Development Co‑operation Profiles: Arcadia
Table of contents
Arcadia is a United Kingdom-based family charitable foundation established in 2002 by Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. Arcadia supports work to record cultural heritage for future generations, to conserve and restore nature, and to promote open access to knowledge. It provides primarily long-term, multi-year grants.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Arcadia provided USD 11.3 million for development in 2024 through its cross-border funding. Compared to 2023, this amount represents a decrease of 91.3% in real terms. Grants represented 100% of Arcadia’s gross disbursements.
Arcadia provided all of its development finance bilaterally in 2024.
In 2024, Arcadia channelled its bilateral development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (USD 8.8 million), universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 2.4 million) and public-private partnerships (PPPs) and private sector (USD 100 thousand).
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 8.8 million of the Arcadia’s gross bilateral finance, of which 0% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 24.7% of total bilateral development finance was allocated to CSOs as core support, while 53.1% was earmarked to specific projects or programmes. From 2023 to 2024, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs increased as a share of bilateral philanthropic development finance, from 66% to 77.8%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2024, Arcadia’s development finance was primarily focused on Asia (excluding the Middle East) and Europe. USD 6.6 million was allocated to Asia (excluding the Middle East) and USD 2.5 million to Europe, accounting respectively for 58.1% and 22.1% of gross bilateral development finance. A sum of USD 400 thousand (3.6%) was unallocated by region, mainly including multi-regional programmes and research grants
Arcadia allocated the highest share (75.2%) of its bilateral development finance to lower middle-income countries in 2024, noting that USD 2.8 million (24.8%) was unallocated by income group.
Arcadia allocated USD 6 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2024.
In 2024, Arcadia provided USD 2.5 million of gross development finance to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion in the form of humanitarian assistance, a 19% increase from 2023 in real terms.
In 2024, the largest allocations (55.3% of bilateral contributions) by Arcadia went to social infrastructure and services, with a strong focus on support to other social infrastructure and services (USD 17.1 million). The second largest sector was multi-sector (USD 11.4 million), focusing on general environment protection (USD 11.4 million). This was followed by humanitarian assistance (USD 2.5 million).
In 2023-2024, Arcadia committed 74.2% of its total bilateral allocable contributions (USD 59.5 million) in support of the environment, up from 58.6% in 2021-2022. The private philanthropic average was 12.4%. In addition:
67.1% of total bilateral allocable contributions (USD 53.8 million) focused on climate change overall (the private philanthropic average was 12.9%). Arcadia had a greater focus on mitigation (67.1%) than on adaptation (0%) in 2023-2024.
74.2% of screened bilateral allocable contributions (USD 59.5 million) focused on biodiversity overall (the private philanthropic average was 4.3%), up from 58.6% in 2021-2022.
Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
In 2024, Arcadia committed the largest shares of its contributions to SDG 15 (life on land), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 13 (climate action) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Contributions to SDG 13 (climate action) totalled USD 11.4 million.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Official website: https://www.arcadiafund.org.uk.
The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, channels of delivery, bilateral unspecified/unallocated/allocable development finance, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
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