Giving Compass' Take:

• Roger Riddell, writing for Education Dive, interviews Polaris Ventures Co-Founder and Partner Emeritus Steve Arnold of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, on how funders can be innovative without being prescriptive. 

• What are the biggest challenges for philanthropists focusing on education? 

• Find out more about Steve Arnold in New Profit's Unlikely Duos video series. 

Some 28 years ago, at a Marin County, California, location not so far away, the George Lucas Educational Foundation — yes, that George Lucas — set out on a mission to celebrate and encourage K-12 innovation. Co-founded by the "Star Wars" creator and film director alongside Polaris Ventures Co-Founder and Partner Emeritus Steve Arnold, then the vice president and general manager of LucasArts Games, the foundation grew from a mutual passion for education.

"George said a thing one time that stuck with me as a kind of a resonant phrase about what we were doing: 'A lot of people know education ought to be different, but they don't know in what way.'" Arnold said. "And so as we evolved the foundation, we began to think about how we could show the ways in which it could and should be different."

Arnold recently spoke with us about how the foundation's work has evolved, how it avoids being prescriptive and what opportunities he sees on the horizon.

EDUCATION DIVE: I've always thought Edutopia is really interesting as the more public-facing arm of what the foundation does. When did that become a fully fleshed-out part of the vision, and in what ways do you feel that it helps support the work of the research arm? 

STEVE ARNOLD: Well, Edutopia as a product of some kind has been around since almost the beginning of the foundation. It started out as a little newsletter we released. And then, for a while, we published a slick, glossy magazine called Edutopia. About 10 years ago, we phased out the print magazine and converted the whole thing online, and Edutopia became the web presence it is today.

Read the full article about George Lucas Foundation by Roger Riddell at Education Dive.