$1.5 billion in giving to date: Wallis Annenberg’s philanthropic legacy continues through her children
Recently, Lifestyles Magazine/Meaningful Influence reported on a $10 million new philanthropic gift by the family of Wallis Annenberg.
Her passing this week at 86 brings to a close a transformative chapter in American philanthropy, but the story is far from over.
Her legacy, defined by bold generosity, visionary civic leadership, and an unshakable belief in the power of communication to foster justice and connection, is being powerfully carried forward by her children: Lauren Bon, Charles Annenberg Weingarten, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, and Elizabeth Annenberg Weingarten.
Together, they are not simply preserving their mother’s legacy—they are expanding it in new directions, rooted in the same values but responding to the urgent demands of the present.
Lauren Bon, the eldest, is widely regarded as an innovator in environmental art and civic architecture. She leads Metabolic Studio, a creative and ecological laboratory in downtown Los Angeles that has redefined how land, water, and public infrastructure can be repurposed in the service of community and sustainability.
One of her most ambitious projects, Bending the River Back Into the City, is now nearing completion. A feat of both engineering and imagination, it redirects water from the Los Angeles River through a restored aqueduct system to irrigate nearby parks and public spaces, healing a long-neglected ecological artery while revitalizing the city’s core. It is the culmination of two decades of work that began with Not A Cornfield, and fittingly, the final phase is expected to be unveiled on Earth Day 2025.
While Lauren works with soil and water, Charles Annenberg Weingarten’s canvas is digital.
As the founder of Explore.org, he has spent the past decade building a global platform for immersive nature experiences and philanthropic storytelling.
With more than 250 short films and 200 live wildlife cameras operating worldwide, Explore.org has become one of the most beloved and far-reaching platforms for conservation education.
From sloths in Costa Rica to brown bears in Alaska to puffins off the coast of Maine, Charles’s work draws millions into a quiet, often transformative intimacy with the natural world.
At the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival, he created a “Zen Den” installation—a sanctuary of live streams and soundscapes—that moved audiences with its simplicity and spiritual resonance. His belief that media should heal, not harm, reflects his mother’s ethic: that communication can be a public service, not just a platform.
Gregory Annenberg Weingarten brings a global perspective to the family’s philanthropic portfolio. Through GRoW @ Annenberg, an initiative he founded, Gregory supports arts access, social justice, education, and healthcare in communities across the world—from funding pediatric oncology research at France’s Institut Curie, to supporting Indigenous cultural preservation and repatriation efforts in the United States.
His work is perhaps the most quietly expansive of the siblings’, but it is no less rooted in the family’s original ideals: dignity, equity, and access for all.
These individual efforts converge in collective projects, such as the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, now in its final phase of construction across U.S. Highway 101 in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The bridge, designed to reconnect fragmented habitats and preserve species like the region’s dwindling mountain lion population, is on track to become the largest wildlife crossing in the world. It represents everything Wallis believed in—bold solutions, ecological responsibility, and the blending of science, engineering, and care—and her children have been instrumental in bringing it to life.
As the Annenberg Foundation enters this new era under the stewardship of Wallis’s children, its mission continues to evolve with energy and imagination. What remains constant is the deep emotional and ethical architecture their mother laid down: a belief in community over celebrity, long-term change over quick fixes, and beauty—whether in a building, a river, or a moment of broadcasted stillness—as a moral force.
Wallis Annenberg believed that giving should be personal, reflecting who we are and what we owe to others. Her children have taken that philosophy and made it their own, each in their distinct way. Their work signals not just continuity but renewal—the next act in a family story defined not only by legacy but by love.