Arcadia Fund

Arcadia Fund
Arcadia Fund Logo.png
Formation2001; 18 years ago (2001)[1]
Founders
PurposePreserve Endangered Cultural Heritage and Ecosystems, Promoting Open Access
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Professor Peter Baldwin(Trustee)
Lisbet Rausing (Trustee)
Dr Johannes Burger (Trustee)
Employees
9
Websitewww.arcadiafund.org.uk

The Arcadia Fund is a UK charity organisation founded by Lisbet Rausing and Professor Peter Baldwin. Established in 2001, the organisation provides grants on a worldwide basis focusing on numerous projects outside the UK. The primary focus of the organisation involves preserving endangered culture, preserving endangered nature and providing open access.[2] Arcadia's Mission statement outlines the organisations philosophical views to, "serve humanity (and) to preserve cultural heritage and ecosystem's". The organisation believes that "once memories, knowledge, skills, variety, and intricacy disappear – once the old complexities are lost – they are hard to replicate or replace" and consequently want to, "build a vibrant, resilient, green future".[3]

Since 2002, the fund has provided in excess of $570 million in projects around the world.[1]

The foundation is controlled by its three trustees (Lisbet Rausing, Peter Baldwin and Dr Johannes Burger) and its team of 9 members. The fund also has an advisory board of 7 members.[4]

History

Arcadia has since 2002 provided in excess of $570 million globally in Grants.[1] Since its inception it has averaged yearly grant awards of $35,625,000. It's breakdown of grants is divided into 5 categories Cultural, Environmental, Open Access, Discretionary and Discontinued Themes. As seen by the Table 41% of grant funding is cultural, 37% Environmental, 6% Open Access, 8% Discretionary and 7% Legacy.[5]

Breakdown of Arcadia's Grant Structure
Type Of Grant Grant Total ($USD) Percentage of Total Grants
Cultural 204,585,494 41%
Environmental 183,564,272 37%
Open Access 29,922,879 6%
Discretionary 40,403,816 8%
Discontinued Themes 34,317,384 7%

The table above shows a breakdown of Arcadia's Grant structure[5]

Arcadia's supported causes since inception in 2002 have been preserving endangered culture, preserving endangered nature and open access. Arcadia's has a selected issues criterion in which the organisation use's to choose grants. The methodology of grant choices has not changed since 2002 however, supported causes has altered slightly. Arcadia aims to provide cultural grants to universities, archives or museums that preserve cultural heritage and digitise near-extinct cultural heritage. Additionally, Arcadia provides environmental grants to organisations that preserve endangered habitats, at risk land as well as trains staff, enable research and policy development. Arcadia also aims to provide open access grants to increase access of free material such online as research papers and publications.[2]

Further, Arcadia also supported causes such as human rights, philanthropy and education however since 2009 the support for the causes have been discontinued.[2] The fund supported organisations around these discontinued themes that helped refugee scholars, educated disadvantaged children in Africa, and conducted women's right advocacy.[6]

Arcadia Grant Total per year

The Graph shows Arcadia's per year Grant donations[5]

Activities

Arcadia's activities revolve wholly around their grant program in which the fund seeks organisations that are dynamic, well researched and can deliver on the objectives of endangered culture, nature and promoting open access.[7]

Culture

Arcadia's largest grant occurred in its first few years of operating (2002) to the School of Oriental and African Studies totalling £20 million (US$33,851,813) resulting in the inception of the Endangered Language Documentation Program (ELDP). The program enables scholars to undertake documentation of disappearing languages. By 2015, the program has documented over 350 languages globally. Further, the grant also funded training scholars in modern language documentation techniques in an attempt to train the next generation to preserve linguistic diversity. Arcadia additionally donated another US$11 million in April 2015 in their continued support to the program.[8]

