The Central Park Conservancy fundraiser this summer.

Last month, more than 700 tuxedoed and ball-gowned revelers gathered in the Museum of Natural History’s Milstein Hall of Ocean Life for the annual S.L.E. Lupus Foundation gala. As the attendees feasted on black American caviar, Margaret Dowd, the foundation’s executive director, was marveling at something else: the size of the crowd.

The foundation had not seen so many people at its annual gala since 2007. “It’s been very tough the last few years, and we had to cut expenses drastically,” she said. “In 2009, many of our donors said, ‘Our portfolios were really harmed and we have to cut our donations, but we’ll be back.’ And they did come back. This year has been much, much better.”

The benefit raised $2.5 million—a significant jump from the $2.2 million raised at last year’s. Things have not returned to the 2007 level, when the gala’s $3.2 million haul set a national record, which has yet to be topped, for lupus research funds collected at a single event, but the foundation is on track to raise 10 to 12 percent more this year than the previous one. Ms. Dowd added that the nonprofit’s spring luncheon saw such a dramatic spike in attendance this year—a 30 percent increase—that next year they plan to hold it in the Plaza.

In the months after Lehman Brothers collapsed, when it looked like the country’s financial system might fall along with it, the city’s nonprofits, long buoyed by Wall Street successes, learned that they would also share in its misfortunes. Staffs were sheared, budgets slashed, plans delayed, visions clouded. Charitable giving fell by 15.2 percent in 2008 and 2009, according to Giving USA, the annual tally of American philanthropy.

During the depths of the recession, flashy parties, even if they were for a good cause, could seem a little déclassé. Making a show of how much money one had to give away called attention to one’s ridiculously good fortune, even though the recession left nonprofits more in need than they ever had been before.

“We have donors who, like many others in New York, are so wealthy that if they never saw another nickel of earned income it wouldn’t matter. They have more than they could ever spend,” said the head of a nonprofit who asked not to be identified. “For the people who really have the means, what you really want is for those people to give more and not less in tough economic times. And yet they were cutting back.”

From 2007 to 2009, giving by people with incomes of $200,000 or more dropped by $31 billion. Now, for the first time since the recession struck, a number of New York nonprofits say that 2012 looks like the year when the tide has finally turned. Gifts are more generous, long-dormant donors are reappearing and philanthropists are once again crowding cheek-by-jowl at charity galas, dining and dancing with checkbooks in hand.

On Monday afternoon, New York real estate billionaire Mort Zuckerman announced a $200 million gift to Columbia University to study brain behavior. The gift is twice the size of the $100 million donation that hedge fund billionaire John A. Paulson made to the Central Park Conservancy this October—the largest ever to a New York City park. The previous record had been set just a few months before, in April, when amateur track cyclist Joshua P. Rechnitz pledged $40 million to Brooklyn Bridge Park to fund a field house and a velodrome with seating for 1,200 spectators. But even in April, $40 million paled in comparison to the $60 million gift David Koch made in February to redo the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Fifth Avenue plaza.

The Central Park Conservancy was already on the path to one of its best years in a long time. Not only have smaller donations grown in 2012, but so has the pool of people making them; like many agencies, the conservancy has been recruiting younger philanthropists via social media and special events.

Conservancy spokesperson Dena Libner called 2012 a “strong year,” but, like virtually all the other nonprofits we spoke with for this story, she warned that the official tally would have to wait until 2013. Typically, the last few weeks of the year are among the busiest in the fund-raising world, with many racking up 25 to 30 percent of all annual funding during the holidays.

The ACRIA fundraiser.

At its annual dinner this November, the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America hosted the largest crowd it’s had in years—275 guests, up by about 70 from the previous year. The low point for the nonprofit’s major fund-raiser came in 2008, when the dinner drew only 170 people.
“We certainly have donors who make a good living by general American standards, but they’re upper middle class by New York standards,” said executive director Dan Tietz. “For them, in bad economic conditions, they think twice about whether they should buy a ticket or not.”
Mr. Tietz explained that this year, he and several other colleagues have noticed that the hesitation is gone—charity event attendance seems to be up across the board. “Now, we’re definitely seeing a willingness to give.”

Also tracking about 25 percent ahead of last year is the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, according to foundation president Myra Biblowit. She noted that the November 2011 ovarian cancer death of Evelyn Lauder, the businesswoman and socialite, may have encouraged people to give. “People also adored and revered Evelyn Lauder. Her passing was a huge loss to the world. I think people want to pay tribute to a remarkable person.”

Among performing arts groups, BAM, Lincoln Center and the Atlantic Theater Company are all reporting 2012 increases in fund-raising, an impressive feat, given that both Lincoln Center and the Atlantic Theater Company are also in the midst of capital campaigns.

