Among big-ticket fund-raisers for Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Jack and Jill masked ball on Friday night was perhaps the most exclusive event of the season.

Jack and Jill of America was founded in 1938 to provide a positive environment for families in the face of segregation. It offers monthly events for members, all of whom are mothers, and their children, from volunteer opportunities at soup kitchens to music performances. In his autobiography, “A.L.T.,” Vogue’s editor at large, Andre Leon Talley, wrote of Jack and Jill: “Anyone who belongs to it seems sure to have impeccable manners, perfect diction, new clothes every season, and lots of friends.”

“We plan activities to encourage leadership and civic responsibilities,” said Georgette Williams, a member of the metropolitan chapter, which hosted the fund-raiser.

The metropolitan chapter comprises Manhattan and part of the Bronx (there are separate chapters in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx). It is a tightly knit club – only 100 mothers are allowed to be members, as mandated by the organization’s bylaws. They are the matriarchs of affluent African-American families, and their children are enrolled at top schools, such as Dalton, Horace Mann, Collegiate, Trinity, Hunter High School, and the Lab School. Most of the mothers and their husbands have degrees from historic black colleges and Ivy League schools.

Take, for example, Janice Williams, whose husband, Christopher, graduated from Howard and the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth. Both Mr. and Mrs. Williams work at the investment bank Mr. Williams founded, Williams Capital Management. Mrs. Williams organizes cultural activities for Jack and Jill – this year it will be an Alvin Ailey matinee. (Mr. Williams serves on the Alvin Ailey board with Katherine Farley – the Williams dined with Ms. Farley and her husband, Jerry Speyer, at the Jazz at Lincoln Center gala.)

Asked why they are members, women emphasized friendship and a sense of community “I chose it because we live in New York and it’s a way of connecting,” said member Paula Broadwater, a mortgage broker whose children are 3, 5, and 7.

“It gives children an opportunity to get to know their peers in their affinity group,” said Dolly Williams.

State Senator David Paterson objects to those who call the group elitist. “For generations, Jack and Jill has turned out leaders and decision-makers. There’s nothing elitist in the desire to give our kids the audacity to dream big,” he said.

Mr. Paterson was one of 16 men honored Friday night – dubbed “The Fathers of Jack and Jill.” Honorees included Mr. Williams; the chief executive of M.R. Beal & Company, Bernard Beal; a New York University journalism professor, David Dent; a managing director in Citigroup’s public finance department, James Haddon, and a MetLife financial planner, Dwight Raiford.

Those who gathered at Pier 60 for dinner, dancing, and live and silent auctions included the founder of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Jewell McCabe; the executive director of the National Urban League, Marc Morial; and the fashion designer Claudinette Jean, who dressed the event’s chairwoman, Robin Bell-Stevens – the executive director of Jazzmobile, whose 11-year-old daughter attends Simon Baruch Middle School.

The event raised more than $260,000 for three charities – Girls Inc., Single Parents Resource Center, and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity.

The chief executive of American Express, Kenneth Chenault, donated several items for auction (Mr. Chenault’s wife, Kathryn, is a Jack and Jill member in Westchester). Metropolitan chapter moms include Carol Sutton Lewis (a chairwoman of the Studio Museum in Harlem gala last week) and the president of the chapter, Cheryl Parham.