The Art Room was one of the first patronages the Duchess of Cambridge took on back in 2012. We should have known back then – and some of us did know, honestly – that Kate’s “royal work” would be minimal at best. She only confirmed her first patronages about nine or ten months after her wedding. Anyway, The Art Room seemed like a good fit for Kate, who has what amounts to a Bachelor’s in Art History and a keenness for children: The Art Room is a nonprofit which focuses on giving free art therapy to kids. Art, mental health, children, the early years… that’s all in Kate’s wheelhouse, correct? Well, Kate hasn’t done anything for the Art Room since January 2017, by my records. The last four events she did in any kind of support for The Art Room: January ‘17, February ‘16, October ‘15 (the 100 Women in Hedge Funds gala, which benefited The Art Room) and January ‘15. Again, Kate’s support has been nominal at best.
During the Early Years launch over the past few weeks, I actually wondered if she would make any kind of stop with The Art Room, considering it intersects so many of her interests and her eight-year “body of work” we heard so much about. Turns out… The Art Room is closing. Due to lack of funding. Check out how much it would cost to keep the Art Room in operation, however temporarily:
A children’s mental health charity supported by the Duchess of Cambridge is to close. The duchess became patron of The Art Room in Oxford in 2012. The charity, which uses art therapy to help boost children’s confidence and self esteem, had since expanded to cover eight schools in Oxfordshire, London, and Edinburgh. Parent charity Place2Be blamed financial pressures and shrinking school budgets. The Art Room employs 34 staff, and at least half of them will be made redundant.
In a statement Place2Be, which merged with The Art Room in 2018, said the charity was not financially sustainable, “particularly in an environment where school budgets are under pressure”. It said it was developing a “more accessible and financially-viable model” in the form of a mobile service. The Art Room will operate in its current format until the end of March, and then all eight of its facilities will close.
“Our teams are working with school staff to identify alternative support for children who have previously accessed our services,” the statement said.
Emmy O’Shaughnessy, from Oxford arts charity the Ark T Centre, said she was “really shocked” to hear of the closure. She said the Ark T Centre was teaming up with fellow charity Raw Workshop to try and raise £50,000 to continue “vital” services that are provided by The Art Room in the local area. She added: “I feel really passionately that The Art Room makes a massive difference to children and young people who aren’t getting that kind of support in other areas because of the lack of resource.” Kensington Palace has been contacted for comment.
£50,000! I would imagine that the £50,000 is not “operational costs for two years” or anything – they probably need £50,000 to simply continue The Art Room’s “vital services” past March, for maybe three to six months or so. For comparison, £50,000 is about the cost of Kate’s wardrobe for one overseas tour, basically. And even then, I would imagine that one of the most popular royal figures – who happens to be your long-time patroness – would be able to raise that money in a snap. Literally, all it would take would be ONE fundraiser. Kate could even host it in Kensington Palace. You know what else she could do? Auction off ten signed copies (at £5,000 a pop) of her various photographs, because she’s so keen on photography. And before anyone argues “that’s just not done, it would be breaking protocol,” Prince Charles has been auctioning off his own paintings for charity for years/decades. He’s also been hosting charity fundraisers at Clarence House for years and years. Of course it could be done. All it would take would be the will to do something.
How is it that the Art Room fell through the cracks of Kate’s Keen Early Years launch? How is it that she hasn’t managed to to do ANYTHING for The Art Room for three f–king years? Also, I don’t want this to go unnoticed – this is what I feared and what a lot of people feared about the hodge-podge weirdness of Heads Together. Heads Together tried to put a bunch of nonprofits together and then the royals would allegedly allocate the money to the individual nonprofits. I worried that the money wouldn’t end up going to the individual charities though. I wonder if that’s what happened here. Money went to Heads Together, then got allocated to Place2Be, and that’s where it stopped, and so the Art Room’s money dried up. All of this is such a bad look for Kate. Worse than when she skipped a fundraiser for EACH and Ed Sheeran had to pick up the slack.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
It doesnt look good for her, how can a patronage of Kate close for lack of funding? Was she not informed, or she didnt care…
All of the above
This is terrible and just goes to show how little the Royals actually care about the work they’re doing. They’re all more interested promoting themselves than the charities.
well, had this been Meghan, the press would have been all over it!!! This woman is one of the most incompetent members of the RF. How can you be surrounded or have examples from people below is still be so useless?
1) Prince Charles
2) Diana
3) Harry
4) Meghan
5) to some extent, Camilla and Sophie
Oh well, I forgot, she is a mother and works a lot behind the scenes. I guess her very limited abilities were all focused on the putting the survey together.
Let’s not forget, this is all Meghan’s fault. If Meghan and Harry had stayed, she would have spent more time with her charity instead of being the rock of the RF as she is now
@VS I agree but your list is also full of self-promoters too. They just do a better job of it.
I do wonder whether a lot of this comes down to the types of help they surround themselves with.
@Nahema — self-promoters? who are they? is this another word for attention seeking? Isn’t that what Meghan was accused of doing when she worked on the cookbook with those wonderful ladies, or the Smart set collection with SmartWorks or even Vogue?