Furthering their conservation of cultural heritage, in 2004 the Arcadia Fund founded the Endangered Archives Program at the British Library with a $25 million grant supporting the digitisation of at risk collections around the world. Since the inception (as of Sept 2018), the program has supported more than 350 documentation programs in projects in 90 countries. This has resulted in over 6.5 million images and 25,000 sound tracks being preserved. In addition this preserved material is available freely online as part of the Endangered Archives Programme.[9] Furthermore, in 2018 Arcadia provided its second major grant to the program of £9 million in which is aimed to fund the program for a further 7 years. Lisbet Rausing praised the program stating, " The program has digitised and preserved valuable and fragile manuscripts, rare prints, photographs, letters, newspapers and sound recordings from around the globe", "These primary sources are essential for scholarly, evidence-based history. We are so pleased to continue funding the programme".[10]

In 2013 and 2015 Arcadia supported the Smithsonian Institution with their collaboration with the Natural History Museum's fight on preserving cultural history. In 2013 Arcadia provided a $1 million Grant to support the Recovering Voices Initiative. This is a long term project in which aims to digitise audio recordings, manuscripts and photographs. Further the initiative aims to digitise the entire collection of ethnographic sound recordings, estimated at 3,000 hours, and 35,000 pages of manuscript materials.[11] Further in 2015 Arcadia provided an additional $511,200 to the Smithsonian Campaign, 'The Field Book Project'. Field books are original records of scientific discovery.[12] The project was designed to provide free online access to biodiversity research. The grant aimed to support the digitising of 2600 field books, which will be open access.[13] Currently, the Field Book Project has catalogued over 9,500 field books and digitised over 4,000.[12]

Environment

Arcadia more recently in 2018 donated a substantial £23 million (USD $31,441,100) and continued its support to preserving natural habitat with its collaboration and contributions to the Cambridge Conservative Initiative (CCI) through the Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELP). Arcadia in collaboration with CCI and 9 other conservative organisations aim to reserve priority landscape across Europe in an attempt to " transform the global understanding and conservation of biodiversity and, through this, secure a sustainable future for biodiversity and society". ELP aims to deliver its vision in which wants to support viable populations of native species, provide room for natural ecological processes, resilience of ecosystems to short or long term changes.[14] The ELP founders show their gratitude to this contribution revealing their ambitious plans can greatly attributed to Arcadia's support and funding.[15]

Arcadia in 2018 has strengthened its long running partnership with Fauna & Flora International with a grant of $USD 27,000,000 to the Halcyon Land & Sea Fund. The partnership started in 1998 where Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing developed the idea in conjunction with FFI to develop the Halcyon Fund in which secures highly threatened sites to protect them under local management. As of 2018, the Fund has supported 46 projects across 25 countries, protecting 55.8 million hectares of habitat.[16] Since 2011, Arcadia has provided large scale support in which has supported 34 initiatives across 18 countries.[17] Currently, Arcadia's total funding to FFI is $USD 51,550,000 million.[5] In 2015, Arcadia ordered an independent expert review of the work it had funded through FFI. The results provided positive conclusions where it was stated that, "The report clearly recognises the invaluable role that Arcadia has played in helping FFI evolve into the organisation it is today, by providing long-term and flexible funding for a considerable and effective body of work.".[17] Arcadia's impact on FFI can be seen through their first grant in 2011 developing the Halcyon Marine Programme. The programme operates across 72 sites in 17 countries engaging 88 partners and 35 community-based institutions and has already resulted in threat reduction of biodiversity recovery at 10 sites.[18]

Open Access

Arcadia has provided multiple grants to Harvard University in an attempt to improve open access at the university. In 2009, Arcadia awarded a $5 million grant over a 5-year period to provide flexible support of the library's core functions including acquisitions, access, preservation and dissemination.[19] It will also help to catalogue and digitise documents on Harvard's history, and to run the Library Lab programme to create better digital services for students and faculty.[5] In more detail, the grant will help strengthen the library's print collection, to support the processing of 17th and 18th century collections in archives and underwrite conservation treatments to fragile or damaged 17th or 18th century collections. Harvard University Library Director Robert Darnton praised Arcadia's generosity stating, "Arcadia has not only shown extraordinary generosity, but great insight into the complexities facing research library's today".[19] Arcadia provided further support to the university in 2011 with an additional $11 million grant.[5]

