Our Story

The Annenberg Foundation was established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, publisher and owner of major media outlets including Philadelphia Inquirer, TV Guide, Seventeen magazine, and several radio and television stations. The proceeds from the sale of these media holdings formed the Foundation’s endowment.

Walter Annenberg began the family’s long tradition of philanthropy decades earlier with the founding of the Annenberg Schools for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (1958) and the University of Southern California (1971). His visionary giving included a landmark $500 million investment to improve public education across the United States, a $150 million gift to public broadcasting to create free college-level programming, and $50 million to UNCF, formerly the United Negro College Fund.

Together with his wife, Leonore Annenberg, Walter supported a wide range of cultural and civic causes—from presidential libraries and museums to orchestras, hospitals, and universities. The couple were celebrated art patrons who donated their renowned collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Walter also served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Richard Nixon and received the Alfred I. DuPont Award in 1950.

Following Walter’s passing in 2002, Leonore assumed leadership of the Foundation. She was best known for her philanthropy in education, the arts, and public service, as well as her role as a stateswoman and cultural ambassador. Leonore founded and chaired The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, created to advance education, civics, and international understanding. She was a major supporter of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and numerous cultural institutions nationwide. As Chief of Protocol under President Ronald Reagan, she helped elevate diplomacy, cultural exchange, and American art on the world stage.

After Leonore’s death in 2009, the Annenberg Foundation continued under the leadership of Wallis Annenberg and her children Lauren Bon, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, and Charles Annenberg Weingarten. Under their guidance, the Foundation deepened its focus on community-centered and inclusive philanthropy, investing in innovative projects that bring people together.

Wallis Annenberg’s influence on the arts, education, animal welfare, environmental stewardship, and civic life—especially in Los Angeles—was profound. Her transformative initiatives included the Annenberg Space for Photography, a first-of-its-kind cultural destination celebrating the power of visual storytelling, and the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, a free and open-to-the-public cultural and recreational space on the historic Marion Davies Estate. Both projects reflected her belief that philanthropy should be not only generous but generative. In 2024, President Joe Biden awarded Wallis Annenberg the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her transformative contributions across arts, education, conservation, aging, and civic life.

In 2025, following Wallis’s passing, leadership of the Foundation transitioned to Lauren Bon, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, and Charles Annenberg Weingarten, who are guiding the organization into a new era of creativity and purpose. Lauren, Gregory, and Charles each bring a distinct vision to the Foundation’s work and philanthropy, united by a shared commitment to innovation, community, and compassion. Together, they are reimagining what philanthropy can be—a force for healing, connection, and transformation.