I guess it is better to be keen…….well, I will take self-promotion that helps others over keenness that accomplishes nothing……to each their own I guess!!!
@VS
Good points, but you left out Anne. And even though he was problematic while still working the Duke of Edinburgh.
Kate doesn’t equal all Royals, esp as there is evidence that other Royals have actually done fundraisers to bring money to patronages and charities. They should not all be tarred as not caring about patronages solely because of Kate’s trifling behavior.
If the issue is no funding then come up with something to GENERATE funding. You know, like Meghan did for the Hubb Kitchen. It’s your job, Kate. Not suggesting a cookbook, but surely you can come up with something. How lame is this?
Since cuts to school budgets are the issue it means the program relied on cost sharing. Replacing an entire stream of revenue for a local charity is really tough. The service model of maintaining eight brick and mortar sites is no longer sustainable and needs to be reworked. This happens all the time in the charity world as public funding for everything is shirking.
What makes me sad is that now that she knows about this (IF she wasn’t told until it was a crisis), she could do something about it easily and help them stay open, but she won’t because it will be “too embarrassing” for her. She seems very much like a “hide your head in the sand, if you don’t acknowledge it, it never happened” type of person. She could probably even get good press for saving the charity, but I have a feeling she won’t because she’ll be too embarrassed about what the charity people think about her now. It’s not like anyone would be mean to her face or blame her outright to the press, but she won’t want to deal with her own feelings of discomfort regarding how she dropped the ball on this, so she’ll just ignore it instead. Rather than do the right thing and step in to help them, this is going to be swept under the rug and she will actively distance herself from this charity because she won’t want attention brought to the fact that she let it slip so far.
She has 19, ok now 18 patronages and the entire point of having a low number was to focus on them more than if she had hundreds like Charles, Anne and the others. If she can’t even ensure that her 19, oops 18 patronages are sustainable, then what is she doing?
they will PR the hell out of this and make her look good.
I agreed 1.000%. Just watch and learn.
I’m an artist, who has seen firsthand, communities struggle to provide arts to students.
I’ve done fundraisers for supplies for inner-city programs.
For her to abandon her patronage like this, makes me angry.
Anne wouldn’t have walked away. Charles absolutely wouldn’t have.
Cosplay Kate has no concern for anyone beyond her own private circle. Heartless.
They never should have let her skate this long doing so little.
Well we all know that all Kate does is show up once, her picture is taken and she is done, she does nothing to help her charities.
Probably because she doesn’t really know how to do ANYTHING. She’s never held a job and never taken the time to learn about the actual duties of the one ahe married into.
It must be daunting to have people expecting you to come up with interesting, attention grabbing ways to bring funds to your charities when you aren’t interesting or interested and you don’t know how to do ANYTHING.
Again, Duchess of Mayo has spent more time working on her stupid accent than on any of the work parts of her job.
Since she’s so into cosplaying, she should auction off some of those expensive gowns she’ll never wear again, like Diana did to raise money for her charities. In the meantime, MAKE A PERSONAL DONATION!! For crapsake, they can easily afford it! Or hit up a few of their TurnipToff friends! Loose change in the sofa for them!
Re: the accent. Yes, her phony accent and artificially trying to appear superior to others seems to be more important to Kate than actually helping people. But I think “appearance” means everything to the royal family, and substance means nothing.
The thing is, she doesn’t have to be innovative or interesting. All she needs to do is show up more often and be photographed/filmed for the public. It’s a very easy, brainless job. Some choose to approach it with more creativity, but strictly speaking, that is not necessary. She could never be a Meghan, but she could easily be an Anne.
I have read a few comments over the past few weeks that amounted to “see, Kate should keep doing stuff she’s passionate about! It would be great if she did something with art therapy!” Who remembered this was one of her patronages? This is absolutely pitiful. I’m a teacher in the arts, music specifically, and I know what it is to be the first program cut every time. She would barely have to lift the finger with shiny Ol’ Blue on it to raise money for this place.
There are so many ways she could raise funds for this it’s pathetic. As Kaiser mentioned, she could have done something with her photographs. With the children’s family’s’ permission, they could have picked 12 of the best art therapy works each year and created note cards, calendars etc. and she could have attached her name to get people to buy. She could have partnered with a popular artist to get the sales up. She could host an annual arts auction fund raiser with all the profit going to the group. There are so very many successful ways that money can be fund raised. Art therapy for children has been proven to be extremely helpful therapeutically for children with physical, emotional, or recovery needs. Neither Kate or her experts need years of meetings and a 5-question meaningless survey to know this. The research is already there. I have to say, I find her lack of action for this group she supposedly champions not only disgusting, but a huge moral failing. Badly, badly done Keen Kate. Just showing up for 30 minutes and posing does not a true, heartfelt commitment make. And what really makes me angry is she is enbiggening herself on the backs of children in need. How nasty is that?
Kate has such an amazing platform, from which she could do so much and she does very fucking little. I just don’t get it!
Kate should be embarrassed.
