Suzanne Hammer
New Legacy in Family Philanthropy Workbook: Featuring Hammer & Associates’ Tips for Having the Values Conversation
What is the legacy you are passing on? What do you wish you could impart to others, in your lifetime and beyond? These are questions you may have asked yourself, particularly in this last year of pandemic. These questions get to the heart of legacy—the gifts, values, and family spirit that you instill in others.…
How to Focus Your End of Year Giving
With 2020 soon (thankfully!) coming to a close, you and your family are likely considering the best way to contribute your end-of-year charitable dollars. With all the worthy causes to support—and the need greater than ever, how will you decide (or if you’re an advisor, help your clients decide) where to focus? One of the…
12 Ways to Give While Social Distancing: A Philanthropy Kit for Kids and Families During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people out of our comfort zones, keeping us home to face our fears, our values, our family members, and what matters most in life. If you are parent, grandparent, or caregiver with children at home, you have been working hard to keep your family healthy, while striving to find a…
Navigating Uncertain Times: How Funders Can Support their Grantees
I hope this finds you and your family and community safe and well in this time of fear and hardship. I know we all are inundated at the moment with news and emails about COVID-19, and within philanthropy, funders are wondering how to best respond. Some of those conversations are happening right now, in real…
Assessing Philanthropic Need: The Sandgaard Foundation Finds its Funding Focus by Listening and Learning
As some of you will remember, last spring I announced that Hammer & Associates had launched and was managing The Sandgaard Foundation, a new private Denver-based foundation that aims to make a national impact on the opioid crisis. Founder Thomas Sandgaard—an entrepreneur, business leader, and musician—had discovered the devastating impact of opioid use disorder, and…
Launching The Sandgaard Foundation (and how you can join us)
Introducing The Sandgaard Foundation to End the Opioid Epidemic Most of the foundations and family offices I work with like to keep their giving anonymous, out of the limelight. Not this time. I have big news to share about a client who wants to make some noise to meet his mission. Late last year, I…
Family Office Magazine Features Hammer & Associates on the Cover of The Business of Wealth Issue
We made the cover! I’m excited to announce that my Balancing Passion and Strategy article is the lead article featured in the internationally read Family Office Magazine’s The Business of Wealth edition. You can read the full article here. The U.K.-based Family Office Magazine has a readership of 56,000 influential family office leaders and families…
Find Your Philanthropic Focus
Happy Independence Week! My clients—family offices, family foundations and individual donors—often ask me: how do I figure out how to focus my philanthropy? The world has an infinite number of issues and problems to solve, and the needs are greater than any one funder can possibly fix. And when I ask seasoned philanthropists if they…
London Calling: Family Office Resource Roundup
I’m off to London this week for the Global Family Office Conference, an event organized by my friend and colleague Vahe Vartanian, founder & CEO of the Global Family Office Community. This will be my fourth year attending this conference, and I’m excited to again be with family office members, leaders, and experts from all continents. I’ll…
Listen, Think, Act (and Dance!): iKnow Concert Series is Changing How People Experience Africa
Late last year, Hammer & Associates published the fourth of our EngagedPhilanthropy™ series called Global Philanthropy: A Family Office Guide to International Giving. In it, we highlighted some of the most impactful international initiatives we could find to share best international giving practices with the philanthropy and family office field. One of those organizations is…
Dealing with Death and Transition – Family Dynamics Fixes
“If you think you’re enlightened, spend a weekend with your family.” – Ram Dass Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed a restful holiday season. I’ll admit: I have, what I like to call, a bit of a family hangover. It’s not been an easy week. I’ve been in Florida this past week, where…
Your Go-To Guide on Global Philanthropy
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, more families of wealth want to make an impact globally through their philanthropy and investments. This is greatly needed, as we humans and our planet are facing some of the most complex humanitarian crises of our time. Some family offices and funders shy away from international philanthropy. While cross-border…