Manhattan’s hedge fund and private equity sluggers hit the ball out of the park two nights ago, in record time. It took less than three minutes for Paul Tudor Jones to cajole 23 attendees at the Robin Hood Benefit into pledging $1 million apiece to support a new teacher-training institute in New York. Just like that — $23 million. Mr. Jones, founder of Robin Hood and head of the Tudor Group, raised the energy of the crowd of 4,000 with almost evangelical enthusiasm: “Last year you started something magical. Right now, right here, let’s finish it.” And they did. Overall, the star-studded event raised $72 million. Tom Wolfe should have been there.

Mr. Wolfe has recently written rather snippily about the hurdles that must be cleared by socially ambitious hedge fund managers in New York. Like other groups that have suddenly emerged throughout history with fat bank accounts, top players in the hedge fund and private equity world are, according to Mr. Wolfe, causing some unease among Manhattan’s landed gentry. Mr. Wolfe suggests that these newcomers are considered a little rough around the edges, and not quite ready for social prime time.

One source of discomfort to the old-line philanthropists in our town may be the hard-nosed approach these newly arrived donors take when it comes to charitable donations. The not-for-profit world has rarely been pushed so hard to be efficient, so productive, or so accountable. As Mr. Jones said, “We have a cult-like focus on outcomes. Success is unequivocal and imperative.”

These expectations have led Robin Hood to be described as one of the most influential and important foundations in the country. The progressive and no-nonsense attitudes were certainly on view last night. The emphasis was on education, and the city schools chancellor, Joel Klein, was there to cheer them on. At last year’s dinner, the foundation raised money for two new charter schools. This year the goal was to fund a new training institute for teachers.

Robin Hood, in combination with Hunter College and the Department of Education, will create a program embracing the teaching principles used by the KIPP schools, which Robin Hood deems “the best schools we’ve seen.”

The idea is to leverage an expanding number of top-flight teachers to create better schools, and ultimately to raise New York’s high school graduation rates, currently mired at below 60%.

Robin Hood’s focus on schools and teachers stems from the conviction that education is the best weapon against poverty. Perhaps the board, made up of high-level types from the business and entertainment worlds, is also aware that the competitive advantage of America going forward will be in the creation of intellectual property, be it software design, entertainment products, medical techniques, or other new technologies. Ongoing leadership in these areas is not guaranteed, and in fact may well be threatened if the young people coming out of our schools are unable to reason, to write, or to compute. In a scary report last year from the Conference Board, CEOs who were surveyed gave emerging college graduates woefully low marks.

In other words, what’s good for education is good for America, and, ultimately, for American investors. Hedge fund manager Larry Robbins, who with his wife, Amy, committed $10 million to kick off the campaign, said it all: “My parents taught us the power of education. My wife taught me the time to give back is now.”

It should be noted that not all of last evening’s program was quite so serious. Tom Brokaw smoothly emceed the event, which took place in the cavernous Jacob K. Javits Center, joined by the ever-hilarious Jon Stewart.

Mr. Stewart was a big assist to social auctioneer James Niven of Sotheby’s. Mr. Niven had the unenviable task of matching wits with Mr. Stewart, where he came in runner-up, and the more important role of raising money for the organization, where he scored handsomely.

Admittedly, it was a bit of a slam-dunk, considering the testosterone-fed competitiveness of the crowd and the extraordinary items up for bid. Not that all the items went to men. One woman paid $1.3 million for three dinner parties. One will be prepared by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich at restaurant Babbo, one is to held at Glorious Food, which catered last night’s meal, and the third will be provided by Food Network star George Duran. In addition, the winner was entitled to host 50 friends at a screening of a new Weinstein Co. film, with cocktails beforehand at Tribeca Grill. She also gets two tickets to the season finale of “Top Chef,” and dinner with two of the hosts at Craft Restaurant, as well as lunch with Martha Stewart. In other words, the winner is going to suddenly find she has a whole slew of new best friends.

The top lot of the auction was called Beijing Gold, and featured a trip to the upcoming Olympics as guests of NBC. The package included transportation, tickets to all the major events, mingling with past Olympians, being part of the NBC Sports Team, dessert with Al Roker, introductions to some of the competitors and, oddly, dinner with Tiki Barber beforehand. Jon Stewart nudged the crowd along with helpful comments like: “For $2 million you get to stand in front of tanks” and “Let’s show these Communists what we’re made of.” The lot went for $2.2 million.

Throughout the auction there were “surprise” appearances from a number of famous people who put themselves, or access to themselves, up for bid. Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, extracted $560,000 from someone who gets to take a G-5 to training camp and learn how to throw and catch and “get a closeup of me kicking the s__ out of the Jets.”

Entertainment personalities like “30 Rock”‘s Jane Krakowski, “Scrubs”‘ Zach Braff, Jimmy Fallon and Ben Affleck were on hand, as well as Catherine Zeta-Jones and husband, Michael Douglas. Singer Steven Tyler with Aerosmith raised $400,000 from two people eager to sing a song with the band, which provided the marquee entertainment for the evening.

All in all, it was an extraordinary event, and a lot of fun. To Mr. Wolfe’s point, the evening was a little more casual than most old-guard events. Many of the men were proudly tie-less and the décor featured oversize castles, the symbolism of which might or might not have been intentional. After all, top private equity and hedge fund types are the self-appointed new royalty of Wall Street, with a demonstrated penchant for corporate names like Fortress and Citadel. To cope with the immense crowd, Glorious Food served the second course of fried chicken and steak onto the same plate as that used for the grilled shrimp appetizer, a time-saver that would have horrified diners in the Temple of Dendur.

Mr. Wolfe really should have put in an appearance. It would have given him a chance to meet some hedge fund managers in person. Maybe if he had someone more talented handling his finances he’d be able to afford more than one suit.