Honestly Kate has so many staff around her so I dont understand how this charity could close due to lack of funding.
Shes the future queen consort of Britain as we are told.
Do we really think someone like Catherine Quinn, who stated she was leaving to “do more charity work” would just have ignored this situation? Charity work is obviously important to CQ and she would have likely suggested ways to help The Art Room. Clearly Kate wasn’t interested. We might now be getting closer as to why CQ left after 2 years.
That’s something I don’t get. She has staff. Lots of staff. They could just set things up for her that she then goes to. They could organize a fundraiser. They could organize a charity dinner or auction. They could call the patronage and see what they need and then just have Kate do it. Are the staff all simpering royal courtiers who believe they can’t make a move without Kate directing them so they don’t even make suggestions? They’re all waiting around to be asked and don’t want to “step out of line” by coming to her with their ideas? Does she specifically tell them NOT to do any work or fill up her schedule? Do they need explicit approval from Kate every step of the way and she either flat out tells them no or spends a really long time “thinking about it”? Because I get it, she’s bad at the creative side of thing. She doesn’t know how to organize or do anything. She’s not a big picture person but she’s also not a details person. But aren’t any of her staff? What do they do all day? With Catherine Quinn quitting so she could “focus on her charity work,” it makes it seem like Kate really is telling her staff not to work on anything. Or she’s shooting down every idea they come up with. Do they work on things for a long time and then she cancels them?
Isn’t the point of the royals patronizing a charity or group in order TO HELP THEM RAISE MONEY? Isn’t that the the point of them? To draw attention to the group and encourage donations?
Wow this is just embarrassing. She really doesn’t care, does she.
@Maevo, She should borrow Melania’s jacket.
She’d have to add some buttons to it though.
The royals really aren’t much help when it comes to funding, or any other aspect of running a charity. It’s all just busy work, something for them to do to try and justify their positions.
I work with multiple charities with royal patronage’s, and the visits really do nothing for them. They used to get extra donations for a few days from the really intense fans of the royals, but those people are literally a dying breed now. These days it’s more likely to hurt than help, because people figure that if a royal is involved then it must be an well established charity already getting a steady, stable influx of cash.
“The royals really aren’t much help when it comes to funding, or any other aspect of running a charity. It’s all just busy work, something for them to do to try and justify their positions”
This statement is false…….unless you are about to tell me Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Harry and Meghan are doing something different from the others.
Don’t drag others to her level because her incompetence has been put on display so blatantly.
The woman can barely string two sentences together, what did you people expect of her? I don’t know why she doesn’t just become a SHAM, there is nothing wrong with that.
“I don’t know why she doesn’t just become a SHAM, there is nothing wrong with that.”
You don’t marry the future future King if you don’t want to do anything. That’s now how it works.
If she truly wants to be a SAHM then she should have found some titled aristocrat and married him. Or do what her sister did and marry a billionaire.
When Diana was alive, people were still giving money like the poster said they used to. Charles, Harry and Meghan are all doing something different. They do direct fundraising that the rest of the family has never done. The Queen, Princess Anne, and The Wessexes are all old school like the Cambridges. Charles has the private income to support him though. The Cambridges’ foundation doesn’t bring in the kind of money necessary for it to do the kind of fundraising Charles does and they have no independent wealth to get that ball rolling. They would have to do things more along the lines of H&M. Which is certainly not a bad idea, but it is different from the norm. Also, part of the reason that they left.
@Sofia — She is a working royal, who is not working, so what’s the point? what’s the difference?
The woman has been married to W for how long, 9 years and dated him for longer…….what did you expect her to do? she has never worked and obviously has no drive to help others.
You know the difference between her and women like Diana or Meghan? the latter actually wants to help others; they are driven by the need to help. Kate isn’t! why should she be forced to do it? Her husband can be funded by the taxpayers; she can decide not to be and just take care of her kids……..they are her only accomplishments in her entire life.
I do understand your point, don’t take me wrong. She is just so useless that there is no difference if she had just stayed home and took of her kids versus going out and ‘trying to work’
@VS: I get what you mean. But she can’t walk out. Even temporarily. The RF won’t allow it especially with all the embiggening they’ve done for her behalf and making her out to be the saviour of the RF.
Can’t let all of that PR go to waste
Because she wants ALL the praise but without the effort. Ideally she would want all her patronages to be like Wimbledon or the National Portrait Gallery -places where she can show up in a new outfit, enjoy herself, and be praised for the work done by the organizations and be praised for being their patron.
It’s like Pippa putting out that terrible party planning book or James’ various business or Wiliam’s cyberbullying initiative -they want positive attention without the work involved.
SAHM still have responsibilities. They are the ones who are able to volunteer, show up for the fundraising and field trips when the rest of us are at work, so that’s a lame excuse for Kate. Lazy is lazy, whether work full time or not. She phones it in every time, and spends more time on herself, than on her patronages.
@ Ainsley … isn’t the Royal Foundation already somewhat under scrutiny for questions about money use? Isn’t that why Meghan had to earmark the cookbook money so it couldn’f be used anywhere else in the RF except the Hubb Kitchen?