Our Board of Directors

Lauren
Bon

Lauren
Bon
 

Lauren Bon

Metabolic Studio

Gregory Annenberg Weingarten

GRoW @ Annenberg

Charles Annenberg Weingarten

explore.org

TIMELINE

Three Generations of Impactful Giving

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Walter H. Annenberg makes a $2.65 million gift to the University of Pennsylvania to establish the Annenberg School for Communication. The School combines the disciplines of speech and rhetoric with techniques of modern media and mass communications.
Ambassador Annenberg commits $8 million to the University of Southern California to create the Annenberg School for Communication, a graduate program concentrating on the technology of communication.
Ambassador Annenberg commits $150 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The grant supports the production and distribution of college-level courses on public television, allowing thousands of viewers to take classes at home and earn credits toward college degrees.
The Annenberg Foundation begins operations on July 1 with $1.2 billion in assets.
To focus attention on the needs of historically black colleges, the Annenberg Foundation makes a $50 million challenge gift in what becomes, at the time, the most successful fundraising drive ever by the United Negro College Fund.
The Annenberg Foundation makes a $25 million grant to Harvard University. The grant will be used for scholarships, seminar programs and renovations to historic Memorial Hall, including the creation of a freshman dining facility named for the Ambassador’s son, Roger Annenberg.
The Annenberg Foundation makes a historic commitment to public education with the $500 million Annenberg Challenge. The Annenberg Challenge is one of the largest gifts in philanthropic history and works to revive and inspire school reform efforts across the nation. Eighteen locally designed Challenge projects operated in 35 states, funding 2,400 public schools that served more than 1.5 million students and 80,000 teachers.
The Annenberg Foundation grants $120 million to the University of Pennsylvania. The grant endows the Annenberg School for Communication and creates the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which conducts research and convenes discussions on the critical intersection of media, communication and public policy.
The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands was founded in 2001 to address important issues facing the nation and the world. Leonore Annenberg allocated a portion of the Trust to build the new 17,000-square-foot Sunnylands Center. The former residence of the Annenbergs and the new Sunnylands Center together comprise The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, which serves as a sanctuary for generations of high-level national and world leaders seeking the privacy and peace needed to address the most pressing issues of the day.
The Annenberg Foundation commits $10 million to create the Director’s Endowment Fund at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to support special exhibitions, art acquisitions and educational opportunities for at-risk children. In recognition of this support LACMA establishes the Wallis Annenberg Directorship at LACMA.
Created by Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio, Not a Cornfield transforms an abandoned rail yard in Downtown Los Angeles into a 32-acre cornfield for one agricultural cycle. The work, Bon’s first metabolic sculpture, begins almost a decade of remediation of this iconic yet neglected site.
A grant by Charles Annenberg Weingarten to USC’s Annenberg School creates the pioneering Charles Annenberg Weingarten Program on Online Communities (APOC), a graduate school program in social media, digital strategy, Internet marketing and online social networking sites. APOC explores the ramifications of world-wide interconnectedness on our sense of “community.”
Musée des Arts Décoratifs receives a grant from Gregory Annenberg Weingarten’s GRoW @ Annenberg, enabling the museum to acquire Deuxième Rhinocéros by Francois-Xavier Lalanne. Additional funding by GRoW @ Annenberg supports the creation of educational spaces within the museum.
The Annenberg Community Beach House opens on April 25, 2009. Major funding from the Annenberg Foundation, at the direction of Wallis Annenberg, paves the way for the restoration and transformation of this five-acre beachfront property on Pacific Coast Highway, in Santa Monica, into a unique community destination that’s open to all.
The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology is built with the support of a $25 million grant from Leonore Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation. Located at the California Institute of Technology, the building is the new green, state-of-the-art home to IST’s interdisciplinary research and instruction, addressing the growth and impact of information as it relates to all scientific and engineering practices.
The Annenberg Foundation opens the Annenberg Space for Photography, a cultural destination dedicated to exhibiting photography, in Los Angeles.
The Annenberg Foundation launches Annenberg Alchemy, a free capacity building and leadership development program designed to assist small to midsized Los Angeles-based nonprofit organizations. In 2012, the Annenberg Foundation begins a collaboration with CNN, providing a customized version of Annenberg Alchemy for the Top 10 CNN Heroes.
Strawberry Flag, by Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio, is a giant living sculpture in the form of an American flag made from reclaimed California strawberries grown in a raised aquaponic structure.
The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) unveils its new home in a rehabilitated historic building in downtown Los Angeles. The new building is almost twice the size of DWC’s original facility and includes both residences and an expanded Day Center. In recognition of the grant provided by Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, the residences are named “The Annenberg Foundation Downtown Women’s Center Wallis House.” Wallis House contains 71 private studio apartments with supportive services for tenants.
In response to a West Virginian community’s concerns about their elementary school’s close proximity to a coal operation, Charles Annenberg Weingarten pledges funding to help pay for the relocation of Marsh Fork Elementary School. The new, state-of-the-art school will be far removed from the mining operation.
Dog Bless You, a multi-platform community created by Charles Annenberg Weingarten’s explore, begins funding the training of therapy dogs, service dogs, guide dogs and search & rescue dogs for U.S. military veterans in need.
In 2011, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten initiated a multi-year research program with the Institut Curie, supporting the creation of a laboratory for translational research in pediatric oncology that will work to better understand the origin of neuroblastoma, one of the most common forms of childhood cancer, in order to identify new drugs targeting the tumor cells.
Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio launch a tour of the Liminal Camera; the largest portable camera in America. Built from a 20-foot shipping container in Los Angeles, it is an enormous pinhole camera equipped with a fully functional darkroom – all solar powered. The tour begins in New York on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 and arrives in Washington, DC for Veterans Day, documenting various sites along the east coast that represent tears in the collective cultural fabric.