BAM president Karen Brooks Hopkins noted that the academy has seen some major gifts this year, largely in conjunction with its 150th anniversary. Chase sponsored the anniversary with a gift of $1.95 million over two years, the Irene Diamond Fund contributed $5 million, McGarryBowen gave an in-kind contribution for the “BAM and Then It Hits You” campaign and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation coughed up another $1 million.

The Atlantic Theater Company has seen a 40 percent increase in gifts from individuals this year over the same period last year. As new donations have increased only 5 percent, the 40 percent increase is coming predominantly from larger gifts from renewing supporters.
Walter Sweet, the vice president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, told The Observer that while he has seen a bump in charitable giving among his clients, they’re not necessarily giving in the same way they once did.

Donors are no longer content to blithely hand out signed checks and continue on their way. Now they want to see results, to know how their money is being used, to feel actively involved. “They want impact,” Mr. Sweet said.

It’s worth noting that not all groups have been so lucky—the Metropolitan Opera is preparing to sell bonds for the first time since its 1883 founding to cover operating losses.

What’s more, outside of the New York area, nonprofits have had a more mixed record of success. Although the 400 most successful charities nationwide saw 7.5 percent growth in 2011, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, they expect flat growth this year, along with donations from some of the 166 largest companies in the United States, the majority of which said that they expect to keep their philanthropy budgets flat this year (although some, like Starbucks, increased their giving by 197 percent).

Kathleen McCarthy, the founding director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at The CUNY Graduate Center, said that the disparate performance between nonprofits either based in New York or with strong New York connections and the rest of the country boils down to the wealth gap.

“I think what you’re seeing may be a phenomenon of the social gulf,” said Ms. McCarthy. “The rich are giving more, and they’re giving more now because now is when they can get the tax break.”
The end of the year is generally a time when wealthy individuals take account of their tax situations, but this year in particular the looming fiscal cliff and less favorable tax breaks for the wealthy have encouraged potential donors to give now rather than later. One of President Obama’s proposals would drop the tax break that households earning more than $250,000 can get for their charitable gifts from 35 to 28 percent.

Lauren Katzowitz Shenfield, who leads Philanthropy Advisors, an organization that advises individual, corporate and foundation philanthropists, including heavy-hitters like Exxon Corporation and the Ford Foundation, told The Observer that the likelihood of a smaller tax exemption is fueling a flurry of year-end donations.

Hurricane Sandy, of course, is the wild card of 2012. David Saltzman, the executive director of the Robin Hood Foundation, said that the antipoverty group will be holding its breath these next few weeks to see if holiday giving is as strong as it usually is.

“Our fear is that people who have been so generous giving to Sandy relief might not be able to donate to poverty relief. Our hope is that they can dig a little deeper,” said Mr. Saltzman. “I think that people are remarkably generous when they know they can make a difference, and this is a year where people can make a difference.”

The HOPE Program, another antipoverty initiative, also admitted that Sandy had left it a little bit nervous about holiday giving, but at the moment, the nonprofit is about 20 percent ahead of schedule.

Sandy proved a more direct challenge for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a nonprofit that provides services to LGBT youth. Its annual gala was scheduled for October 29, the day the hurricane hit. It had to be canceled and replaced later with a more modest cocktail reception. But despite the setback, Hetrick-Martin is still on schedule to meet its fund-raising goal this year.

Glenn Yabu and George Pushelberg of international design firm Yabu Pushelberg were two of the donors who stepped up to help make up the difference, sponsoring an emergency initiative that raised more than $70,000.

“While our personal donations reflect increasing support as the agency’s needs have increased this year, we also looked to other ways to reach even further,” they wrote in a joint e-mail to The Observer. “Sometimes it’s making a donation directly to your charity of choice, and sometimes it’s working with the development staff on creative ways to boost donations.”

kvelsey@observer.com

Sometimes they actually do it. Sometimes they do it in ways that are absolutely inspiring. Such is the case of John A. Paulson. 

Mr. Paulson, a hedge fund manager, was born in Queens and spent many happy hours in Central Park as a child and young adult. Now, decades later, Mr. Paulson is giving back to the park that created all those memories. He has made a $100 million donation to the Central Park Conservancy—the largest gift of money ever to the city’s park system.

Mr. Paulson’s gift is notable for lots of reasons. It is, after all, an extraordinary act of generosity. It comes at a time when the city will be looking to make significant spending cuts, thanks to another sizable deficit in the next fiscal year. But it’s also worth noting that the gift comes after years of superb work by the beneficiary of Mr. Paulson’s generosity, the Central Park Conservancy.

This private group laid the groundwork for Mr. Paulson’s gift by revitalizing the park after the neglect of the 1970s and the effects of budget cuts in the late 1980s. Some will remember the criticism the Conservancy faced when it signed a management agreement with the city in 1998 that gave the group a formal role in the park’s maintenance. Critics charged that the Conservancy was intent on “privatizing” the park, simply because it was raising private money for the benefit of this spectacular public space.