I agree it’s like the cost of a few dresses for Kate. What is the point of a super rich and influential patron if she lets a charity go bankrupt?
This shows again how wrong it is for inherited wealth to be concentrated in the hands of a few random elites who in no way deserve their position or are the best suited to manage philanthropy. Who, in fact, are remarkably selfish and vapid when not outright monstrous.
I don’t even know what to say. This is just another example of how violent a monarchy is.
Imagine having the power to pick a worthy cause — there certainly are thousands more than any one person could choose — and have the power to actually, truly affect positive change.
And it wouldn’t involve 60+ hours of work each week to do so. It wouldn’t involve heavy lifting, physically or intellectually.
It would only involve a modicum of compassion and the energy to show up, and some time in hair, wardrobe and make-up.
Imagine it being that simple to truly help children, or victims of abuse, or patients fighting a disease or condition, or young people looking to improve their lives, or artists, or parents trying to help their families, or the environment, or nutrition, or rehabilitation….to name just a tiny fraction of causes you could turn your attention to.
Or, you can just continue to live in a bubble, doing the barest minimum with little effort, while literally living in a palace with your every material need catered to 24/7.
This is a pipe dream, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Sussexes would mention The Art Room on their Insta, asking followers to donate? I know it’s been a successful tactic for other causes they support. I doubt they would do it because of how “close” Kate is to Harry and how much she misses him, but it would be awesome, nonetheless.
Why should M&H do that? if they did, they would be accused of trying to steal the spotlight from the future future queen consort…..just like some of K&W fans went to SR to complain about the homeless while W is patron of a homeless charity…….isn’t that funny? I guess people know who to talk to in order to get things done!
Why can’t K&W ask their followers to donate? is that because you know most of their followers don’t really care about them or their causes and are really there as a reaction to H&M?
I have donated to all Meghan’s causes and will continue to do so but I WILL NOT support any charity of W&K; that might make me petty but unlike others, I remember the FlyBe stunt. I would never do something like that to a stranger, let’s alone my own flesh and blood…….
Wouldn’t it be kind of funny though if H&M did manage to raise the money with one single post when Kate couldn’t be bothered to do as much in three years?? 😂😂😂
yes it would be but I am a Meghan’s supporter and I wouldn’t donate 1 dollar to any of W&K causes…….I suspect some who support M and by extension H might feel the same.
K should take 9 years to design a survey asking if the art room should close or not; wouldn’t that be a good use of Kate’s time? LOL
@VS, I was being cheeky in the suggestion. It would never happen, and you’re right, everyone would turn it into M&H stealing the spotlight, as opposed to M&H helping a deserving charity. It’s sad that this worthwhile and much-needed service is going away because of lack of funding, partially caused by a lack of interest by its patroness.
I’d be interested to know how many times the Cambridges mentioned and asked for support for that particular charity in their own social media, especially in view of the difficulties they were facing. … and what Aang said down below.
@Noodles…No!!!! Leave Harry and Meghan out of this sordid mess.
I don’t think it would be wonderful at all. I think it would be precisely what VS says, above.
And besides, why should the Sussexes stop what they are doing to prop up Katie Keen’s failed endeavor? It’s not their responsibility. They are perfectly within their right to focus on their own lives and their own charities. They are in no way obligated to stop what they are doing and offer their service, energy, and talents to people who have actively worked to undermine them. They have their own healing work to do and their own charity work to support. It’s not their responsibility to prop up this failure.
No, because WK will be upset that Meghan is stealing their thunder, again. Then there will be stories about how Meghan stole The Art Room from Kate, how Meghan is plotting to depose Kate etc. If HM did save Kate’s patronage, there would be no thanks from WK, only more vitriol. The best thing for HM to do is let WK have the spotlight they so desire, whether it’s for good or bad.
How hard would it be to call some famous artists and ask for limited run prints to sell at the gift shops of some museums or galleries, or every other year have a big auction with donated work by up and coming artists? Lots of press for the artists and the buyers could hobnob with some royals. There have to be American collectors that would like the clout of a royal connection. Ask them to hold showings and donate the proceeds. Like it just doesn’t seem hard to figure out a way to raise money for something like this. I know nothing about charity but I can come up three basic ideas over coffee. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt but she’s just so Blah.
It’s not that hard. Meghan asked to guest edit Vogue through a text message. One goddamn text message. That’s pretty much all it took.
So imagine what Kate could do with a text or a phone call. And so many people (some of which aren’t in the charity sector at all) have given some brilliant ideas that don’t require much effort. If we can come up with those then surely Kate’s team that is supposedly filled with the best can, no?
Hey Aang — you and I are on the same page. See my comments above. I’ve actually worked on these type of fundraisers and they are hugely successful. Notecards, calendars, art auctions, etc. wealthy people enjoy attending a fun, well planned event and many artists are thrilled with participating. It’s a win/win for everyone —- especially the children in need.
@JA I’m with you. I learned from my own school days that whether you know people or not, it’s really easy to get donations and sponsorships if you hustle and/or delegate to those who can hustle and/or have connections. All it takes is a few nice words said in an upbeat tone of voice.
