There's new Europe and old Europe, and now there's the new education philanthropy and the old education philanthropy, according to Rick Hess in Philanthropy magazine. The old version focused on working within the system and making nice with school districts and assorted education interest groups - and much of it expired with Walter Annenberg's failed challenge. The new education philanthropy seeks to shake up the system, work from the outside in, and spur needed reforms opposed by entrenched interests: consider, for example, the approaches taken by the Gates, Walton, Pisces, Broad, and Milken foundations. As just one sign of how quickly new philanthropy has supplanted old, consider this: in 1998, the top four K-12 funders were the Annenberg, Lilly, Packard, and Kellogg foundations - old philanthropists all. Just six years later, the top two are Gates and Walton, which together account for one-quarter of all K-12 giving among the top 50 foundations.
"Re-tooling K-12 giving," by Frederick M. Hess, Philanthropy, September-October 2004
"Making it count: A guide to high impact education philanthropy," by Kelly Amis and Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, September 1, 2001
"Jumpstarting the charter movement," The Philanthropy Roundtable