Hammer & Associates has delivered a broad range of solutions for a variety of clients over the years.
Developing Innovative Strategy and Partnerships
Challenge: A philanthropic donor in Denver believed in the power of education through the arts. Upon her death, her family founded a private operating foundation aiming to expose children to the arts throughout their lives. Yet the family didn’t know where to start.
Approach: Suzanne worked with the family to narrow their focus on what they wanted to accomplish,and helped them develop a strategy that trained teachers how to deliver standard educational curricula by using art as a method. Suzanne forged a relationship with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, and designed and implemented arts integration workshops for Denver-area elementary school teachers. As acting executive director, Suzanne managed the day-to-day operations of the foundation, and led events and fundraising.
Impact: This new train-the-teacher programming touched the lives of many young students—giving them a way to learn and express themselves that previously wasn’t available to them.
For example: “In one program, the teachers we trained taught students reading comprehension by using drama. We learned that students who previously did poorly on tests knocked it out of the park when they could act out what they were reading.” A second program provided one-on-one music lessons to children with disabilities. One young girl with cerebral palsy progressed from completely frozen arms and hands to freely playing improvisational piano.
Managing a Multigenerational Foundation and Spend-Down Process
Challenge: An oil and gas family foundation wanted a platform to keep the geographically dispersed family together over time, while still supporting the rural community where they were born and raised. While the family had, for years, supported the community through ad-hoc checkbook giving, there was no set strategy or impact. An income event (the death of the patriarch) prompted the family to seek the assistance of a skilled philanthropy advisor.
Approach: Managing the foundation and working in partnership with the family office, Suzanne guided the family to formalize a grantmaking strategy and mission, along with an application and grantmaking process. She facilitated several board retreats that focused on whether the foundation should sunset or remain in perpetuity. She curated family stories, documenting the legacy of the matriarch. These stories are used to this day to help guide giving through the foundation. She is now working with a few individual family members on their personal giving strategies—providing a path for their passions to make a true impact.
Impact: With Suzanne’s guidance, the foundation developed a spend-down strategy for the next seven to nine years, exiting in a way that will have the most impact on the community: making it “a place to live, learn, and age.” Working closely with the director of two more foundations within the family, Suzanne looks at each opportunity to determine which is best for each foundation, and develops partnerships among the three foundations for the most impact.
Recent grant achievements include: establishing arts outreach programs in partnership with a school for the arts—including a $1.1.MM agreement for capital expenditures, including a media center, and a 10-year outreach program to the community; funding technical assistance and general operating support for leadership at a domestic violence shelter and other direct service organizations; and, with the local public school district and businesses, training non-college bound students to become certified welders.
Facilitating Retreats and Relationships
Challenge: A philanthropic donor in Santa Fe had three family branches of chosen family (those related by marriages, not by blood) who had never met. She desired to bring this diverse group of people—of allages, different viewpoints—together using philanthropy as a tool, to inspire them to give in their own ways based on their own values, as this donor has done.
Approach: Suzanne planned, led, and facilitated a three-day family retreat with this group of people who were meeting for the first time. Additionally, she worked with the donor to create a legacy statement (i.e., a donor intent statement) to focus her giving in this lifetime, as well as the giving that will continue through her estate.
Impact: The donor has said that this process has been nothing short of transformational. It’s been powerful to contemplate what she has done and the impact she has had, and to bring her loved ones together in an intentional and meaningful way. She has been able to weed out the dead weight in her giving, becoming far more focused. She is now revamping the philanthropic components of her will.
Coaching for a Leadership Succession
Challenge: A multigenerational family foundation faced a succession in leadership. They reported challenges in family dynamics and cross-generational communication.
Approach: Suzanne coached the incoming family leader and guided the family through an effective leadership succession. Additionally, she worked with the board to rebalance the foundation’s portfolio—focusing funding in Water, Sanitation, and Health (WaSH issues), education, agriculture, and social justice, and defining impact measures for each.
Impact: With Suzanne’s guidance and support, the third-generation family member is now thriving as a full-time executive director of foundation. The family has now redefined its discretionary giving, honing its focus and impact on helping people in the developing world break the cycle of poverty.