She didn’t care enough to do anything. Despite having fewer than 20 patronages, she and her staff don’t seem to know or care what goes on with them. And with the media raising her on a pedestal so high because she’s the white duchess, she will never have to start caring. We will see stories if we haven’t already, blaming the poor management of the people behind the Art Room and that Kate and her staff couldn’t possibly have known. Also we are never going to learn where all that regatta money went, or how much actually goes to the charities, because that would be an actual story and the RRs prefer access journalism and court stenography.
It doesn’t even have to be artists. I’ve seen similar things with actors or other celebs. Just ask them to doodle any old thing and auction it off online.
What – no Ed Sheeran to save the day when the Duchess of Keen couldn’t be bothered to do any fundraising.
On a more serious note that is very sad and just shows how disinterested she really is in her causes – I wonder if some ‘mystery’ benefactor will be found to pump some money in to cover it till March and where it closes more quietly the saving the lazy Duchess some embarrassment.
So, does news like this make any sort of impact in Britain? Is there enough press that Kate knows or people surrounding Kate know that this is a bad look?
I don’t think it’s a big deal to be honest. The patronage only covered 8 schools and the overheads are too high for that. They are looking to revamp it as a mobile service that is more accessible to larger audiences.
It is a big deal when the future queen Consort of Britain doesn’t support her charity. One Instagram post could have been the start. But she doesn’t care.
This charity was helping the community and could have grown to further help people.
Let’s not minimize the impact to those who are losing the service in the eight schools. Now the program has to identify alternative support for children who are losing access. Imagine if there was a fundraising effort to revamp the current model so no one will lose access.
It’s a big deal that she only had 19 patronages and now one of them is defunct because she could not be bothered to help it out. The entire point of a patron is to help the patronage. Kate failed at doing that. And now kids are losing out because she is a failure at her job as patron.
She has donated to them in 2018 and 2019. At some point, they have to grow and make a financially viable model. If it’s not working, re-work it to make it work.
I don’t understand how you guys cannot get this.
She never donated to them personally and the numbers for 2019 from the foundation are not out, so we don’t know what they gave. The excuses given for Kate’s laziness are non stop. It’s not like there was fraud happening so pretending it’s a business model issue when it’s a charity is just more tumblr excuses. Maybe the need was much greater than expected because there are more children in need now than a few years ago? Whatever it is, KP didn’t provide any reason for why they didn’t do more to help. Kate looks bad regardless of the reason because she wasn’t on top of what was happening and let a patronage fail. Not a great look for a further future consort.
Absolutely that the actual closing makes an impact! Sorry if I was confusing. I meant does this news get play in Britain? I am on close to no sleep with a newborn, so I can’t tell if I’m making sense at this point. Lol
This is what I also meant Chlo. Brexit, Kobe and the virus took everyone’s attention. The world seems to have bigger fish to fry.
Of course, there will be an impact on the children but I doubt they will be left unsupported. My point was this was reported first about three days ago but there was no lasting impact on the news may be because if you read the entire passage it makes sense to most people to reduce costs and increase outreach so no alarm bells ringing.
@Ali,
It is exactly this type of thing that leads me to speculate that the monarchy may not last that long. She/they just don’t truly care about anything outside of her/their immediate worlds.
Because these days the royals consider waving and smiling a job. Not actual efforts to do something. And they apparently also think that smiling and waving will get them out of all sorts of personal and political messes. Ugh. Abolish the monarchy already!
Yes. Stop keeping these pampered poodles in luxury.
Even my pampered poodle has a job. He has to visit sick kids in the hospital as a therapy dog. It’s oh, so taxing. He loves every minute of it. (petting, cooing, fawning, fresh coiff before we go, fancy harness). He then does extra rounds and visits residents and nurses who also love to hold him for a 60 second mental health/cuddle break. He doesn’t need to plan or study beforehand.
Seems like a similar career.
blacktoypoodle – that sounds awesome. Patients must love him.
That’s wonderful!
For real, all those people who like to troll on the Sussexes page, should instead be donating to their favourite white royals’ charities.
Some of the trolling looks organized, they should be throwing a donating “baby shower”, like the one fans of Sussexes threw on twitter, I think they got over 22 thousand pounds on donations, then the Cambridges could find some other sponsors to cover for it. It would
Give the trolls something useful and positive to do,
But I think they are actually selfish,
So, nope, they won’t do a thing like this.
I participated in the GlobalSussexBabyShower…….the money donated was definitely more than 22k (whether in pounds or dollars). I had my favorite charities in there (Camfed, One25, SmartsWorks and Mayhew). There were many others people donated to; what was fascinating about it was that it wasn’t even started by H&M. It was fans who decided to do something for Archie’s birth. It turned into something monumental.
W&K don’t have that type of appeal unfortunately; only Diana could have generated something like that.
By the way, you don’t need that type of interest to generate funds…..she is just lazy and uninterested. This woman has never been interested in charity but she is forced to do so….people can say whatever they want about W, I think he is a hypocrite, lazy & jealous man and an underachiever, but he could have picked better…….especially considering his “position”! or perhaps he decided to marry her exactly because he knew she would never outshine him like his mother did his dad……from that point of view, she was the perfect choice.
