A national cheering squad for the teaching profession, TeachersCount, is exploring all sorts of ways to boost the image of classroom educators. For one, it has worked with Hallmark to create teacher-themed electronic greeting cards that can be sent to a teacher to show appreciation.

Parties can help, too. The organization’s gathering on Tuesday reached out to a young fashion industry crowd. Designer Zac Posen and his sister, Alexandra, served as hosts. The event raised $100,000.

The Maritime Hotel’s Hiro Ballroom wasn’t the most conducive environment for learning about the teaching profession, so here’s what TeachersCount would like you to know: A lack of respect combined with low pay is creating a teacher shortage; the organization claims that 50% of new teachers leave the profession by their fifth year.

To help the cause, look up, say, your fifth-grade teacher’s e-mail address and log on to Hallmark.com (click on “Teacher Appreciation,” listed under “Just Because”). At the moment, the offerings are pretty trite: One card features an apple and a book, and another has a little bird that chirps “thanks.” This is one place where the creative types at the party could really lend a hand to design a smart, edgy card.

Any ideas, Mr. Posen?

“A great teacher inspires curiosity and sparks the lifelong process and joy of learning. Education is an honor, and the people who facilitate imagination and knowledge should be the most celebrated people on earth,” Mr. Posen said.

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Women in Development, a professional association for women in the fund-raising profession, held its annual lunch on Monday.

Marking the group’s 25th anniversary, the event celebrated the happy fact that several women who started out in development have achieved key executive positions. Examples include the executive director of the New York City Opera, Jane Gullong; the president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Karen Hopkins, and the president and chief operating officer of the New York Hall of Science, Marilyn Hoyt.

Perhaps the most prominent role model is Emily Rafferty, who is four months into her tenure as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ms. Rafferty began her 28-year career at the museum as an administrator for corporate, foundation, and individual fund-raising.

After accepting the organization’s Woman of Achievement Award, Ms. Rafferty spoke about the issues facing the development profession.

“Twenty years ago, I hardly knew what development was. Now development is at center stage in nonprofit management. And that comes with new and greater responsibilities for all of us,” she said.

Ms. Rafferty advised everyone to pay attention to making philanthropists out of the new holders of wealth, “the hedge fund people and young women.”

“The hedge fund people – mostly men – they really don’t have a clue,” she said. “They’re collecting art, but when they start to think about how to give back, they need help. It’s our obligation as fund-raisers to help these people and make sure they are giving somewhere.”

A trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Shelby White, introduced Ms. Rafferty, describing her as a woman who “has always managed to look like she’s never done a day’s work in her life.”

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The windowless ballrooms of the Waldorf-Astoria and the Pierre make pleasant settings for benefits, yet they are far removed from the causes the benefits support.

Guests at the benefit for Riverkeeper, meanwhile, couldn’t have been closer to their cause. The event Tuesday night took place at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, an event space with sweeping views of the Hudson River – the river that these folks work to keep clean.

The views were so beautiful that most guests were distracted during cocktails and remarks. But all attention shifted inside when actress Uma Thurman and Cedric Kyle, known as Cedric the Entertainer, took center stage to auction off customized iPods by Elvis Costello, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crowe, and Tony Bennett. Mr. Costello’s sold for $17,000. Mr. Bon Jovi’s sold for $20,000. All told, the event raised more than $1.6 million.

Mr. Costello extended his generosity by performing several songs, opening with “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding.”

Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect the Hudson River and to safeguard the drinking water supply that serves more than 9 million New Yorkers daily. To that end, it has prosecuted more than 300 environmental lawbreakers and issued a series of reports to educate the public. The most recent report is on the negative environmental and social effects of sprawl, car-centered development that is rapidly sweeping across the Hudson Valley. Sprawl endangers the water supply by paving over natural soils that purify storm water with roads and parking lots, the group says.

Riverkeepers at the event included the chief operating officer of Viacom, Tom Freston, and his wife, Kathy, who were honored; the organization’s vice president and chief prosecuting attorney, Robert Kennedy Jr., and the organization’s executive director, Alex Matthiessen, who previously worked in the Department of the Interior, overseeing a task force on hydropower and promoting the use of clean and sustainable energy in national parks.