Stryker was named one of the nation's Top 50 donors by the
Chronicle of Philanthropy every year from 2006 to 2012 and again in 2014. He was named to Forbes' list of America's Top 50 Givers in 2018. Speaking to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in 2008, Stryker explained that the Arcus Foundation's two primary areas of focus, while seemingly unrelated, are bound by the common themes of compassion and justice: In 2016, Jon Stryker and his sister
Pat Stryker each gave $5 million to the
Equal Justice Initiative to help fund a national memorial to victims of racial lynching in the United States. The siblings made the donation in honor of their late father, Lee Stryker. Stryker is a donor of
The New York Community Trust, which announced in 2020 that it would donate $75 million to the city's social services and cultural non-profit organizations that were affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
LGBT causes Stryker, who is openly gay, giving more than $17 million a year to organizations working toward social justice for LGBT people in 2013. Stryker is a Platinum Council donor (giving US$50,000 or more in annual contributions) to the
Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a national organization that works to support the candidacies of openly LGBT officials at all levels of government. In 2015, Stryker spearheaded, together with
Jurek Wajdowicz, the ongoing international series of LGBT-themed photography books published by
The New Press. In October 2019, Styker donated $2 million to
Spelman College for the first ever queer studies chair at an HBCU (
Historically black colleges and universities).
Great ape conservation Stryker is one of the leading funders of great ape conservation efforts around the world. Stryker is a founding board member of the
Ol Pejeta Wildlife Conservancy, He is also the co-founder and board chair of
Save the Chimps, the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary located in
Fort Pierce, Florida. Stryker funded the purchase of a 190-acre abandoned grapefruit grove in 1997 and oversaw its transformation into a modern sanctuary, which today provides lifetime care for more than 250 chimpanzees rescued from biomedical research laboratories. ::'
Naming of Rhinopithecus strykeri''''' ::In 2010, the newly discovered
Myanmar snub-nosed monkey was named
Rhinopithecus strykeri in Stryker's honor. Stryker's
Arcus Foundation supported the primate research teams who discovered the
colobine species (already known and hunted for food by natives in northern
Myanmar on the
Maw River) during the course of a survey of
hoolock gibbons. In 2023, Stryker joined the
Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation's Council for Hope.
Support of hometown and alma maters Stryker has made significant contributions in the name of conservation and social justice causes to his hometown of
Kalamazoo, Michigan, and his alma maters
Kalamazoo College UC Berkeley In 2000, Stryker established the Arcus Endowment at the
UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. The award honors the legacy of
Catherine Bauer Wurster and recognizes the significant achievements of a CED alumnus toward advancing social justice, environmental conservation, and fair urban development. to
Kalamazoo College to develop a social leadership center on campus. The
Arcus Foundation also donated $5 million to cover the construction costs of the 10,000-square-foot building, now called the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. The endowment was the largest donation in the college's 182-year history and one of the largest given to any undergraduate institution in the United States for a social justice purpose. The center's modern design has been noted for being "nonhierarchical, open and inclusive" in a reflection of its social justice purpose. It was described as a "log cabin the Jetsons ordered from the 2062 Whole Earth Catalog" and "laudable simply for being eloquent and humane," in a 2014 New York Times architectural review. The grant, which supported the enrollment of 10 Posse Scholars in five consecutive academic classes at Kalamazoo College, was made in partnership with the
Posse Foundation, a national organization that pairs high-performing public high school students from underrepresented groups in higher education with full, four-year academic scholarships at colleges and universities throughout the country. In 2018, Stryker donated $20 million to
Kalamazoo College to establish a 10-year scholarship program for students of color, first-generation students and those from lower-income families. He has donated $66 million to the college in total.
Kalamazoo Nature Center In 2015, Stryker donated 22-acres of land running along the west fork of Portage Creek in
Kalamazoo, Michigan, to the
Kalamazoo Nature Center. In addition to the land donation, Stryker committed to giving as much as $700,000 as part of a 2-to-1 matching grant that would go toward a proposed multi-phase restoration of the property and an environmental education facility on the site. Previously, Stryker donated to the school's L. Lee Stryker Learning Hall, named for his father, and the Stryker family played a critical role in funding the medical school, which is named to honor Stryker's grandfather,
Dr. Homer Stryker. From 2018 to 2021, Stryker served on the board of the
Museum of Contemporary Art in
Los Angeles.
Political contributions In August 2006, Stryker formed the
political action committee Coalition for Progress to fund the election campaigns of
Michigan Senate and
Michigan House of Representatives district candidates, particularly from the
Democratic Party. Stryker personally contributed $4.7 million to the
PAC. The
Coalition for Progress paid for significant advertising in the
2006 Michigan gubernatorial election in support of
Jennifer Granholm, who was re-elected as
Governor of Michigan over
Republican opponent
Dick DeVos. In August 2012, Stryker donated $325,000 to the nonprofit group
Freedom to Marry Minnesota, which helped to organize the defeat of a referendum that would have placed a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Minnesota. In 2013, Minnesota became the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriage in the United States. ==Personal life==