By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff Friday, August 29th, 2008

Philanthropy is changing.
With entrepreneurs like Eli Broad, Ted Turner and Venoco’s Tim Marquez calling the shots, nonprofits are becoming more nimble and results oriented

But there is a catch – in the new environment for philanthropy, star power matters, and there’s a tendency for issues of the day like global warming to grab big pieces of funding while new initiatives on education lag.

Those were the takeaways from an Aug. 25 panel discussion on philanthropy held as an adjunct to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. By virtue of a weekend home in Colorado and a press pass, I was able to cover a surprisingly nonpartisan panel hosted by Aspen Institute’s Walter Isaacson.

The panel included Turner, Broad, who has spearheaded reforms in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Marquez, who has modeled his Denver Scholarship Foundation on a Santa Barbara effort that puts millions of dollars of scholarships into the hands of area high school graduates each year.