When Quality Quinn bought a charming adobe home in the sleepy mountain-view Texas town of Marfa, she was determined to spend her summer weekends there in quiet repose. To reinforce the idea, she even built a wall around the property. After six years, Ms. Quinn's summer peace has been disrupted by a nuisance she never anticipated: her social calendar.

As more upscale weekenders pour into Marfa, the town is awash with parties and fund-raisers for everything from a nearby observatory to a new radio station. At a benefit for the public library, paying guests were encouraged to dress as "wealthy ranchers." By August, Ms. Quinn, a 52-year-old educational consultant, will have powdered her nose to attend 12 events. "It's constant," she says. "There's no such thing as 'we're dining in tonight.' "

Here's some advice for anyone planning to set aside civic obligations for a few tranquil weeks in a summer-home community: Don't forget to pack your formal wear -- and your checkbook. From established retreats such as Martha's Vineyard, Mass., to up-and-coming enclaves like Three Oaks, Mich., the summer season is starting to feel less like an afternoon nap in a hammock and more like benefit season in some glittering metropolis.

In Charlevoix, Mich., an increasingly moneyed summer-home destination, Castle Farms, an event space that hosts private soirees and benefits, has added 30,000 square feet in three years. One night last week in Ojai, Calif. (population 7,862), more than a hundred residents paid $150 each to attend a cocktail reception to promote healthy foods in the schools. And last month, in a bid to boost local businesses, the chamber of commerce on Martha's Vineyard oversaw more than 25 events commemorating the 30th anniversary of the release of the movie "Jaws."

The situation is so out of control in Southampton, N.Y., that the town council voted to limit the number of parties that charge admission to one per private residence each summer.

The shift reflects the enormous wave of cash pouring into these getaway communities as more wealthy people arrive for long weekends and, in many cases, spend lavishly on property. According to market-research company Fiserv CSW, Inc., the average price of vacation homes nationwide rose 21 percent in 2004 over the previous year.

Many of the new arrivals are self-made baby boomers with grown children who fall into a typical pattern: They choose a summer community on its merits and show up with swells of disposable income, determined to meet their new neighbors. Others are members of the new class of working wealthy who tend to plug into the office remotely in order to spend more time at their "summer" residences.

For charitable groups already faced with an increasingly crowded giving market, all this means one thing: It's time to pack up the Coppertone and follow the money. "Normally we take the summer off," says Alex Matthiessen, president of Riverkeeper, Inc., a Hudson River advocacy group. But this year, Mr. Matthiessen says, the group is planning its first-ever summer fund-raiser, which will be held in the Hamptons in August. The top sponsorship package includes two tickets for $25,000 and "prominent mention" in the event's promotional program.

Some fund-raisers, sensing social fatigue, are changing their tactics. Last year on Martha's Vineyard, Brendan O'Neill, executive director of the Vineyard Conservation Society, tried a novel approach to raising money. After spending $5,000 on a catered garden party in an arboretum in 2003 and netting about $10,000 in donations, Mr. O'Neill's group decided to send out invitations for "An Evening at Home," with tickets ranging from $100 to $500. The reward for paying up: there would be no party to attend. In the end, he says, the non-event netted nearly the same amount as the garden party for a fraction of the work. "We're looking to do it again," Mr. O'Neill says.

Sam Feldman, 76, the retired chief executive of a chain of clothing stores, shifted his primary residence to Martha's Vineyard several years ago in the hopes of slowing down. But ever since President Clinton made the island a frequent getaway spot, the parties and benefits have increased in frequency and glamour. "We are party-fatigued," he says. So many new charitable organizations have arrived to hit up islanders for contributions that Mr. Feldman helped found the Martha's Vineyard Donors Collaborative to advise them on refining their pitches. "We go to Manhattan for R & R," he says.

In old-school summer enclaves, of course, intense social calendars are nothing new. San Francisco philanthropist Dede Wilsey, 61, has spent parts of the summer at her mother's "cottage" in Newport, R.I., every year since she was a girl, and says the calendar has always been packed with golf outings, croquet parties and black-tie benefits. The need for different outfits and jewels is so great, Ms. Wilsey adds, she arranged to have her suitcases sent across the country by FedEx and her jewelry shipped in a Brinks truck. "It's handy," she says.

But in many emerging summer outposts, observers say, the new arrivals are generally people who don't have family ties to the area. Socially ambitious and eager to network, they're often happy to embrace the idea of a busy summer benefit season. "They're looking for a social infrastructure," says Paul Schervish, director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College.

From the moment Glenda Greenwald and her husband, Gerald, the former vice chairman of Chrysler Corp. and chief executive of United Airlines, settled on Aspen, Colo., as their primary summer haunt, they've wasted no time helping to pack the social calendar. By the end of this summer, Mrs. Greenwald will have had a hand in planning events for the Aspen Jazz Festival and the Aspen Institute. And earlier this month, she organized a $500-a-head fund-raiser for the Aspen Center for Integrative Health to reward excellence in preparation of healthy gourmet food.

