Wallis Annenberg (1939-2025) was an exemplary philanthropist who worked tirelessly to address the critical issues facing our world, our nation, and her beloved Los Angeles.
Wallis was an original and a pathbreaker. Few women of her generation led in the philanthropic sector or gave away large sums of money when she stepped in to work with her father, Walter Annenberg. He was a publishing and media executive and US Ambassador to Great Britain. After he and her stepmother Leonore died, by 2009, Wallis became Chairman, Chief Executive, and President of the family foundation.
Through dynamic and fast-moving times, she led in her philanthropy with her heart and her head. She was a hands-on and passionate leader, and almost $2 billion was disbursed under her leadership across a wide range of organizations and nonprofits addressing important issues and societal needs.
In 2011, as part of her comprehensive long-term planning, she created the Wallis Annenberg Legacy Foundation to ensure that projects she was most passionate about live on.
She believed strongly in supporting innovative, up-and-coming leaders to advance fresh ideas and much needed change in the world.
Despite being born into privilege, she wanted everyone to have a fair shot in life. To her, that meant access to basic needs such as housing, safety, education and food security as well as to the performing and visual arts and recreation. She created the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica - which is free to the public - on a gorgeous stretch of Southern California beachfront surrounded by private beach clubs. She was a major donor to the Wallis Annenberg Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills, and over the years, she supported LACMA, the Hammer Museum and opened the long-running Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.
Wallis worked to help create a first for people with disabilities in California with a universally accessible treehouse in Torrance, California. The 2,500-square-foot wooden structure gave children and adults of all ages and physical abilities an awe-inspiring experience and a bird’s eye view.
Her extraordinary vision led to the creation of the state-of-the-art Wallis Annenberg GenSpace in Koreatown to address the isolation that comes with aging and longevity, and her insight into the human animal bond led to the creation of PetSpace, a cutting-edge community animal adoption and education center in Playa Vista.
When deadly wildfires tore across Los Angeles, Wallis sprang into action, providing funding to nonprofits and organizations on the front lines addressing short-term and long-term needs for recovery.
Wallis joyfully used a golden shovel to help break ground for the largest urban wildlife crossing in the world which spans ten lanes of the 101 freeway north of Los Angeles. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, a partnership with the state of California, will help to protect scores of endangered species when it opens in the fall of 2026.
Her life’s work, commitment and passion live on here at the Wallis Annenberg Legacy Foundation.
Wallis often quoted - and lived by - something Winston Churchill once said: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
You can learn more about our founder in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and on CBS Sunday Morning or NPR’s Morning Edition.