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Ken Hoffman

Ken Hoffman

Partner

+44 (0)7788 271 723
khoffman@morepartnership.com

Most of my working life is spent advising on fundraising from American sources for the benefit of non-American charities. It is astonishing how much misinformation there is! Numerous non-US charities believe the first step in an American fundraising program must be to create an American Friends group. Not so; it’s only one option; it depends. And I’ve had board members of ‘American Friends’ alumni groups who won’t let an officer of their non-US university attend a Friends board meeting – conflict of interest, they say. Not necessarily – and the Friends should want input from the organisation which benefits from American gifts. Admittedly, some confusion arises because there is comparatively little ‘black letter law’ – statutes, regulations, or case law – for guidance. So we are often thrown back on corporate custom: how are these functions customarily structured and performed. Judging that takes familiarity. Advice to those setting out to raise funds in America for non-American charities: think this through; obtain advice; choose your strategy carefully; and understand it is a long term commitment where you have no explicit control over ‘your’ American Friends group – the relationship requires tending and persuasion in perpetuity.

Some I've worked with recently

  • American Associates of the National Theatre
  • American Friends of Winchester College
  • American International School of Budapest
  • Bletchley Park Trust
  • The British Academy
  • British American Drama Academy
  • Educate Girls
  • Emmanuel College, Cambridge
  • Friends of École Normale Supérieure
  • Friends of IHES
  • Institut Pasteur
  • LIFER
  • Medicines for Malaria Venture
  • National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA
  • NHS Charities Together
  • The Old Vic
  • Quebec-Labrador Foundation
  • Race Against Dementia
  • Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
  • University of Pretoria
  • Welthungerhilfe
  • Zurich International School Foundation

Talents

  • Helping clients articulate their goals for fundraising from American sources
  • Explaining the complex US regulatory landscape – and how to comply
  • Interpreting the American ‘culture of philanthropy’ to non-American fundraisers

Before More

  • Consultant on fundraising and attorney advising on US charitable law
  • Fundraiser and attorney for the National Trust for Historic Preservation (US)
  • Fundraiser and attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation (environmental pressure group)
  • University of Maine School of Law, JD
  • Harvard University, AB

Outside More

  • Amateur singer and recorder player, baroque and renaissance sacred music
  • Eager reader on many historical subjects, lately interested in the European age of discovery