I tried to find the total, but was in a hurry and that was what I found on the first search.I do think it was more, too.
@VS – “He could have picked better.” Truthfully, I don’t think anyone better wanted to put up with him. Which is why we saw the Waity Katie years and he finally settled for her.
I donated to GlobalSussexBabyShower too! I just made 2 $25 donations, one to WellChild and Camfed. 🙂
@Ennie — Please see this https://twitter.com/hashtag/globalsussexbabyshower?src=hashtag_click: about $27k was raised for Camfed, 15k pounds for WellChild, about $31k for the Lunchbox Fund, etc… so many other charities benefited: LittleVillageHQ, Baby2Baby, etc.. some people gave items instead of money in the US……it was amazing! if only Social Media could be used for such things instead of the nastiness you see there….so what fans/stans/supporters of W&K can do something like that? they can’t because what bind them is not W&K causes but their dislike of Meghan. Well to every single of them out there, there are many like me willing to donate and support Meghan and by extension Harry.
At this point, her “work efforts” are literally laughable. Nearly 15 years or doing nothing or pretending to do something, usually the bare minimum. Awesome job, Kate. Such a role model for women, such an inspiration. Just WOW… You can’t assist people who help children?? Tell your numerous staff to organize a lunch, dinner, playdate, whatever, call your rich friends, appear there, stay for 45 minutes and go home. Is it really that difficult?
I am a couple of years younger than her and it’s Sunday and I am working because I have a job to do. And I know that there are so many women who do 10 times more than me. Sorry, this crap gets on my last nerve.
This is very sad and the press response will be predictable.
@Harla, the press response will be little to none. We’re talking Keen Katie, after all.
Shame on her and all who let this fail.
Hopefully the publicity will make someone step up.
I have a feeling that’s the reason why the organisation went to the press – to shame someone into action.
This news has been simmering on Twitter for a week and none of the royal reporters touched it, but they’re quick to write some hate fiction about Meghan that was made up on Tumblr.
@Bern what meghan fanfiction?? Also why Meghan didnt take legal action against the tumblr gang. I mean now she is not working royal , she would have easily take and they have hard evidences in tumblr . I cant wrap my head why still didnt get lawsuit against those tumbles. If anyone has Sussex connect these forward them the abuse from tumblr and they would own defamination and wrong character assasination lawsuits. I will any of Sussex team saw tumblr and make a move .
Bren, they were reporting that Meghan was going to be a “frequent guest stars on a reality Netflix show called something like “Redo I Do” hosted by her friend Jessica Mulroney. Forget the fact that it had been shown false, The Fail” ran it as a headline for TWO DAYS. May still be in there for all I know.
Audited financial statements are public in the UK on the Companies House website. Direct grants are listed in the notes to the financial statements.
£82k was donated to Place2Be by the Royal Foundation in fiscal 2018 (the most recent set of FS).
This is a bad look though, especially because Kate was not actively promoting or visiting the charity, but funds did flow to the charity from the Royals. Overall, she needs to step up and actually do some work, not just have a small grant thrown at her patronages.
In comparison, the cookbook raised over £500k in income that year.
Too bad she didn’t inherit any business acumen from her parents. It’s strange that growing up in a household where both parents were successful entrepreneurs she ended up like this – no real work experience, no work ethic and no drive
A lot of the clients I work with are very wealthy, successful self-starters. Half their kids seem to be the same, and the other half seem lazy and spoiled.
You mean from her Uncle Gary.
???
@Carmen – there’s been some rumours about Kate’s rich Uncle Gary (another supposed pervert) financing Party Pieces for the Middletons and the company hasn’t made nearly as much money as is purported.
The Middletons are not really good business people. Party Pieces has been bailed out repeatedly by her Uncle Gary, who has been bankrolling the Middletons Kate’s entire life. He’s also the one who has been busted for trafficking drugs and women.
That’s because her mother groomed her to chase after and marry William. Carole didn’t want Kate to be a businesswoman.
Because if you don’t raise your kid to be an independent self-sufficient adult, they’ll still be dependent on you and need you well into adulthood, and some parents like that. They may not consciously do it (and I don’t think Carole was some kind of monster deliberately doing this) but they don’t discourage it either.
Even Pippa, who seems like the most independent and competent of the three kids, showed her own flakiness when it came to her “work.”
At least Pips is good at Charity work!
Her parents are looked down upon because they are self made. The Brits don’t admire accomplishment like Americans. They value status by birth and blood w/o having to work for it. That’s why Kate is so lazy. Her parents wanted her to be a lady who didn’t have to work like a burn aristocrat. British society is a trip.
Her parents are not self made. Carol’s brother made them.
Yep. Lots of money came from the sketchy uncle. Oh, and then William funded all the reno at Middleton Manor.
The Royal Family couldn’t donate the 50 000 pounds to keep the charity alive? Or are they not allowed to do that?