Of course, nothing like that has happened. The Conservancy has been a model of public-private cooperation, as any stroll through the park will demonstrate.

Mr. Paulson’s gift to the Conservancy is a wonderful act of philanthropy. It also is a tribute to the work of the Conservancy, an organization that certainly is worthy of Mr. Paulson’s confidence and his civic spirit.

Who's paying to cut the grass?

New Yorkers who live on Central Park certainly reap the benefits of parkside abodes, especially when it comes to resale values, but they're less than generous about giving back.

Only 17 percent of parkside denizens have donated to the Central Park Conservancy since 2010, according to a recent story in Crain's by Michael Gross. And Mr. Gross, chronicler of luxury New York real estate and the author of consummate building biography 740 Park should know. Not only does Mr. Gross seem to have his eye on every move that uptown dwellers make, but he's also a parkside resident himself.

And local residents certainly make good use of the most ballyhooed of all New York apartment amenities. As Mr. Gross writes:

According to the conservancy, 550,000 people live within a 10-minute walk of the park, 65% of the 40 million or so bodies who enter annually are regulars (presumably neighbors) who come once a week or more, 31% use it every day, and yet only 55,000 generous souls help pay the 85% of its budget that is raised privately.

Perhaps the most egregious show of non-support comes from 15 Central Park West. Despite the fact that developers Arthur and Will Zeckendorf bought each initial purchaser a one-year membership, only 16 out of 201 households activated them.

"Whether they live here or not, the park elevates the value of their apartments," Terri Coppersmith, the vice president for development and visitor experience told Crain's. "They need us."

Perhaps residents are just waiting for better opportunities to endow benches and lawns? After all, philanthropy doesn't count unless your name is prominently attached to it, right?

kvelsey@observer.com

Jonathan and Elizabeth Tisch's donation to the Metropolitan Museum of Art will build more than a new Costume Institute Gallery-it could canonize a new set of fashion-design superstars.

Last week, the billionaire Tisches made a $10 million gift to the Met that will fund a 4,200-square-foot namesake gallery and state-of-the-art storage for the institute's 35,000-item archive, projects that have been little more than fund-raising fantasies for the Met for more than a decade. The couple's largesse, insiders said, could propel Lizzie Tisch onto the Met's tony board of trustees.

But, even more significantly, the reconfiguration of the Costume Institute will change which and how many fashion designers are given shows, said Costume Institute curator Harold Koda. Instead of having one big show, curators will be able to build walls for multiple small, "jewel-like" exhibitions-introducing visitors to the works of little-seen designers.

Who'll get the star treatment? "I'd love to have small shows about American designers-Bonnie Cashin, Giorgio di Sant'Angelo" or early-20th-century designer Jessie Franklin Turner. She is "known to costume historians, but no one on the street would know who she was," Mr. Koda said. "We haven't been able to do these capsule shows because it's always been a big space."

That could be a boon to the bottom line of fashion houses, said couture collector and Heritage Galleries head of business development Tiffany Dubin. Fashion "shows have been extraordinary moneymakers [for the museum], so now that'll translate to helping retail," said the founder of the Sotheby's couture department and author of Vintage Fashion. "The next step is for people to start thinking that when you buy a Jason Wu, you're buying a moment of history, and if it's in a museum, it adds a resale value." Fashion is "validated in a way," she said.

"This gift is truly transformative," the museum's director, Thomas P. Campbell, said in a statement. In the new gallery, "the possibilities for creative interpretations of the collection" will be "unlimited."

The Costume Institute plays an outsize role as a publicity and fund-raising vehicle for the Met. Its exhibitions and events, chief among them the annual Anna Wintour-chaired gala in May, bring in millions each year, plus celebrities (last year's gala drew Justin Timberlake, Hugh Jackman, Iman and Sarah Jessica Parker) and buzz.

The institute has had its roots in commerce since it launched in the 1940s with a collection of clothes from Bloomingdale's. But, for 40 years, the institution declined to showcase living designers, until saluting Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 with a show that "consecrated" the couturier, said Rogues' Gallery author Michael Gross, a gadfly critic of the institution.

On his blog, Mr. Gross wrote, "The subtext of a $10 million gift to the museum" is that "it typically buys a seat on the board." (Mr. Tisch's uncle, Laurence Tisch, once donated $10 million and served on the Met board.) It's not much of a stretch, then, to imagine Lizzie Tisch, who's routinely spotted at fashion shows-pink Birkin in hand-or on Vanity Fair's annual Best-Dressed List, slipping into a seat on the glamorous board.

"The board would be a good place for Lizzie," said high-society scribe David Patrick Columbia, in an email. "And the days of Condé Nast and Anna Wintour dominating the Costume Institute are numbered on simply actuarial terms."

