The credit crunch has dented hopes of raising much cash at London’s glitzy hedge fund charity ball on Thursday night, but the group behind the event plans to repeat it on the other side of the Atlantic within a year.

Absolute Return for Kids (Ark), the charity run by a coterie of London's top hedge funds, has just recruited two of New York's top managers – Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital and Cantillon Capital Management's William Von Mueffling – to help raise money in New York.