In September 2015, Arcadia provided a grant totalling $450,000 over 3 years to Creative Commons. CC's intended to use the donation to develop tools that complement current CC licence suite and gives the ability for authors to retain or regain their right to publish so they can make their scholarly or academic works publicly available.[20]

In September 2017, Arcadia donated $5 million to the Wikimedia Foundation. This contribution was the largest contribution to the foundation to date and was vital to help support the growth of the Wikimedia Campaign. Further, the Grant was matched by another $5 million in donations from major gifts teams in FY 2016/17.[21] Additionally in 2019 the foundation gave $3.5 million to the organisation bringing their endowment total to $8.5 million.[22]

Discretionary

The Arcadia Fund in 2015 provided a large grant to Yale University to transform the Yale Hall of Graduates Studies. The grant of $25 million will play an important role in securing the vital renovation. The renovation enables the university to co-locate the dispersed humanities departments to under one roof. The infrastructure offer a setting for cross-disciplinary collaboration and advance research. This gift furthered the funds, 'monumental initiative and builds on their visionary investment in culture and its preservation at Yale'.[23] Baldwin and Rausing have asked in tribute to the service of David Swensen (Who built Yale's endowment from $1.3 Billion to $23.9 Billion) that the building should be named after him.[24]

Furthermore, Arcadia supported a unique UK art instillation through providing a £5 million[25] donation to the illuminated River Foundation in 2017. The project is a commissioned art installation of light to 15 of Central London's bridges along the River Thames. When the project is completed it would be the longest art commission in the world at 2.5 miles long. The project undertook extensive research to make sure it leaves a positive legacy for London and to respect the environment, community and history of the bridges.[26] The ambitious £45 million project is believed to be in place for 10 years and completed by 2022 with the idea to create an architectural character of London Bridges.[27]

Discontinued Themes

Arcadia before 2009 were involved in supporting human rights. The fund supported organisations that helped refugee scholars, educate disadvantaged children in Africa, and conduct women's right advocacy. In 2005, Arcadia provided a $5 million grant to the Mvule Trust, to provide bursaries to young women in Uganda so they can go to secondary school. The grant and trust gave 75% of scholarships to girls and by 2007 and the trust had supported the education of 1,868 children.[6]

Furthermore, Arcadia has provided two separate donations between 2005-06 of $1 and $5 million to the Human Rights Watch (US) in an attempt to prevent discrimination, uphold political freedom, protect women from inhumane conduct in wartime and bring offenders to justice.[5] Arcadia's funding attempted to help HRW empirical research into the persecution of women, as well as its more practical fight to end the dehumanisation of women through fact gathering, press releases, advocacy and lobbying.[6]

Grant Statistics and Graphs

Arcadia's Largest Grants ($USD)
Recipient Title of Grant Date of Grant (D/M/Y) Value ($USD) Type Of Grant Description of Grant
School of Oriental and African Studies Endangered Languages Documentation Programme 25/07/2002 33,851,813 Cultural The Academic Programme to train linguists documenting endangered languages.
University of Cambridge Cambridge Conservation Initiative:  Endangered Landscapes Programme 30/01/2018 31,441,100 Environmental To develop and support large-scale projects seeking to create habitats that are rich in biodiversity and resilient to environmental change.
Fauna & Flora International Halcyon Programmes and core institutional support 01/10/2017 27,000,000 Environemental To expand the success of both the Halcyon Land & Sea Fund and the Halcyon Marine Programme to date, increasing focus on long-term sustainability.
Yale University Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage 01/06/2011 25,000,000 Cultural To build a new cultural conservation and digitisation centre.
Yale University The Hall of Graduate Studies 01/07/2017 25,000,000 Discretionary To refurbish the Hall of Graduate Studies and to support the programmatic agenda that will transform it into a central home for the humanities at Yale
British Library Endangered Archives Programme 27/01/2004 16,960,153 Cultural To establish a grants programme that funds projects that digitise neglected, vulnerable or inaccessible archives relating to pre-industrial societies.
School of Oriental and African Studies Endangered Languages Documentation Programme 01/12/2016 11,000,000 Cultural To continue to support the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme.
Harvard University College Fellows Fund 01/06/2011 10,000,000 Cultural To support Harvard College Fellows Program.
University of California Los Angeles Endowment to Department of History 28/06/2012 10,000,000 Cultural To establish the Endowed History Department Chair and History Department Chair Quasi-Endowment Fund.
University of Cambridge Cambridge Conservation Initiative: Endowment of Directorship 03/07/2017 10,000,000 Environmental To establish an endowment fund for the Cambridge Conservation Initiative Directorship.
Harvard University Supporting Open Access with Harvard Library 30/11/2011 9,000,000 Open Access To improve acquisition policies and access to the library's collections.

