OK, I’ll bite. One difference, I would wager, is size. Certainly none on the list of OTL supporters compare in size to Gates. Ford is big (not nearly as big as Gates), but doesn’t put a lot of its money into US education as far as I know. Most of the others on the OTL list are small, to my knowledge.

Another distinction might in terms of what one might call “aggressiveness.” That particularly applies to Broad, which is fearless about pushing certain kinds of reform strategies at the district level that often rile people up. You might call that a different animal than funding national advocacy groups to promote a certain point of view.

Finally, one might say that OTL represents a more grassroots view. One might claim with some justice, for example, that the NAACP has a broader swathe of popular support than, say, Bellwether Associates. Many of the civil rights groups are primarily membership-based organizations, which Bellwether Associates is not, although I may be mistaken. In which case, Bellwether Associates would largely be a mouthpiece for Gates (and other footing its bills), would it not?