Today’s philanthropists are heeding Andrew Carnegie’s advice: Give away your fortune while you are still alive, or die rich and die disgraced.

While the size of their mega giving has captured the public imagination, it is really the boldness and innovativeness of their approach that is driving the current philanthropic revolution. Compared to the previous generation, the neo-philanthropists are more ambitious (nothing short of solving the world’s problems), more capitalistic (pushing the envelope of venture capital approaches), more personal (engaging directly with their time and talent on their areas of interest), and more collaborative (leveraging partnerships).