Further, I can’t imagine that the premise of this prioritization did not come up in discussions with the development staff as they were finalizing the details of a 10-figure donation. In that regard, this policy probably did influence his past actions as well.
Just because something is called a donation doesn’t mean it qualifies as one.
Pulling numbers out of a hat, 200k/year * 5 people * 25 years is 25 million. Though the IRS could easily define the fair market value as whatever the minimum donation to receive this level of service.
Sure running the phone number isn’t that expensive, but fair market value of this service is limited by their ability to provide it. They would essentially need to auction off a fixed number of slots per year and in NYC that those slots wouldn’t run cheap.
As to the hospital, “The octogenarian had stomach pain, and Room 20 was kept empty for him, medical workers said.” “One doctor was surprised to find an orthopedic specialist in the room awaiting a senior hospital executive’s mother with hip pain.” This is a larger disruption than just the time he was physically being treated so presumably it’s more than just a one person delay.
Sure one possibility is they have more space than workforce so keeping the room empty has minimal downsides, but maintaining a separate space for VIP’s requires more overhead than an empty room. Essentially you need to decide if anyone showing up is a VIP and that slows everything down even when there aren’t VIPs. “Major trustee, please prioritize” is vastly more disruptive than just putting someone ahead of a line.
“It’s the fact that I am getting multiple calls, from multiple people, asking me to drop everything to treat a V.I.P.”