But Mr. Koda said that advancing knowledge was the Tisches' motivation for the gift. "Lizzie is engaged by fashion, but she doesn't live for it." The gallery was always about "education-that was the point."

Mr. Tisch is a big donor, once giving $40 million to Tufts, and his wife heads the Friends of the Costume Institute-but the "magnitude" of their gift was a surprise, said Mr. Koda. The Tisch name is already emblazoned across two N.Y.U. buildings, at the entrance to a Central Park zoo and in the halls of the Met. The family runs the Loews hotel and cinema chains and has oil interests and a stake in the New York Giants.

As of now, the institute's U-shaped gallery of glass vitrines and roped-off platforms isn't ideal. "Every show looks like the one before it," Mr. Koda said. After the renovation, it will look like a traditional art gallery: an open rectangular space that allows visitors to walk around costumes.

But, why all this fuss about garments? Ms. Dubin said the Met's Costume Institute "encourages the young designer ... to think of their work in the context of our culture and history." The Tisch donation, fashion fans and museum insiders are hoping, will elevate designers' work one step closer to the realm of high art.

GEORGE SOROS FOUNDATION AWARD.
Leeds West End London.
United Kingdom.

Dear Beloved,

You have been selected/qualify for Grant sum of $900.000.00 payment
for human growth,Business, and community Development in the ongoing
GEORGE SOROS Empowerment Award established in 1983 and supported by
EBID WORLDWIDE.

Your e-mail address attached to Grant number: 2241345678 which
subsequently won you the Grant Payment in the 2nd category.
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your Grant Number
confidential till your payment is processed and your money remitted to
you in whatever manner you are fit to claim your Grant Prize . This is
part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and
unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.

Please contact our Secretary with the below information:

Full Names:
Address:
Tel No:
Country:
State:
Occupation:

Secretary,
Mrs. Lilly Botha.
Congratulation Once Again.
GEORGE SOROS HUMAN EMPOWERMENT AWARD MANAGEMENT.

The Observer has reached out to the Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations Network to see if the email is indeed a scam. We'll update when we hear back.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

Next up is Shakira, who's put on some damn clothes, teamed up with fellow Latina superstar, Dora, and "written" World School Adventure Day, a neon-hued multiculturalist manifesto in which Dora and a galoshes-wearing monkey rush around the world delivering laptops and other supplies so various schools can participate in a global video chat. Which would be a fun idea if it existed. But no. "It was made up," a publicist from Simon and Schuster tells us.

While the tome is certainly no "Hips Don't Lie," Shakira completists—and Dora completists, for that matter—will surely want to snap up a copy or two. (Shaki's Barefoot Foundation received a donation in exchange for her participation.)

Advocates attempted to sell the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act as a fiscal boon to California. The initiative would have made it legal for people 21 and up to possess an ounce of pot, smoke pot in private places and certain designated areas and grow small marijuana gardens.

Soros joined retired insurance company executive Peter Lewis and Men's Wearhouse CEO George Zimmer among the pro-weed donors. Presumably, none of the three likes the way their legislative investments look.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

Soros may have acted because voters sentiment has shifted against legalization. 51 percent now oppose the initiative, while only 39 percent support it. In May, proponents of legalization had the lead, but one week before the election, their initiative seems to be going up in smoke.

Measured against other recent Soros donations in terms of funds allocated, the legalization of marijuana in California ranks equally with the financial stability of Media Matters, but carries only 1 percent of the significance of Human Rights Watch.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

Slim said that the "Santa Claus" route is not for him -- a surprising analysis, given his grey beard and slightly portly silhouette. "Trillions of dollars have been given to charity in the last 50 years, and they don't solve anything," says Slim.

The Journal is quick to point out that Slim does care about improving the lot of the less fortunate. He just thinks the wealthy are more effective at helping people when they grow their businesses and employ additional workers. He's also contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to his own foundation as well as that of Bill and Melinda Gates. Still, he hasn't signed up to give half his net worth to charity, brushing aside the gauntlet thrown down by the Gates and Warren Buffett.

mtaylor@observer.com

Twitter: @mbrookstaylor

Speaking at a University of Michigan event this week, Munger said "I believe Costco does more for civilization than the Rockefeller Foundation," and the idea of "very intelligent people sitting around trying to do good" makes him squirm in his seat. Costco has been praised for its gentle treatment of employees.

Munger's view that big-box discount retailers are rich people's greatest gift to their fellow man stands in sharp contrast to that of Buffett, the folksy Nebraskan billionaire and Berkshire Hathaway CEO who plans to give 99 percent of his wealth away to charity.

It's to be expected that big-time executives view economic growth and entrepreneurship as the chief path to success. It's more rare, though not unheard-of, to hear such a view stated so plainly.