The Laura and John Arnold Foundation (rebranded as Arnold Ventures) was established in 2008 to improve the lives of individuals by strengthening our social, governmental and economic systems. Laura and John Arnold sought to deploy the majority of their wealth, time and resources to philanthropy to produce measurable improvements in people’s lives.

The foundation’s areas of interest included fixing the criminal justice system, improving schools in the United States, promoting evidence-based policymaking, ensuring that governments operate in an effective and efficient manner and increasing the reliability and validity of scientific research. In addition, the foundation had an active venture development group that sought investment opportunities in a wide range of areas, including healthcare and information transparency.