Barbara and Donald Jonas spent many years investing in their art collection and in a few decades have amassed a definitive collection of abstract expressionist works by the likes of de Kooning, Rothko, Gorky, and Kline.  In May 2005, their formidable collection was auctioned off at Christie’s for $44.3 million and all that money is available for charitable purposes.  The walls of the Jonases’ prewar Manhattan apartment may be a little emptier—they kept 15 of their 30 works—but their hearts could not be more full. The same passion that drove them to collect art is defining their new mission to advocate for the nursing profession. “We wanted to deal with our philanthropy as creatively and thoroughly as we did with our art,” explains Barbara. The retired 70-something couple—Donald is the founder of the Lechters Housewares chain and Barbara is a former practicing psychotherapist and social worker—decided to begin giving back now because as Donald says, “If you die rich, you die poor, really.”