Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County

Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County

The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County Foundation was established in 1965 as the philanthropic and financial steward for the county's flagship natural history institutions. Governed by a Board of Trustees currently chaired by Heather de Roos and led by President Megan McGowan Epstein, the foundation operates alongside the County of Los Angeles in a formal public-private partnership. This arrangement channels private endowment returns and donor capital into the maintenance, programming, and expansion of the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park, the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum on Wilshire Boulevard, and the William S. Hart Museum in Newhall. The foundation deploys capital across venture capital, growth equity, buyout, and special situations funds, alongside direct co-investments and secondaries, with exposure spanning early-stage seed through late-stage expansion. Its endowment provides the financial underwriting for the museums' scientific, research, and educational mandates rather than for commercial gain. The physical asset base includes the museum buildings themselves, the 23-acre La Brea Tar Pits parkland — an active Ice Age excavation site — and the institution's vast natural and cultural history collections. Major donor partners include the Annenberg Foundation and the Ahmanson Foundation, reinforcing a funding model that blends public appropriations with foundation-driven philanthropy. The team, led by President and Director Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, operates within Los Angeles County's civic infrastructure. Bettison-Varga also serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Science and Technology Centers, linking the foundation to national museum and science-center networks. In 2024, the organization advanced the NHM Commons project, a $75 million renovation and expansion of the Natural History Museum's southwest wing, funded by a mix of county bonds and private donations, reflecting the foundation's role in capital-project underwriting. NHMLAC Foundation is structurally distinct from many endowments in that it does not manage a single institution's fund but rather services a multi-site museum system through a county-embedded governance model. The endowment's investment strategy must underwrite both routine operations and signature capital campaigns, while its board composition and public-partnership charter tether allocation decisions to Los Angeles County's broader cultural and educational priorities. This hybrid civic-philanthropic architecture makes the foundation a capital allocator whose investment posture is inseparable from public accountability and physical placekeeping.