A grant from Gregory Annenberg Weingarten allows the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to digitize, catalog and conserve the more than 3,000 German Expressionist works on paper in its collection, and to publish them in print and online. Additional funding from GRoW @ Annenberg™ supports the first major exhibition devoted to German Expressionism at MoMA since 1957.
A grant to Polar Bears International kicks off Pearls of the Planet, a live cam project by Charles Annenberg Weingarten’s explore initiative. Pearls of the Planet’s live feeds of wildlife in their habitats are a gateway to nature for viewers and help raise awareness of the work of conservation groups.
Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio perform an artist action to reconnect Los Angeles to its water supply by walking the entire 240-mile route of the Los Angeles Aqueduct with a team of 100 mules. The one-month meditation is undertaken to commemorate the centenary of the opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. This action pays homage to the quiet dignity of the mule and the patient pace of its progress across this epic landscape.
At the direction of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, the Annenberg Foundation purchases 24 sacred Native American objects from an auction house in Paris for the sole purpose of returning them to their rightful owners, the Hopi Nation and the San Carlos Apache Nation.
On February 28, 2013, Los Angeles-area leaders convene to pledge their support for LA n Sync, a new model of public-private collaboration led by the Annenberg Foundation. The groundbreaking partnership brings together the academic, civic, nonprofit, business and philanthropic sectors of Greater Los Angeles to strategically pursue and win major funding opportunities.
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis) opens its doors to the public in October 2013 with a series of inaugural events. Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation provided major funding for the restoration and repurposing of a historic Beverly Hills post office building into The Wallis, a performing arts and cultural facility presenting theater, dance and music.
In the summer of 2014, faculty and support staff move into the newly-constructed, 88,000-square-foot Wallis Annenberg Hall, part of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism on the USC campus. Wallis Annenberg, through the Annenberg Foundation, donated the funds that made the building possible. The hall is filled with the latest technologies and equipment in collaborative spaces designed to incubate new ideas and promote experimentation.
Building on the success of two previous concert collaborations, the Annenberg Foundation and KCRW create the Sound in Focus summer concert series. Held at Century Park in Century City, the concerts feature performers from diverse music genres and are offered free to the public. Concertgoers also receive exclusive access to the Annenberg Space for Photography and Skylight Studios.
In March, the Annenberg Foundation launches AnnenbergTech to harness the power of Los Angeles’ vibrant and growing tech sectors and positively impact diverse communities throughout the region. AnnenbergTech aims to convene, partner with and help activate the Los Angeles tech community, which has given rise to globally recognized companies that want to invest in their community through philanthropic and civic leadership.
Foundation Chairman and CEO Wallis Annenberg unveils a new interactive community space in the heart of L.A.'s Silicon Beach in Playa Vista. The Wallis Annenberg PetSpace is the first destination of its kind with a combined focus on adoption, education, and academic investigation into the origin, evolution, and dynamics of the bond between people and their animals.
In partnership with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles venture capital and technology leaders, the Annenberg Foundation launched PledgeLA, a first-of-its-kind initiative to promote civic engagement, diversity, and inclusion across L.A.’s booming and dynamic tech sector. PledgeLA signatories made a commitment to track civic participation and diversity data each year, make that data publicly available, and expand engagement with local nonprofits that support diverse talent to better reflect the civic spirit of Los Angeles.
The Wilshire Boulevard Temple broke ground for a new Rem Koolhaas-designed community center, which will provide the future home of the Wallis Annenberg GenSpace. This cutting-edge center, focused on longevity, will inspire a path toward rewriting preconceptions of older people and aging with programming dedicated to Wellness, Creativity, Tech Exploration, Social Connection, Community Engagement, and Financial Security, and more. The Center is scheduled to open in 2020.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2019, the Foundation's guiding principles are at peak relevance, thanks to the leadership of Chairman Wallis Annenberg and Trustees Lauren Bon, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, and Charlie Annenberg Weingarten. The Foundation continues to address the challenging issues faced by society, including homelessness, food insecurity, the environment, gun violence, animal welfare, and the plight of migrants.
An unprecedented year for all, in 2020 the Annenberg Foundation responded swiftly to the global coronavirus pandemic. The Foundation prioritized COVID-related grants—totaling almost $8 million—to provide essential protective equipment, testing and immunizations, and non-profit operating support to community healthcare clinics. Particular focus was given to food insecurity, learning loss, and in-patient support, including a donation of hundreds of Apple iPads to local hospitals, allowing isolated patients to connect with their families.
The Foundation's landmark training program, Annenberg Alchemy, launched Alchemy for Black-led organizations and Alchemy for Leaders of Color. The free capacity-building training programs provide support to nonprofit leaders of color to help them build and grow their careers.
The Annenberg Foundation supported the effort to create a Fallen Journalists & Photojournalists Memorial in Washington, D.C. to commemorate those killed while reporting the news.
Wallis Annenberg GenSpace opened its doors to the public to serve as an innovative new community center for older adults. The center offers 35+ weekly classes from dance and tai chi to horticultural therapy, tech, painting, special events, and so much more. GenSpace is also working to change how society views aging, especially as older adults will soon outnumber those under age 18 in our country.
The Annenberg Wildlife Crossing broke ground in Agoura Hills in April. The animal bridge will be the largest in the world – spanning ten lanes of the 101 freeway and providing safe passage for the region’s wildlife. Hundreds turned out to celebrate the historic project, which is estimated to be completed in 2025.
Wallis Annenberg brought renowned photographer Sebastiao Sebastião’s exhibit Amazonia to the California Science Center – its first and only showing in North America. The stunning photos are from the more than six years Salgado spent in the Amazon documenting the effect of climate change on Indigenous tribes.
As co-chair of the first-ever LA County Food Equity Roundtable, the Annenberg Foundation developed a plan to address food equity and access in LA. In 2023, the LA County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to use the plan as a road map to address food insecurity in the county and improve access to healthy food options.
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