San Francisco’s cultural institutions rely on committed volunteers and board members to keep their doors open and their programs funded. Vanessa Getty has been one of them for years, according to the Examiner’s profile of Getty, which highlights her leadership across the city’s museums and music organizations.

Getty served nine years as a trustee of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the institution that oversees both the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor. During that time, she took on high-profile fundraising roles that drew on her wide network of supporters.

She co-chaired the Junior Committee’s 2007 Mid-Winter Gala and later returned as honorary co-chair of the 2015 gala at the Legion of Honor, serving alongside Trevor Traina. That event, presented by Dior, raised approximately $400,000.

Her support for the arts extended to music. Getty raised funds for the San Francisco Symphony, including an evening honoring composer Gordon Getty that drew 370 guests and raised close to $1 million for music education. The evening showed how her fundraising reach extended well beyond the visual arts.

Culture runs in her family. Her father, Claude Jarman Jr., directed the San Francisco International Film Festival and served as the city’s director of Cultural Affairs, while her mother, Maryann Eve Opperman, danced with the San Francisco Ballet, the Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, and the Joffrey Ballet.

Her institutional roles have not been limited to the arts. In 2005, she joined the board of the Peninsula Humane Society, an open-admission shelter, and she has been a longtime supporter of amfAR, co-chairing fundraising events alongside Liza Minnelli.

The profile notes that her fashion relationships helped open many of these institutional doors, while her long tenure in each role reflects a broader pattern of sustained commitment. For the Bay Area philanthropist, board service has been about staying involved for the long haul, not simply lending a name to a cause.