Andrea Bronfman will be buried Friday in Israel, but she was loved also in this city, where – though she led a life of philanthropy – she electrified and moved the city via one particularly noteworthy philanthropic act, known as the Gift of New York. As the city was reeling from the attacks of September 11, 2001, Bronfman saw an unmet need. Relatives of those who perished in the attack, she realized, would need to find a way to travel from grief to recovery.

She established Gift of New York and set about collecting unused tickets for sports and cultural events – from Giants games to Broadway shows to circus performances to museum exhibitions – and distributing them to grieving family members. They weren’t just tickets to an event; they were tickets out of isolation. With Bronfman’s grit and determination and a staff of five, Gift of New York distributed 65,000 such tickets during its 18-month life, serving 85% of the families. Then it closed.

Bronfman believed that after a year and a half, survivors who still needed help needed the kind of help a ticket couldn’t give. Her program was a model of effective philanthropy – visionary enough to spot a need, practical enough to fill it, humble enough to know its limitations, and driven by the belief that doing nothing was not an option. It’s an inspiring story. Not all charities will, or should, mirror Gift of New York’s short life cycle, but philanthropists can certainly draw inspiration from its story, which is another of the gifts this remarkable woman gave during the life that was cut short this week.