Celebrating half a century of helping.

When people think of New York real estate brokers, most think of Manhattan's superheated market, and the megamillion dollar deals that make headlines regularly. But for many brokers, the field is literally "feast or famine"--you can be rich one year, and broke the next. It was to help the latter--career real estate brokers down on their luck--that the New York Realty Foundation was founded in 1954.

The Foundation, which will soon mark its 50th anniversary in grand style, was the brainchild of Nathan Wilson, a freelance real estate broker, who realized that brokers in the 'famine' rather than 'feast' stage of their volatile careers, had nowhere to turn for financial assistance.

Wilson, along with some of the real estate giants of yesteryear including Jack Weiler, William Zeckendorf Sr., Charles B. Benenson, Charles F. Noyes, and Harry Helmsley, among others--created the Foundation specifically to address this need.

And it's done that in spectacular fashion. To date, the Realty Foundation has given away an extraordinary $4.4 million to those in need through a combination of grants, scholarships and endowments.

On May 4, The Foundation will celebrate 50 years of charitable giving with its landmark 50th anniversary luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria. The honoree is Eugene M. Grant, the Foundation's devoted treasurer and vice president, who has been involved with the Foundation since its inception.

Grant, one of the most respected leaders in the industry, heads his own Manhattan-based real estate investment and development firm.

He is known for both professional accomplishments as well as charitable work, and in particular, for his deep commitment to the Foundation, which he has seen grow from a small group of real estate investors to an industry-wide organization that gives away tens of thousands of dollars each year.

"At the beginning, a small committee of three people raised the nucleus of money that would help become our endowment," noted Grant. "We were guided by the vision and generosity of Nathan Wilson, and people like Charles F. Noyes and Jack Weiler and others who really viewed giving to the community as a form of good works."

Grant credits his own commitment to the Foundation to his awareness of the fundamental obligation to be generous when one has achieved success.

"You go from one mountain to another, and pretty soon you've done it times," "If eight he says. you've achieved wealth, and if you're at all thoughtful, you ask how to give back."

"One of the interesting things about the Foundation is that we have made it a cornerstone of our work and philosophy to protect the privacy of the Foundation's beneficiaries," states Patricia Frank, the Foundation's executive director.

"Oftentimes, only one person working at the Foundation knows the identity of those we help, and our records are kept top-secret."

Moreover, she adds, many of the Foundation's most generous donors seem to have taken its motto to heart: "In our profession, you can never tell when you may need the Realty Foundation, and until you do, the Realty Foundation needs you."

Over the years, the membership of the Foundation has grown exponentially as has its power to help.

In 1976, in addition to giving grants to individuals in need, the Foundation decided to award scholarships to the children of people employed in the real estate business. To date, the Foundation has issued an extraordinary $2,220,000 in financial aid and over $2,200,000 in scholarship awards.

It has begun to help support colleges with departments in real estate, in order to encourage more people to enter the field. The Foundation's distinguished Board of Directors is led today by Chairman Larry A. Silverstein and President Jerry L. Cohen.

"I have always found the real estate field to be extraordinarily charitable," observed Frank.

"And it's always helpful to have dynamic role models at the helm of the organization, people like Gene, whose generosity is legendary and who inspires similar behavior in those who admire him."

Grant's devotion to philanthropy and work ethic is clearly not just limited to the Realty Foundation.

He is a past governor of the Real Estate Board of New York, member of the Advisory Council of the Real Estate Institute of New York University and member of the Real Estate Council of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He is also a past General Chairman of the UJA/Federation of Greater New York, Chairman Emeritus of the Westchester Holocaust Commission, and Life Trustee of the Jewish Museum of New York and chairman of its buildings campaign.

Amazingly, Grant says, the majority of the individuals the Foundation has helped have eventually paid back most, if not all, of the money they had been given.

"It's very important to be part of your community," Grant says simply, when asked about the Realty Foundation's capacity to thrive throughout five decades of enormous change in the industry.

"People in the real estate industry seem to recognize that. They know the volatility, dynamism and vulnerability of this industry. The key is to look at yourself after you give the gift, and see if your style of life has been reduced one iota. Odds are it hasn't.

"The idea is to give until it feels good, not until it hurts."