Honored for living a life of philanthropy

The Island Now

Great Neck resident Sandra Atlas Bass has been involved with over 400 charitable organizations across the world throughout her life.
For her efforts, the Association of Fundraising Professionals Long Island Chapter will  honor Bass as the recipient of its Horace Hagedorn Outstanding Philanthropist award.
“I’m very thrilled to receive this award because it’s a very prestigious award,” she said. “I’m very happy to have it.”
Bass is the owner of the Sol G. Atlas Realty Company, which is located on Great Neck Road in Great Neck.
She is also president of the Sandra Atlas Bass and Edythe and Sol G. Atlas Fund, a charity that she said is the “reason why I work.”
Bass, who has lived in Great Neck since she was 3 years old, said that her philanthropic work is “something I was born with.”
Some of the more than 400 charitable organizations she works with include Cerebral Palsy of Nassau County, the Interfaith Nutrition Network, North Shore Animal League America, orphanages in Italy and Israel, no-kill animal shelters and sanctuaries both in the United States and across the world and various soup kitchens.
Bass has also made major contributions to Northwell Health and North Shore University Hospital.
She said that someone from the health care system had approached her years ago about the state of North Shore University Hospital, which she said was “nothing like it is today.”
“I felt like I was needed to do something,” Bass said.
She said the first thing she donated was a new cafeteria. But her efforts did not stop there.
Bass also donated the Sandra Atlas Bass Cardiology Centers and supports the Sandra Atlas Bass Audiology Department, Cohen Children’s Hospital, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and, most recently, the Sandra Atlas Bass Liver Center.
In 2007, because of her philanthropic work and a $25 million donation, the North Shore University Hospital campus was renamed the Sandra Atlas Bass campus.
Bass’ passion for helping those who need it stretches deeper than just charitable organizations.
She said that about four or five years ago she had heard of a man from the Great Neck area who was living in his car with his dog and immediately sought to find him.
Once she found him, Bass said, she offered him one of three apartments free of charge at one of the buildings she owns, and he accepted a studio apartment.
She said that he still lives in her building today, where he helps her with various painting jobs.
Bass said that it is a “pleasure” for her to support charitable organizations and those who need assistance, but wishes more people would do so.
“It’s very upsetting to me because I know a lot of people who can give and should give and they don’t,” she said.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Horace Hagedorn Outstanding Philanthropist award goes to “an individual who has demonstrated personal charitable generosity and community responsibility and encourages others to take leadership roles within the Long Island not-for-profit community,” according to the fundraising group.
Hagedorn was a Sands Point resident, who died in 2005, and along with his wife, Amy, established the Horace and Amy Hagedorn Fund in 1993.
Bass will be presented the award at the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Philanthropy Day 2016 Awards Luncheon on Friday, Nov. 18, at the Melville Marriott.

By Joe Nikic

Share this Article