A Better Gala—Here's How Pershing Square Marked a Key Milestone
When David Callahan, Inside Philanthropy’s founder, was unable to attend the Pershing Square Foundation’s recent 10th-anniversary gala, he conscripted me to go in his stead. He told me the foundation, started by the hedge funder Bill Ackman and his wife Karen, is one of the more interesting new funders to emerge from the finance world in recent years. IP has covered it often.
Unlike many, I do find galas interesting events, but snowed under with my own work, quite honestly, I just didn’t feel like donning the heels and the energy this event would require of me. But I hate being that person who commits and bails, so I dragged myself to the Park Avenue Armory on New York’s Upper East Side.
When I arrived, my name wasn’t on the list—but neither was a quick escape. With a flourish of apologies, a program was put in my hands as I was guided to a portrait-laden room of old-world elegance. I’d have to stick it out. . .