA LEONE LIBERIA GHANA WESTERN SAMOA CAMEROON SOMALIA SAO TOME & PRINCIPE UGANDA MALAYSIA COOK ISLANDS GUYANA KENYA MALDIVES BRUNEI PALAU NIUE TANZANIA TONGA COMOROS SINGAPORE SEYCHELLES ANGOLA MALAWI PAPUA ZAMBIA NEW GUINEA ZIMBABWE MOZAMBIQUE NAMIBIA BOTSWANA MAURITIUS SWAZILAND LESOTHO Around the world, high levels of violence, since its founding in 2000, until two years the groups, and pointed out that there discrimination, persecution and social ago, that funding was awarded primarily was an urgent need for additional resources exclusion threaten the human rights of to U.S.-based organizations and programs. and support for groups working to advance millions of people whose sexual orien- Funding for LGBT issues across the the human rights of LGBT people. tation and gender identity are seen as globe is surprisingly scarce. In two reports Arcus began its work on a Foundation- Anonconforming. Lesbian, gay, bisexual dated 2007 and 2008, the U.S.-based wide program strategy to determine and transgender (LGBT) people face a donor affinity group Funders for Lesbian how it could best advance LGBT human wide range of legal and cultural barriers, and Gay Issues documents LGBT grant- rights throughout the world in 2005. The including imprisonment (Egypt, Cameroon, makers worldwide awarded $10.5 million Foundation’s board and staff, working East Africa); calls for capital punishment (USD) in support for LGBT human rights with a team of consultants and outside (Iran); high levels of violence, including in the Global South and East in 2005, advisors, conducted research, interviews, threats, murder and assault (Latin America, and that figure increased to $26.2 million and a series of retreats over a two-year Asia, the Middle East, East Africa); efforts (USD) in 2007. The findings detailed in period. Out of these sessions, a compre- to deny the right to assembly (Nigeria); and the report titled “A Global Gaze: LGBT hensive strategy outlining specific goals attempts to criminalize behavior (Rwanda). and Intersex Grant Making in the Global and outcomes for the Arcus International “This is a global struggle for the most South and East” are best put in perspective LGBT Rights Program was developed. fundamental kinds of liberty,” notes when one notes that more than $182 Arcus’ International LGBT Rights Urvashi Vaid, executive director of the million (USD) went to support 48 LGBT Program focuses on three areas: support Arcus Foundation. “And it requires work rights organizations based in the United for policy change that meaningfully for the civil, political, economic and States in 2007. advances LGBT human rights around the cultural rights of LGBT people.” The “Global Gaze” report was discussed world; support for capacity building of In response to this urgent global need, at an historic first-time meeting of more organizations working to advance and the Arcus Foundation awarded its first than 30 international LGBT funders in defend LGBT human rights at the regional grants to advance lesbian, gay, bisexual March 2007 in Amsterdam, co-funded and national levels, with a particular and transgender rights internationally in by the Arcus Foundation and organized emphasis on efforts in Africa, Southeast 2007. Although the Arcus Foundation by Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues. Asia and the Middle East; and support has provided more than $80 million in The meeting helped to facilitate greater to expand funding resources available grants to support LGBT human rights communication and collaboration among to support LGBT human rights advocacy, Map above: Source © Daniel Ottosson, “State-sponsored Homophobia—May 2008,” ILGA—International Lesbian and Gay Association—www.ilga.org Working to protect the human rights of LGBT people around the globe organized a gathering at the Rockefeller published a guide for individual U.S.-based Foundation conference facility in Bellagio, donors who want to give globally titled Italy, in September 2008. “Giving Out Globally: A Resource Guide of At the Bellagio gathering, called Funding Mechanisms to Support Lesbian, “Expanding Global Philanthropy to Support Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights in the Human Rights of LGBT People,” a the Global South and East.” And to group of 29 individual donors, leaders of facilitate information on why donors may institutional foundations, human rights be hesitant to support LGBT rights, Arcus champions and international LGBT rights Operating Foundation commissioned advocates mapped the terrain of movements Foundation Strategy Group to conduct n Homosexual acts illegal n Homosexual acts punishable with death penalty working for human rights and explored research published as a report titled TURKISH the challenges faced by those movements “Mobilizing Resources for the Human Rights REPUBLIC UZBEKISTAN OF NORHTERN and organizations. Participants agreed to of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender CYPRUS TURKMENISTAN SYRIA create a new joint venture known as the (LGBT) People: Challenges and Opportu- LEBANON IRAN AFGHANISTAN GAZA NEPAL NAURU Expanding Global Philanthropy Project. nities.” These reports describe the urgent KUWAIT BAHRAIN PAKISTAN BHUTAN KIRIBATI SAUDI QATAR U.A.E. BANGLADESH This collaborative project, launched in situation facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and ARABIA INDIA SOLOMON ISLANDS OMAN MYANMAR/ TOKELAU 2009 and housed at the Arcus Operating transgender people around the world, map YEMEN BURMA TUVALU WESTERN SAMOA Foundation, marks a new determination the current funding landscape, document MALAYSIA COOK ISLANDS MALDIVES BRUNEI PALAU NIUE on the part of funders and advocates to the challenges that limit support for this TONGA SINGAPORE educate donors about the urgent needs for work, and present strategies to increase SEYCHELLES PAPUA NEW GUINEA LGBT funding globally, and to secure new desperately needed resources. funds for vital projects around the world. In partnership with other global To provide the field with new informa- funders, bilateral donors and visionary tion on funding for international LGBT human rights organizations, Arcus hopes human rights, groups participating in to achieve a meaningful change in the the Bellagio convening published several lives of LGBT people around the world. especially resources focused in the Global reports. Human Rights Watch published Reducing violence, supporting indigenous South and East. an excellent overview of the state of the LGBT leaders, de-stigmatizing homo- Conversations conducted by Arcus LGBT human rights movements in five sexuality and securing the inclusion of Foundation consultants with 14 inter- regions titled “Together Apart.” The sexuality and gender variance in human national LGBT human rights funders Movement Advancement Project published rights frameworks are among the goals revealed several interesting facts. First, a report titled “International LGBT Advo- Arcus has set. In our view, increased the largest foundations