About the only thing Mrs. Greenwald won't do on her vacation is take a night off. "Now you rest before and after the summer," she explains.

While the price of entry may not be quite as steep, the same sort of overload is happening in towns where, until recently, the highlight of the social calendar was a chicken barbecue at the firehouse.

As outsiders continue to buy weekend homes in Ojai, Calif., a once-sleepy town between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, the social pace has been quickening. Chamber of commerce president Bret Bradigan says newspaper listings suggest there will be 180 social and community events in the Ojai area this summer, an increase of roughly 20 percent in four years -- and that these events are, in general, "more ambitious and more sophisticated" than they have been in the past. The only complication, Mr. Bradigan says, is trying to keep all these obligations straight. "Everyone in Ojai is expected to show up all the time," he says.

Last weekend's main event in Ojai was a "Food for Thought" benefit concert to promote the use of locally grown fruits and vegetables in the school district. Donors who paid $150 were invited to a pre-concert reception where they sipped wine and nibbled on plum tartlets and grilled shrimp on sugarcane skewers. The event's organizer, Steve Fields, a retired Walt Disney Co. executive, says the evening raised nearly $80,000.

For summer community residents who have long been active in civic causes, all this new energy is welcome. For the last 14 years, Allen Turner, a Chicago investor, has owned a home in Three Oaks, which is part of the booming "Harbor Country" area on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Mr. Turner, a trustee of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, says the influx has helped him pick up the pace of his philanthropy: hosting and attending fund-raisers to create a public radio station, build a $100,000 playground, renovate the local library and raise money to fund a new history museum for Three Oaks, which Mr. Turner calls "the Athens of southwestern Michigan." As far as he's concerned, the more social the transplants are, the better. "These people bring along money," he says.

In the Hamptons, where all the charitable activity has become chaotic, the backlash is gaining steam. Dennis Suskind, a Southampton town councilman who oversees event permits, is so concerned about noise, traffic congestion and the strain on police that he's already thinking about strengthening the town's new limits on parties that charge admission. He's also looking into legislation that would require some portion of the money raised at any event to be earmarked for local institutions.

Steven Gaines, an author who's lived in East Hampton for 32 years, says he's so irritated by the ubiquity of fund-raisers that the only help he'll offer to most causes is the use of his name. "I tell them, 'I'll do anything I can to help -- aside from actually helping.'"

Nonetheless, some people have simply abandoned the notion of going to the countryside to relax. As the president of the Austin Public Library, Quality Quinn, the Marfa resident, says she feels obligated to attend as many functions as she can to make sure potential donors support her fund-raising efforts.

This weekend, she'll be attending a two-day event for donors who've given about $1,000 to the nearby McDonald Observatory. For the main event, a stargazing party, Ms. Quinn plans to wear a tomato-red silk shirt, a flax prairie skirt, vintage cowboy boots with a lizard toe, a load of turquoise jewelry and, of course, her pocketbook.

"I'm writing checks like I did not expect to do while on vacation," she says.

Invasion of the Money-Snatchers

As wealthy weekenders continue to pour into new (and old) summer enclaves, they are turbocharging the social schedule. Here are some upcoming events:

TOWN/EVENT: East Hampton, N.Y., August 27; Wyclef Jean performance and dinner
WHAT IT IS: Benefit for Haitian development organization, Yele Haiti. Tickets are $1,000 apiece.
COMMENT: Angelina Jolie and Meryl Streep are "VIP hosts"; event predates release of "Ghosts of Cite Soleil," a documentary on Haiti scored and co-produced by Mr. Jean.

TOWN/EVENT: Nantucket, Mass., August 13; Boston Pops on Nantucket
WHAT IT IS: Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra performs to benefit Nantucket Cottage Hospital.
COMMENT: NBC News's Tim Russert will emcee the event, which organizers hope will raise more than $900,000 for the hospital. Ticket prices range from $30 to $2500.

TOWN/EVENT: Marfa, Texas, September 2-4; Marfa Lights Festival
WHAT IT IS: Free outdoor carnival with a parade, vendors and works on display from local artists.
COMMENT: Nineteenth annual festival celebrates the unexplained yellow and green lights that often ignite the night sky in this West Texas town.

TOWN/EVENT: Martha's Vineyard, August 13; Houses on the Move "You're So Vain" party
WHAT IT IS: Dinner and private concert by Carly Simon to raise funds for affordable housing. Twenty-five tickets available for $1,000 each.
COMMENT: One of a series of fundraisers by the group at private homes. Caters to "intellectual people," including comedian Larry David and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, says organizer Suzanne Lanzone.

TOWN/EVENT: New Buffalo, Mich., August 20; Into the Woods IX: An All-American Beach Party
WHAT IT IS: Dinner and a sunset bonfire to benefit Lambda Legal, the gay rights advocacy group. Tickets range from $100 to $10,000.
COMMENT: One of the most successful annual fundraisers in the "Harbor Country" section along Lake Michigan. Organizers expect 425 guests this year, up 13 percent from 2004.