![]() ![]() ![]() In 2014 alone, according to her website, she was honored by Surgeons of Hope, the Ellen Hermanson Foundation, the Pet Philanthropy Circle and Animal Zone International. Shafiroff has received a slew of other such honors, tracking closely with her generosity. That year, the organization presented her with the Madeleine Borg Lifetime Service Award at its spring gala, attended by the mayor, Michael R. In 2013, she donated $100,000 to the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, a mental health and social services nonprofit, on whose board she has served for more than 20 years. Shafiroff began writing six-figure checks to select charities. And Jean, because she likes that level of admiration, it really works to the benefit of the organization that she’s supporting.”Īs part of her charm offensive, Mrs. You know you’re going to be celebrated and looked at, and you have to be willing. “You have to guarantee a certain contribution to the organization,” said Mrs. Honorees are ostensibly recognized for their leadership, but in practice, it often means that one has either donated money or, just as important, will attract other donors. She caught the philanthropy bug as a brownie-baking fund-raiser for her daughters’ schools, Dalton and Columbia Grammar and Preparatory, honing the talents that have made her an influencer on the charity circuit.Īmong them is the quid-pro-quo diplomacy that comes with being honored at a gala. ![]() Instead, she is what her husband calls a working socialite, who regards the philanthropy circuit as a profession and is a master of promoting her own image alongside the charities she supports. Shafiroff exemplifies a new breed of hands-on philanthropist, one who isn’t necessarily born with the right family name, or introduced through debutante balls, or nurtured through the ranks of junior benefit committees. Her gaining notoriety goes hand in hand with her efforts to help these organizations that she supports.” “The more she gets herself out there, the more effective she is at what she’s doing. “I see her as the new society,” said Cristina Cuomo, a social arbiter and former longtime editor of Manhattan and Beach magazines. And that is how, since embarking on a publicity push in late 2010, she has racked up almost 8,000 photographs on the website of the society photographer Patrick McMullan, and more than 100 mentions in Page Six, the gossip column in The New York Post.Įven in the era of a social media celebrities, those are impressive numbers. Shafiroff attends three or four events a week in the busy fall season. But her outsize presence on the gala circuit has also attracted a certain amount of society side-eye, causing some to question whether her primary motive is philanthropy or publicity.īeing social, of course, means being seen, so Mrs. Shafiroff has been gaining prominence lately for her fund-raising prowess as well as her proficiency in getting media attention. As she entered the ballroom, cameras flashed around her like fireflies in a summer meadow.Īs a rising member of the city’s philanthropic class, Mrs. Shafiroff said, referring to the American Ballet Theater. ![]() or even some of the lesser galas - it’s a chance to sort of unwind,” Mrs. “When I get dressed up and go to a gala - say the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, A.B.T. The setting was grand, the music was gay and the Taittinger Champagne flowed like blood from a guillotine. The occasion was a gala for the French Heritage Society, which seeks to preserve French culture and was attended by a who’s who of counts and countesses. She wore a custom gown by the Harlem designer Victor de Souza: pink-and-blue striped silk taffeta, with a large bow on the bust and a train so long that it could have qualified for its own subway line. On a warm Wednesday evening in November, Jean Shafiroff, a striking redhead, entered a ballroom inside the Plaza hotel. ![]()
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