The Arcus Foundation has funded LGBTQ+ rights work and great ape conservation for 25 years. On July 17 it gave that work an end date: the foundation will wind down by 2029, with its social justice program making new grants only through October 2028 and its conservation program moving to a new U.K.-based charity in 2027. Founder Jon Stryker says his commitment to both causes is unchanged and that he intends to keep supporting them through other philanthropic vehicles.
Arcus has company. The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, which has granted more than $780 million over 75 years, will close at the end of 2028. Wellspring Philanthropic Fund will cease all operations and grantmaking by or before the end of 2028. And the deliberate ending is no longer an eccentric choice: the National Center for Family Philanthropy found that the share of family foundations actively spending down rose from 9% to 13% over five years, with another 28% considering it. If none of your funders has set an end date yet, the odds say one eventually will. Here is how to read the announcement when it lands, and what to do in the first 90 days after.
A Spend-Down Means More Money First, Then None
Start with the part that is handled for you: existing commitments almost always survive. Arcus says current grant commitments will be honored, and Haas Jr. plans to hold funding for its core programs at current levels through 2028. A spend-down announcement is not a rescission, and treating it like one wastes energy you will need later.
In the near term, a sunsetting funder often gives more, not less. A foundation that spends down has to move its entire endowment out the door by the deadline. Inside Philanthropy estimates Arcus would need to disburse roughly $60 million a year during its wind-down, about double the $31.3 million it granted across nearly 400 grants in 2024. That estimate assumes the endowment goes out as grants rather than into Stryker's successor vehicles, so treat it as a ceiling, not a promise.
The catch is sequencing, and for LGBTQ+ organizations the sequencing is rough. U.S. foundations awarded $178.2 million for LGBTQ issues in 2024, down 15% from $209.4 million the year before, which works out to 16 cents of every $100 in U.S. foundation giving. Arcus, Haas Jr., and Wellspring will all finish their final grants within roughly a year of one another. A short surge of money followed by a permanent exit, arriving while the field's total funding is already falling, is the exact shape of the problem every affected grantee now has to plan around.
Ask Your Questions While Staff Are Still There
A sunsetting foundation winds down its team along with its grantmaking, and the program officer who knows your work is worth more to you than any FAQ page. Three asks are worth making early, in writing, while your contacts are still in their seats.
First, get the calendar in your own words: which of your grants are committed versus intended, when the final application cycles run, and what the last possible payment date is. Second, ask directly about exit grants. Spend-down foundations often make final capstone grants that are larger and less restricted than their annual support, and you want to know whether one is on the table and what the criteria are before those decisions harden. Third, ask where the giving goes next. Stryker plans to keep funding these causes through other vehicles, and the Haas Jr. Fund's remaining assets will pass to the family's next generation for their own giving. The relationships you have built do not have to expire with the foundation, but successor vehicles rarely come looking for you. Ask for the introduction before the lights go out.
The Replacement Math Starts Now
If a sunsetting funder supplies 15% of your budget, you do not have a crisis. You have a dated revenue hole, which is the most manageable kind, but only if you treat the date like the deadline it is.
Build the budget for your first post-funder fiscal year now, not in the final grant year. Treat any enlarged spend-down-era grants as bridge capital rather than growth capital: operating reserves, fundraising capacity, and donor retention compound after the funder is gone, while new programs built on expiring money become next year's painful cut. Start cultivating replacement funders 18 to 24 months before the last payment, which is roughly one full grant cycle, and pay attention to how the remaining field is behaving: some foundations are now pairing grants with loans, which changes what an ask even looks like.
The Takeaway
Foundations increasingly end on purpose, and the sector's polite fiction that every funder is forever is getting harder to maintain. A funder with an end date is giving you something rare in this business: notice. Use it. Confirm what is committed, ask about exit grants early, meet the successor vehicles while your champions still have desks, and budget for the year after the last check clears. The organizations that struggle after a spend-down are rarely the ones that were warned too late. They are the ones that spent the warning years hoping the date would move.