No, their job is to ask others to give. The term “slacktivism” (sp?) comes to mind.
Maybe they do?🤫 doubtful but possible…
But they’re still guilty of celebrity slacktivism
Maybe they do?🤫 doubtful but possible…
But they’re still guilty of celebrity slacktivism
They did donate to them in 2018 and 2019. It has probably reached a point where they realise that there needs to be significant change in their business model and strategy so that they do not stick their hands out every year.
I highly doubt there is any kind of law that says some of the wealthiest people in the world can’t spend their private fortune on whatever they want. Why would that even be a thing? Not being allowed to make charitable contributions with their own money? If they don’t want to be seen making large donations to one charity and not another, or they don’t want their names listed in the donor register, they could always donate anonymously.
What I meant was if a patronage isn’t doing well financially are the Royals allowed to donate their own funds to keep the charity alive year after year. If it appears the charity will always need the help of Royal funds, then are they allowed to continue doing so? I know there are a lot of rules with regards to the Royals so that’s why I was asking.
But isn’t that what being a patron is? You support a charity year after year because it provides a service but it doesn’t make money. If it was an actual for-profit business then it would make sense to stop supporting it if it never made money and you were just propping up a bad business model. But this is a charity. It’s not meant to be self sufficient or make its own money. It’s supposed to run on donations.
@ Amy Too
That’s the thing. It wasn’t getting the donations it needed. Charities rely on the kindness of others. If the charity in question wasn’t getting enough donations to stay afloat, why aren’t the Royals just donating the money to the charity themselves? Why does it need to shutdown if the public isn’t donating? That’s my question. I thought maybe there were rules in place where the Royals don’t actually give much of their own money to patronages (they donate their time instead) and expect the public to keep these charities afloat. I don’t know but it’s odd that the Royal family couldn’t just give the charity the 50 000 pounds it needed.
For the commenters who’ve been desperately trying to convince people to give Kate credit for her half-assed survey and brief appearances for more than two days a week…this is going to be the future of her little initiative. The only thing she cares about is a photo op.
AND looking good for that photo op in her bespoke designer clothes, regular fresh dye jobs/blow outs AND botox/filler touch ups. She clearly spends more time on her appearance than on the causes she claims are close to her heart, more like close to her PR strategy.
don’t forget the updated veneers, and the hair extensions.
People keep saying that her stupid struggle survey is meant to be vapid and vague because it’s just advertising/a way to get people to buy-into something. It’s not meant to gather data. It’s not meant to direct her work. It’s just to get people interested. Interested in what? Advertising for what? Buy in for what? The survey isn’t just a way to get people to click on a link that then directs them elsewhere to look at the “main thing.” It’s not advertising anything other than Kate. Wouldn’t it have been cool if after you took the survey, it directed you to a website where you could donate to her various patronages that do things with kids….like, oh, I don’t know……the Art Room?
She won’t have time to worry about this today as she is extremely busy getting her hair, make up and nails done to go to the BAFTAs. This is the fun stuff she signed up for, not the hard stuff to actually help the charities.
Kate: LOOK AT ME CARING!
Also Kate: I really don’t care, do u?
Ha! I was just comparing Kate to Melania the other day in that Melania’s Be Best platform just appears to be a website full of photos of her in expensive clothing smiling with kids.
@sara it’s absolutely true. It really does suck that women in such positions of perceived power and privilege don’t actually do anything beyond photo ops to really make a difference in the community and world at large. They have a unique opportunity and instead choose to perpetuate and protect the status quo because it keeps them insulated.
How shameful. The FFQ couldn’t even raise 50k(which New York post wrote is the fee they ask for in paid appearances)!! No one should be suprised!! I’m waiting to hear about her other patronages which she hadn’t visited in YEARS!! All she does is plat dressup and smile for photographers. Even with Rose’s help the EACH charity could be in trouble.
A real let down from Kate. People who work in the nonprofit sector know that finding funding is like squeezing blood from a stone. To have a terribly rich woman fawn in and out of your org once every three years with no benefit would be extremely frustrating. Maybe she’ll swallow her pride, prove she has some depth, and step in?
Wait, is this the official first time Kate ever PUT A FOOT WRONG?
Nahhh, I’m sure it is someone else’s foot that will be blamed.
Kate is living proof that you can put a foot wrong despite never taking a step. 🙄
Well done!
This is what the Sussexes basically being forced to leave exposes. Whatever you think of them, Harry and Meghan show up and turn out for their patronages, and bring in the money. They do the work. Their British patronages are lucky to still have them. I also read that one of Charles’ patronages are also struggling to stay afloat, one that helps veterans. When you’re only concerned with optics and protocol, and keeping women in their proper place, this happens. The government is not going to fill the vacuum left by these types of organizations. But Britain has their proper royals back who know their place. Such losers.
Had this been Meghan’s charities this story would be on a 24-hour news cycle. The Fail hasn’t run this story but BBC, the Mirror, and Express is running it. It will make the rounds eventually.
