In her new book, Kelly Killoren Bensimon presents hundreds of examples of American style, ranging from Lucille Ball to baseball. Appropriately, a party for the book, held the other night at the Cartier Mansion on Fifth Avenue, the crowd was chic-to-chic beautiful people. Designer Zac Posen and the Costume Institute’s Harold Koda hosted, with guests including designers Derek Lam, Alvin Valley, and Jill Stuart; fashionable women Gigi Mortimer, Jessica Seinfeld, and actors Lynn Collins and Anthony Edwards.

Ms. Bensimon, wife of fashion photographer Gilles Bensimon, said the timing of the book’s release was calculated. “The reason why I wanted this out right now is that it’s so easy for us to say negative things about this and that, but it’s so difficult to try to find the great thing about where we’ve come from and what we’ve achieved. This book is the highlights – Tupperware, allowing women to vote. It doesn’t matter who is the president.”

Casting aside her own political doldrums, Ms. Bensimon had a great time. “It’s the first time in my entire life that I really enjoyed a party. All my friends were there. It was such a nice foil to the political climate.”

Ms. Bensimon set out to write an A-through-Z book. “Then I realized you can’t really do that – it’s the antithesis of American style,” she said. Instead, Ms. Bensimon worked out her own alphabet, resulting in some interesting juxtapositions: L’il Kim and Wallis Simpson; Doris Day and Jim Morrison; Woodstock and Arnold Scaasi, who was also a guest at the party.

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A story that hasn’t gotten much attention is the increasing power of women as philanthropists. Women, after all, run 60% of family foundations. As women fill boardrooms, they acknowledge their responsibility to give back.

“Women have a great deal more money and more power. They’ve become a far more important part of campaigns than they were 20 or 30 years ago,” said the executive director of the Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University, Naomi Levine.

New York examples abound. Take the Lion of Judah program, which is part of a much broader agenda to cultivate women donors at the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York – women’s giving is the fastest growing component of its annual campaign.

Fresh on the heels of a national conference, where both First Lady Laura Bush and Teresa Heinz Kerry spoke to 1,400 women wearing the famous Lion of Judah broach, the New York division hosted a luncheon last week that raised $4.5 million.

“It’s an empowering organization,” said Lynn Tobias, the chairwoman of the federation’s Women’s Campaign.

New York lions include Andrea Bronfman, Alexandra Lebenthal, Elyse Newhouse, Pat Falkenberg, Marion Blumenthal, and Klara Silverstein (who, alas, can’t wear her Lion jewelry, because she’s allergic to gold). Another example of women coming together to raise money is the Women’s Forum – an invitation-only organization of women professionals. The group assembled Wednesday at the new Jazz at Lincoln Center to raise $350,000 for its college scholarships. Members include financier Muriel Siebert; the chairwoman of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, Dede Bartlett; and film and theater producer Lucy Jarvis.

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The New York Landmarks Conservancy held its Living Landmarks gala at the Plaza Wednesday night. The conservancy used to honor buildings; when Peg Breen became president, she switched the focus to people, inspired by a quip from Governor Hugh Carey, “make me a landmark.”

This year the conservancy made landmarks out of Whoopi Goldberg; George Steinbrenner; Linda and Morton Janklow, and Candice Bergen and Marshall Rose – who sang during their acceptance speech.

Creative acceptances are a tradition at this event: Peter Jennings sang with a barbershop quintet; Brooke Astor read a poem she wrote, and the cofounders of the Big Apple Circus juggled.

“It’s hysterical – not your normal New York charity event,” Ms. Breen said. Sadly, these moments aren’t preserved for future generations. “We can’t afford to videotape the whole evening,” Ms. Breen said.

Instead, the conservancy rolled a tape of interviews with the honorees. Ms. Goldberg recalled growing up in Chelsea, and going to the top of the Statue of Liberty with her mother. Real estate developer Marshall Rose compared preserving a landmark to working on a painting by Picasso. Ray Kelly spoke of the wonderful old building on the Upper West Side he grew up in, which has since been destroyed.

Ms. Breen was getting ready to announce the event had raised $750,000,when Liz Smith, who served as emcee and host, handed her a valuable envelope.

“She came over and said, ‘George [Steinbrenner] wants me to give this to you, but please don’t feel compelled to say anything.’ I opened it up and it was a check for $100,000.”