November 13, 2011 | Read Time: 3 minutes
The biggest charity gift so far by the Silicon Valley power couple of Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen and Marc Andreessen was a 2007 donation of $27.5-million to Stanford Hospital & Clinics to build a state-of-the-art emergency department.
The Andreessens are starting their own foundation, and Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen says they will likely build on the Stanford gift via a commitment they call “protecting our protectors.” That could include grants to support the work of doctors, police, firefighters, the military, and intelligence officers, she says.
“Emergency services is something we decided together to focus on significantly because it is one of the most underfunded areas in the social sector,” Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen says.
During emergency situations, she says, “it doesn’t matter where you’ve gone to school, what your job is, or what’s in your bank account. Everybody deserves the best possible medical care.”
The Marc and Laura Andreessen Foundation is also likely to invest in groups that improve the philanthropic sector and provide resources to donors, Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen says. And the couple’s “shared love of innovation” may lead to a prize for social innovation, she says.
Decisions on Giving
Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen, who teaches strategic philanthropy at Stanford’s business school, is the author of a new book, Giving 2.0: Transform Your Giving and Our World. Her father, the California real-estate developer John Arrillaga Sr., is worth at least $1.8-billion, says Forbes. In 2006, she married Mr. Andreessen, who became a venture capitalist after he helped create early versions of Web browsers; he is worth $600-million, Forbes says.
Mr. Andreessen says that his wife makes nearly all of their decisions about giving but that she has also prompted him to take a greater interest in philanthropy.
When Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen prodded her husband to take on a stronger leadership role in the local community, Mr. Andreessen agreed to join the board of Stanford Hospital.
Stanford has long been a major beneficiary of the Arrillaga family’s giving. (Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen has four degrees from Stanford; Mr. Arrillaga attended Stanford on a basketball scholarship.)
In 2010, the two largest grants from the $31.3-million Arrillaga Foundation went to help build gyms for the Menlo School ($2-million) and the city of Menlo Park ($3.07-million).
“A significant amount of my family’s philanthropy is for physical infrastructure projects, which is the way that my father can leverage his expertise and time and networks and marry those three things with his financial capital,” Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen says.
She declined to say how much she and her husband might put into the foundation as it gets started. Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen says she admires the efforts of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage the wealthiest Americans to commit most of their fortunes to charity. The Andreessens have not signed the Giving Pledge, but Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen says that they are committed to “living a giving life” and contributing the best of their intellectual, human-capital, and financial assets over time.
“For a majority of living donors, particularly those who plan on engaging in philanthropy in a significant way over their lifetimes, it’s absolutely the norm to create a foundation with a seed amount of money and then grow it incrementally over time,” she says.
Lance Fors, a biotechnology entrepreneur and chair of the board of the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund, a giving circle that Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen created, says that her knowledge of philanthropy combined with Mr. Andreessen’s skill at investing in and nurturing start-ups could make for a potent combination once their foundation becomes active.
“I expect something pretty profound in terms of their strategy,” Mr. Fors says.
Mrs. Arrillaga-Andreessen says she is prepared for high expectations. “Because of the exposure and expertise that I have in the field, we do have a higher level of responsibility for how we translate our generosity into social change,” she says.