The Table Breakdowns Arcadia largest grants and a description of the purpose of the grant[5]

Arcadia Cumulative Grant Total

The graph reveals Arcadia's cumulative grant total[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Arcadia - preserve endangered culture and nature". Arcadia Fund. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
  2. ^ a b c foundationguide. "Arcadia Fund". Foundation Guide. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
  3. ^ "About us - preserving endangered culture and nature and promoting open access". Arcadia Fund. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  4. ^ "People - The Arcadia team". Arcadia Fund. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Data Registry | 360Giving". data.threesixtygiving.org. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  6. ^ a b c "Arcadia Annual Review 2008" (PDF). Arcadia Annual Review 2008. 30 May 2019.
  7. ^ "Grants - dynamic, sustainable and well researched programmes". Arcadia Fund. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
  8. ^ "SOAS' Endangered Languages Documentation Programme receives a further $11 million from Arcadia | SOAS University of London". www.soas.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  9. ^ "Endangered Archives Programme". Endangered Archives Programme. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
  10. ^ "New grant to the Endangered Archives Programme". Arcadia Fund. 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
  11. ^ "Arcadia Fund Gift Furthers Global Access to Endangered Languages". smithsoniancampaign.org. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  12. ^ a b KapsalisE (2017-01-27). "Field Book Project". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  13. ^ "The Arcadia Fund Awards Grant to Support The Field Book Project – Biodiversity Heritage Library". Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  14. ^ "Restoring Europe's endangered landscapes for life". University of Cambridge. 2018-10-09. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  15. ^ "How to Support". The Endangered Landscapes Programme. 2017-06-07. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  16. ^ "Major grant from Arcadia will help FFI manage vital areas for conservation | Fauna & Flora International". www.fauna-flora.org. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  17. ^ a b "Tracking wolves and tracking progress | Fauna & Flora International". www.fauna-flora.org. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  18. ^ "Fauna & Flora International". Arcadia Fund. 2017-01-26. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  19. ^ a b "Harvard University Library awarded $5M grant from Arcadia Fund". Harvard Gazette. 2009-04-09. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  20. ^ "Creative Commons awarded $450,000 from the Arcadia Fund to support open access publishing for authors". Creative Commons. 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  21. ^ "Matching gift grows Wikimedia Endowment by $10 million – Wikimedia Blog". Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  22. ^ "Peter Baldwin, Lisbet Rausing give an additional $3.5 million to the Wikimedia Endowment". Wikimedia Foundation. 2019-04-24. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  23. ^ "Gift to transform Hall of Graduate Studies honors David Swensen". YaleNews. 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
  24. ^ Comtois, James; Comtois, James (2015-04-06). "Yale to name building after Swensen". Pensions & Investments. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
  25. ^ "Multi-million pound donation gives Illuminated River project the green light for next year". theartnewspaper.com. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  26. ^ "The Illuminated River Foundation". Arcadia Fund. 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  27. ^ "Illuminated River". The Developer. Retrieved 2019-05-31.

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