# Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen **Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen** is a Silicon Valley philanthropist and Stanford lecturer, and the wife of the venture capitalist [[Marc Andreessen]]. She is the daughter of John Arrillaga Sr., the real estate developer who became one of the largest landowners in Silicon Valley. She founded the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2), an early venture-philanthropy fund, and the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. She has taught philanthropy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business since 2000. She's on the map for two moments when her family's private interests ran into public policy. In 2022 she and her husband co-signed a letter fighting apartments in their town, Atherton, two years after he had published [[It's Time to Build]]. In 2025 her husband's leaked group-chat messages cited her departure from the Stanford center as a grievance while urging that universities "pay the price." The paradox: her career has been built on teaching the wealthy to give to their communities more effectively, but her name is now best known in politics through two fights over who gets let into those communities and institutions. ## Philanthropy and Stanford Arrillaga-Andreessen was born in Palo Alto and earned several degrees at Stanford, including a bachelor's in art history and an MBA. While in business school she planned SV2, which she launched in 1998 to teach newly rich tech workers to give, and to fund local nonprofits with a venture-capital approach. She ran it for its first decade. In 2000 she began teaching philanthropy courses at the business school. In 2006 she founded the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS), which publishes the *Stanford Social Innovation Review*, and chaired its board until 2023, according to her Stanford biography. Her 2011 book, *Giving 2.0: Transform Your Giving and Our World*, drew on the stories of ordinary donors to argue that anyone can give strategically. She founded a foundation of the same name, later renamed the Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation, and in 2024 started Arrillaga Philanthropies. She married Marc Andreessen in 2006, and the couple also run the Marc and Laura Andreessen Foundation. ## The Atherton letter (2022) In June 2022, Arrillaga-Andreessen and her husband emailed Atherton officials to object to a state-required plan to allow multifamily housing in the town. They wrote of their "IMMENSE objection" and warned that the zoning would "MASSIVELY decrease our home values." The Atlantic reported the letter that August, and it was widely set against Andreessen's 2020 essay calling for more housing. The overlay zones were dropped from the town's draft plan. See [[It's Time to Build]] and [[California Tech Exodus Ecosystem]]. ## The Stanford grievance (2025) In the messages reported by The Washington Post in July 2025, Andreessen wrote that Stanford had "forced my wife out" of the philanthropy center "without a second thought," and predicted the decision would cost the university "something like $5 billion in future donations." She remains on the business school's teaching roster. The Post noted that she and her husband have given the university millions of dollars. The messages appeared in a chat that included Trump administration officials, alongside his calls for universities to "pay the price" for diversity policies. See [[Andreessen Group Chat Leak]]. ## Why it's on the map - **The family's stake in policy.** Both episodes show the Andreessens' private interests (a town's zoning, a university role) feeding into public fights over housing and higher education. - **Deep Stanford ties.** She studied at Stanford, teaches there, and with her husband has given it millions, which is the background to his 2025 attack on the university and his warning about lost donations. - **Philanthropy and power.** Her career is a case study in Silicon Valley's model of "venture philanthropy," where the donor sets the terms. ## Connections - [[Marc Andreessen]] · [[Andreessen Horowitz]] - [[It's Time to Build]] · [[California Tech Exodus Ecosystem]] - [[Andreessen Group Chat Leak]] · [[Tech Right Group Chats]]