As the season for fund-raising galas in New York opens, many nonprofit groups are worried about how the economy’s downturn will affect their efforts, notes The New York Times in an article examining what goes on behind the scenes at a fund-raising event.

“I think it’s going to be overall disastrous for charities, with no end in sight,” Sanford J. Schlesinger, a New York trust and estates lawyer who has clients who are putting off making big gifts, told the newspaper. Seedco, a charity that aids low-income workers, has canceled its benefit planned for this week because of the economy, the newspaper says.

Even so, the charity featured in the article — the New York Women’s Foundation — held its first gala event last week but managed to raise $675,000.

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