The signature fund raising event for High Water Women, its annual casino night, will be held on April 26 at Gotham Hall in New York City and will highlight the organization's financial literacy programs.

Packages for the charity evening of gaming, dinner and a poker or blackjack tournament start at $100,000 for 30 tickets and go down to $500 for one ticket for dinner and gaming. The goal is to raise $500,000.

High Water Women is an organization of high-net-worth people, mostly women, who work in the financial services industry. It was started in 2005 by Kathleen Kelley, portfolio manager for global macro investments at Kingdon Capital Management LLC.

Kelley started the organization as a way for high-net-worth women to give back to the community, partially through vetting other volunteer and charity organizations.

The organization has raised more than $4 million for grants and has 15 partner nonprofit organizations, mostly in the New York City and tri-state area. Some 13,500 volunteer hours have been donated.

The organization says it works with nonprofits to identify volunteer and grant making opportunities while leveraging the talents and aspirations of professional women. It helped create a financial literacy program that teaches low-income teenagers the essentials of personal financial independence--a program that will be featured at this year's event, said Diane Keating, executive director.

A movie about the program will be premiered at the casino night.

"The financial literacy program has expanded so much that we had to hire a program director," Keating said. "Financial literacy education for youths gives them the building blocks to avoid financial problems as they become young adults. They take the information home and share it with their families."

The program teaches such things as the value of a bank account, saving and investing, the dangers of credit cards and the importance of credit scores.

"Most of the volunteers who teach the programs are women from the financial services industry so they also serve as role models for the women in the classes," Keating said. High Water Women works with the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, the New York City Public Library and the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development for the financial literacy program.

Cathleen Mahon, deputy commissioner for financial empowerment at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs will be honored at the event.

Additional information can be found at www.highwaterwomen.org.

--Karen DeMasters