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The Annenberg Foundation is a private foundation established in 1989. It is the successor corporation to the Annenberg School at Radnor, Pennsylvania founded in 1958 by Walter H. Annenberg.
Mission
It exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving its goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.
The revolution wrought by communications began more than five centuries ago. The swift and cheap dissemination of information first made possible by Gutenberg's invention of movable type has given rise to new political, social, and cultural forms that have enhanced life for millions of people.
While the modern computer and broadcast technology are important communications tools, they are only amplifiers and extenders of the visual image, written word, and human voice. The Foundation's focus is not on chips and wires but rather on education, particularly public school restructuring and reform in the United States. The Foundation is open to collaboration with other philanthropic institutions.
History
Serving as ambassador to the Court of St. James from 1968 to 1974, Ambassador Annenberg enjoyed a distinguished career as a publisher, broadcaster, diplomat, and philanthropist. He was President, and subsequently, Chairman of the Board, of Triangle Publications, which included TV Guide and Seventeen Magazine, as well as radio and TV stations nationwide.
Walter Annenberg founded the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 1958 and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California in 1971. In 1983, he established the Washington Program in Communication Policy Studies in response to the growing awareness that difficult government and industry problems were emerging in the rapidly changing telecommunications field.
The Foundation's primary grant-making interests are in education, culture, the arts, and community and civic life. It provides funding for programs likely to produce beneficent change on a large scale. In addition to the national Challenge Grant for Public School Reform, a $500 million matching grants program of 18 locally-designed projects, the Annenberg Foundation and its predecessor organizations have provided support for a 20-year partnership in educational programming with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Other major grants have been made to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Metropolitan Opera, and the Music Center of Los Angeles County. Some recent awards support major design and construction projects, including the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC, the Liberty Bell Pavilion and National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and The British Museum in London.
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