The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund (PWCF) awards approximately £3 million to a range of charitable causes annually. It was founded by

King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

(then

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

) in 1979, and is registered as The Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation (formerly known as The Prince's Charities Foundation).

Overview

PWCF operates as a grant making organization that supports a wide range of causes across six key themes: * Heritage and Conservation * Education * Health and Wellbeing * Social Inclusion * Environment * Countryside The Fund operates a small grants programme, which is open all year round and awards grants of up to £5,000 to not-for-profit organisations across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. In addition, the Fund supports its strategic partners through a major grants programme, furthering the charitable objectives of King Charles.

Mission

* Inspired by King Charles's values of harmony and sustainability, PWCF aims through its grant making and other charitable activities to transform lives and build sustainable communities, thereby maximizing charitable impact. * This is achieved locally through supporting causes such as community projects, nationally through grants to charities such as

The Prince's Trust The Prince's Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth y Tywysog) is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are u ...

Soil Association The Soil Association is a British registered charity. The organisation activities include campaigning – against intensive farming, for local purchasing and public education on nutrition – and certification of organic foods. It was establ ...

and the

Rare Breeds Survival Trust The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is a conservation charity whose purpose is to secure the continued existence and viability of the native farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1973 by Joe Henson to pres ...

and globally through awards to charities operating across the Commonwealth.

Trustees

* Sir Ian Cheshire (Chairman) *

Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock, (born 29 March 1965) is a British government official working in social welfare. She was the deputy director of Shelter in 1992, head of the Rough Sleepers' Unit (RSU) in 1999, a director of the n ...

DBE * Dame Julie Moore * Sir Ken Olisa * Ms. Kristin Rechberger * The Hon. Mrs Sarah Jane Butler-Sloss

Subsidiaries

Accounting for Sustainability (A4S)

Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) encourages the responsible business community to recognise the benefits of considering the environment and wider society as part of their day-to-day business decisions; and establish a global framework for integrated corporate reporting. It has three main aims; to inspire finance leaders, transform financial decision making and to scale up action in order to transition into a sustainable economy. A4S gained charitable status in 2021.

The Prince's Countryside Fund (PCF)

The Prince's Countryside Fund works towards creating a sustainable future for the UK countryside. It supports family farmers and rural communities through grant making and training programmes, such as the Farm Resilience Programme, which provides free business skills training to family farmers. Over the past decade, the PCF has invested more than £10 million in over 400 projects, helping to empower rural communities across the UK. The Fund is also active in helping new entrants into farming and rural enterprise, and aims to provide young people with the skills they need to ensure that the countryside remains a living, breathing place for farmers in the future.

Duchy Originals Ltd

Duchy Originals Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Foundation. It was set up as a company by the Prince of Wales in 1990, and is one of the largest organic food brands in the UK. Duchy Originals focuses on good food, good farming and good causes in a ‘virtuous circle’. The Duchy Organics range is sold exclusively through

Waitrose Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...

. Each year, the royalties from the range are donated to PWCF and distributed to not-for-profit organisations through grants programmes. Last year, Duchy Originals donated £3.4 million to PWCF.

The Prince of Wales's Foundation Romania

The Prince of Wales's Foundation Romania continues to work with partners to deliver architectural, heritage preservation, farming and sustainable development projects across Romania.

Donations

Qatari donations

In June 2022, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' reported that between 2011 and 2015 King Charles accepted €3 million in cash from the Prime Minister of Qatar,

Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber bin Mohammed bin Thani Al Thani ( ar, حمد بن جاسم بن جبر آل ثاني; born 1959), also known informally by his initials HBJ, is a Qatari politician. He was the Prime Minister of Qatar from 3 April ...

. The funds were said to be in the form of €500 notes, handed over in person in three tranches, in a suitcase, holdall and

Fortnum & Mason Fortnum & Mason (colloquially often shortened to just Fortnum's) is an upmarket department store in Piccadilly, London, with additional stores at The Royal Exchange, St Pancras railway station, Heathrow Airport in London and K11 Musea In Hong ...

carrier bags. Charles' meetings with Al Thani did not appear in the

Court Circular The Court Circular (CC) is the official record that lists the engagements carried out by the monarch of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms; the Royal Family; and appointments to their staff and to the court. It is issued by St Ja ...

Coutts Coutts & Co. is a London-headquartered private bank and wealth manager. Founded in 1692, it is the eighth oldest bank in the world. Today, Coutts forms part of NatWest Group's wealth management division. In the Channel Islands and the Isle of ...

collected the cash and each payment was deposited into the accounts of The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund. Fawcett's salary in this fund was 95,000 GBP per annum. A

Clarence House Clarence House is a royal residence on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1825–1827, adjacent to St James's Palace, for the Duke of Clarence, the future king William IV. Over the years, it has undergone much exten ...

spokesperson stated that the appropriate covenants were carried out, and it was the "donor's choice" to make the donations in cash, after which the trustees "discussed the governance and donor relationship" and the auditors "signed off on the donation after a specific enquiry during the audit". There is no evidence that the payments were illegal or that it was not intended for the money to go to the charity. The

Charity Commission , type = Non-ministerial government department , seal = , seal_caption = , logo = Charity Commission for England and Wales logo.svg , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , ...

announced they would review the information and determine if "there is any role for the Commission in this matter". In July 2022, the Charity Commission announced that they would not be launching an investigation into the donations as the information submitted had provided "sufficient assurance" that due diligence had taken place.

Bin Laden family donations

In July 2022, ''The Times'' reported that in 2013 The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund had received a donation of £1 million from

Bakr bin Laden Bakr bin Mohammed bin 'Awad bin Laden ( ar, بكر بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن; born 1946) is the former chairman of the Jeddah-based Saudi Binladin Group and the former largest shareholder in the Group, with a 23.58% holding. He is t ...

and Shafiq bin Laden, both half-brothers of

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

, the founder of militant organization

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

that was responsible for the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

who had been disowned by his family. Charles was reportedly introduced to Bakr bin Laden in June 2000 at an exhibition in London, and he was present at a banquet during Charles's visit to

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...

. The two met about two weeks after the September 11 attacks at a dinner organised months earlier by the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, one of Charles's patronages that has links to the

Bin Laden family The Binladin family ( ar, عائلة بن لادن, ) is an Arab family intimately connected with the innermost circles of the House of Saud, Saudi royal family. It is the namesake and controlling shareholder of Saudi Binladin Group, a multinati ...

, to discuss the Islamic faith. Charles is said to have held a private meeting with Bakr bin Laden at Clarence House on 30 October 2013. The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund responded by stating that "the decision to accept the donation was taken wholly by the trustees", and "due diligence was conducted, with information sought from a wide range of sources, including government". The Charity Commission described the decision to accept donations as a "matter for trustees" and added that based on the available information no investigation was required.

References

External links

The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince's Charities Foundation The Prince's Trust 1979 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1979 The Prince's Charities