No. 30: Jon L. Stryker

Amount donated in 2010: $32.8-million

Beneficiary: Arcus Foundation

Donor’s background: Mr. Stryker is an architect and heir to the Stryker Corporation fortune. The medical-products company was founded by his grandfather, Homer Stryker, a surgeon who invented the mobile hospital bed.

Mr. Stryker, 52, gave $30.8-million to the Arcus Foundation, which has offices in Kalamazoo, Mich., and New York. The money will go toward the foundation’s two grant-making priorities: ensuring the survival of great apes and their habitats and combating discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Mr. Stryker established the foundation in 2000 and serves as its president.

Last year the foundation awarded 138 grants totaling more than $16-million to social-justice groups. In addition, Mr. Stryker donated nearly $2-million to the Arcus Operating Foundation, which finances conferences, leadership-development programs, publications, research and other Arcus projects.

Last October Mr. Stryker was honored for his efforts on behalf of primate conservation when scientists named a newly discovered species of monkey after him, the Rhinopithecus strykeri. The foundation has given more than $30-million to primate conservation.

— Maria Di Mento

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