Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen is a social entrepreneur, academic, author and philanthropic leader. She is the founder of multiple Silicon Valley organizations, including the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (chairman), Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (chairman emeritus), Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation (president), Andreessen Philanthropies (president), the Arrillaga Foundation (co-president) and Guild Theatre (co-founder). She has taught courses on philanthropy and women in leadership at Stanford Graduate School of Business since 2000 and authored the New York Times bestselling book, Giving 2.0: Transform Your Giving and Our World (Wiley, 2011). She is a trustee of the National Gallery of Art and board member of the Robin Hood Education + Technology Fund.

Laura is the Board Chairman (2006–present) of Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS), a global research center committed to exploring ideas and strategies for the social change sector and publisher of the award-winning Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR). Laura is President of the Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation (LAAF), an educational content platform that empowers all individuals to give, live and lead in a way that matters more. Laura’s award-winning book, Giving 2.0, empowers people of all backgrounds, ages and passions to give their time, money, networks and expertise with greater impact. Laura is a contributing author to Frontiers in Social Innovation (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022) and has written for The Washington Post, Worth Magazine, T Magazine – The New York Times, Huffington Post and SSIR.

Since 2000, Laura has created and teaches Stanford Graduate School of Business’ (Stanford GSB) first courses on Strategic Philanthropy; Individual Philanthropy; Philanthropy, Inclusivity and Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions and Justice. Laura has also developed and teaches Power of You: Women in Leadership to prepare students to meet the challenges that currently exist for women leaders in the workplace, as well as promote inclusivity and impact with her “accessible leadership” model. She developed and taught courses at Stanford University on design thinking for impact, technology’s disruption of the social sector and grantmaking.

Laura is the Founder, Chairman Emeritus and former executive director (1998–2008) of Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2), a venture philanthropy fund of over 200 individuals and families who leverage their financial, intellectual and human capital to fund and scale innovative nonprofits. To date, SV2 has made close to 200 grants to and investments in Bay Area nonprofits and social enterprises, providing nearly $10 million in funding. She is a former trustee of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Hoover Institution, Castilleja School, Menlo School, Eastside Preparatory School and San Francisco Art Institute.

Laura has been profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Forbes, The Chronicle of Philanthropy and Vogue. She has been featured on Charlie Rose, CNN with Erin Burnett, MSNBC with Dylan Ratigan and CNBC Power Lunch. In addition to receiving numerous California philanthropy awards, Laura was a 2005 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute; received the 2005 President’s Volunteer Service Award from the Points of Light Foundation; was honored with the World Affairs Council’s Global Philanthropy Forum 2011 Global Citizen Award and was awarded the 2014 Commonwealth Club Distinguished Citizen Award.

Laura holds an MBA from Stanford GSB, as well as an MA in Education, BA and MA in Art History all from Stanford University. In total, Laura holds five degrees from Stanford including one conferred by Bing Nursery School, where she graduated with honors by consuming vast quantities of Play-Doh under the crafts table. In her illimitable free time, she is an active investor, real estate developer and mentor to dozens of past students. Laura finds immense joy in dancing (by herself or with others), perennial mistletoe, copious salt consumption, gelatinous bone broth, combat boots and her all-black wardrobe. Laura lives with her trophy husband, technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, near Stanford University. Together they are obsessed with books, art, the golden age of streaming and laughing to the point of incapacitation. Inspired by their eight-year-old son, they are raising two vivacious garden snails (Phillipe and Augustine) and have recently moved to a home built entirely of Legos and snap circuits.