Annenberg Foundation

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The Annenberg Foundation, a charitable family trust, was created on July 1, 1989 by media magnate and former Ambassador to the Court of St. James's Walter H. Annenberg. Initial funding of $1.2 billion came from the sale of Triangle Publications, the last media property held by Annenberg. The foundation is based in St. David's, Pennsylvania. Currently, The Foundation has a priority on granting funds for reform of elementary and secondary public school systems. The Foundation oversees the funding of the Annenberg Challenge.

Since its founding, it has awarded over 5,200 grants, which total in excess of $2.8 billion. ^[1]

The Foundation is known for many cutting edge programs and especially for coining and developing the concept of Project Based Philanthropy. A recent example of this is Not A Cornfield Project in Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}

The current president, chairman and sole director of the Foundation is Leonore Annenberg, widow of Ambassador Annenberg, and a former United States Chief of Protocol. Their daughter, Wallis Annenberg is the vice president.

1 Annenberg Media
2 Other organizations and programs of the foundation
3 References
4 External links
- 4.1 General information
- 4.2 Annenberg Media Video Series

[edit] Annenberg Media

Annenberg Media is the arm of the foundation that is dedicated to the improvement of teaching by funding development and distribution of multimedia educational resources through a variety of channels. In addition to distributing the media directly to educational institutions and community agencies, the organization airs the programs on the Annenberg Channel — a free digital satellite channel — and makes its complete video collection available for no cost through broadband access to its web site, along with related activities and guides. Many of its programs are aired on PBS stations around the United States; in fact, the media unit was known previously as "The Annenberg/CPB Project" because of its close work with PBS' parent organization.

The original project was created in 1981 through a gift from Walter Annenberg the CPB and merged in 1999 with "The Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project" (created 1990). In 2004, Annenberg/CPB became part of The Annenberg Foundation, later changing its name to Annenberg Media.

Programs developed by the media unit or by its predecessor, The Annenberg/CPB project (all developed for an audience of high school- or university-level learners), unless otherwise specified:

[edit] Languages

Connect With English (1997), a serial drama with discussion segments for teaching English as a Second Language
Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish (1992), a 52-episode serial drama for teaching Spanish, in the form of a telenovela (a sequel, Nuevos Destinos, was created in 1997)
Fokus Deutsch (1998)
French in Action (1987)

[edit] Mathematics and science

Against All Odds: Inside Statistics
Algebra: In Simplest Terms
The Brain: Teaching Modules
Cycles of Life: Exploring Biology
Earth Revealed: Introductory Geology
Intimate Strangers: Unseen Life on Earth (microbiology)
Journey North (wildlife migration)
Math for All and Math for All—Plus (math for families of elementary school students, in English and Spanish)
The Mechanical Universe…and Beyond (physics)
The Mind: Teaching Modules (cognitive science)
Planet Earth (Earth science and astronomy)
Reactions in Chemistry
Unseen Life on Earth: An Introduction to Microbiology
The World of Chemistry

[edit] Social sciences

The Africans (filmed in 16 African countries)
Bridging World History
A Biography of America
The Constitution: That Delicate Balance
Death: A Personal Understanding
Discovering Psychology: Updated Edition
Economics U$A
Ethics in America
Ethics in America II
Growing Old in a New Age
Human Geography: People, Places, and Change (economic and cultural geography)
Inside the Global Economy
Out of the Past (archaeology and anthropology)
People’s Century (world history and social studies)
The Power of Place: Geography for the 21st Century
Rural Communities: Legacy & Change
Seasons of Life (lifespan psychology)
The World of Abnormal Psychology

[edit] Humanities

American Cinema
American Passages: A Literary Survey
Art of the Western World (visual/fine arts)
English Composition: Writing for an Audience
Exploring the World of Music
Literary Visions (literary analysis)
News Writing
Signature: Contemporary Writers (series featuring authors from the American South)
Voices & Visions (American poetry)
The Western Tradition (history of Western civilization)
A World of Art: Works in Progress (art appreciation)

[edit] Programs for teachers and administrators

In addition to programming designed for students, Annenberg Media has also created video series for teacher professional development in various subjects. These series include workshops and courses and video libraries (documentary case studies) on education in arts, foreign languages, literature and language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies, as well as on general topics of education theory and school reform.

[edit] Other organizations and programs of the foundation

The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (1958)
The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (1971)
The Annenberg Center for Health Sciences [1] at Eisenhower Medical Center (1981)
The Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California (1993)
Annenberg Challenge (1993)
Annenberg Institute for School Reform [2] (1994) Brown University)
The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania (1994) and FactCheck.org
Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands (2001)
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