The Absolute Return for Kids (Ark) star-studded annual gala dinner, which raises all of the charity's funding in a single night, will not take place this year as Ark moves to a new strategy to raise money.

The Ark gala dinner, which began in 2002, had cost as much as £10,000 a ticket, and had counted royalty, Hollywood actors and global statesmen such as Bill Clinton amongst its guests.

It raised £14.5m last year, slightly down on £17.2m in 2011. But this year, the charity has decided not to hold the dinner as it moves to more intimate ways to engage donors.

A spokeswoman for the charity said: “We have grown as an organisation and it is very difficult to tell our donors the breadth of what we do in one single night. We plan to move to smaller events to demonstrate the impact of our work to donors.”

She said that the charity had hosted a champagne reception in January attended by London Mayor Boris Johnson and planned similar events going forward.

She said the charity may hold another gala dinner in the future, but there were no plans for now.

Ark was set up by Arpad Busson, partner of actress Uma Thurman. He founded hedge fund investor EIM in the 1990s.

In 2011, Ark was recognised by the Charity Awards for its work in Bulgaria to reform the country's childcare system.