According to George Overholser of Non-Profit Finance Fund Capital Partners, who helped to raise the money, this is only the first of many private placements of donor capital for non-profits.

ECONOMIST: Virtue's intermediaries

No doubt there is one, but this isn't due to money being too expensive as much as it's the result of capital flowing to non-productive, hard assets that tend to perform best when money is losing value.

FORBES: Dispelling long-held misconceptions

This includes money given to the Charter School Growth Fund, a non-profit venture capital fund, to which another billionaire, Gap co-founder Doris Fisher, has also contributed.

FORBES: Walton Family Joins Oprah, Gates in Backing Charter Schools

This is a nexus of private-equity and hedge funds, money-market funds and auction-rate securities, non-banks such as GE Capital and new securities such as CDOs and credit-default swaps.

ECONOMIST: The uneven contest