This happened on Kate’s watch as a WORKING royal. With the Sussexes gone as senior royals there will be more scrutiny on what Kate does beside hair, makeup, gowns and tiaras. The rags are now claiming the queen and William are going to put Kate out there more. This definitely explains any anxiety pangs Kate may feel now.
This wouldn’t happen with this was one of Meghan’s charities. She’d genuinely work to help them succeed and expand. If it was hopeless, she’d see if another organization could take over some of the mission. She has no problem getting on the phone and reaching out to contacts, that has been proven with the work she’s done. I hope she and Harry continue to expand on what they’ve built so far. The other Royals will stay propped up and covered up, and this little blip for Kate won’t change thing for her.
Sure but the point about this being a huge deal if it happened on Meghan’s watch still stands. She would have been held completely responsible. Not so the white duchess.
It took this woman 8 years to pull a 5 question, nothing-burger survey, so it’s no surprise that a few charities that ACTUALLY benefit children would fall by the wayside.
Maybe if Keen Katie had allied herself with her sister-in-law instead of participating in the campaign to tear her down, Keenie could have learned how to WORK instead of just show up, struggle to keep her skirt down, stand by the first available ‘Strategically Black/Brown Child’, grin like a hyena (tm @Amy Too), and leave.
I wonder what’s going on with Kate and Bill. Has their marriage gone irretrievably down the toilet and they’re just going through the motions? This media fantasy of her being the perfect Queen Consort-to-be and general embiggening by the media seems to be playing out at the same time she’s clearly struggling with so much. She looks thin, exhausted and stressed out and no, it’s not because she’s the mother of 3 small children. I think marrying Bill was the worst thing she could have done because she’s not emotionally equipped to 1) Deal with his demanding and petulant nature; 2) Deal with his philandering; and 3) Deal with actual work like a grown-up. She’s a child-woman who simply doesn’t have what it takes to be a working royal. That she let one of her patronages simply go broke without stepping in to “Meghanize” it back to life is really sad. She missed a golden opportunity to do something worthy.
“I think marrying Bill was the worst thing she could have done because she’s not emotionally equipped to…”
I firmly believe that there isn’t a woman out there who is emotionally equipped to come into the BRF. None. Not a single one.
Between the vicious tabloids; the nonsensical, constantly changing made-up rules (nail polish! car doors!); the public (“Our taxes support you! Dance for our amusement!”) and the entrenched courtiers who see every promising newcomer as a threat to be utterly destroyed, no one joining the BRF through marriage can thrive.
As lazy as she no doubt is, Kate is probably doing the best she possibly can in this regard. She keeps her goals low, does the absolute minimum, and smiles a lot. She studiously cultivates an air of inoffensiveness.
If she did “too much” and upstaged anyone; she would be mowed down, stomped on, and utterly destroyed.
Kate: as much use to anyone as a chocolate teapot.
I’m sure that this is all Meghan’s fault somehow… 🙄
This is truly pathetic. Great job Katie Keen.
The first I saw Keen in this dress, I legit wondered if the designer had pulled a “Scarlett O’Hara” and stolen the curtains from Kensington Palace to make it. Sheesh!
On a more serious note, it’s a sad business when readers of a gossip website can come up with ideas to help the charity make money in 5 minutes time and Keen can’t in 8 years.
Sheesh x2!
Here’s a thought: why don’t they get rid of the monarchy, then take those billions of dollars and give them directly to the charities? Without the monarchy, the money earned from tourists visiting the palaces, etc., can go directly to charities. Cut out the very, very expensive middlemen.
That…is a great idea.
From your lips to God’s ears Mrs. K. !!
Imagine disliking so much a woman that you crow over a CHARITY closing its doors. Shame on you all
No comment here is remotely doing that.
All the comments are castigating the lazy patron for not helping bolster the charity’s profile.
Nobody is crowing over the charity closing. People are hacked off that the royal patron Kate apparently did little to nothing to keep it afloat and won’t get seriously called out for it.
Or imagine hating someone so much, that one spends countless hours on Twitter and Tumbler, calling her everything but “a child of God”. Or swarming positive posts on Instagram with death threats…
But no, I do not hate her, I am disappointed that a royal patron couldn’t be arsed to come help come up with a funding initiative.
No one here has commented that they’re happy the charity is folding. I am reading lots of ideas for how she could help it and those who are pointing out that she doesn’t really work other than showing up for photos. 🤷♀️
Can you point to anyone doing that or is that just BS you just pulled out of a hat?
I, for one, said I wouldn’t give even a dollar to any charity of W&K……….take that as you wish; I don’t care!
I am sorry for the charity they had her as Patron but if you care about Kate or support whatever she does, why don’t you contribute? I am sure whatever you do is going to be more that Kate has ever done!
Good luck to you!
@Casey, and imagine being a woman so lazy and worthless that you would let an important charity like this starve to death when all you needed to do was get off your ass.
Shame on you Casey for being a lying troll who is trying to shift the blame from the patron on who it belongs. Kate should own this failure, because she is partly to blame. Kids will be losing services but god forbid the rich lady who has never worked in her life or done volunteer work without being forced to do so gets a little blame. She’s almost 40 and should be accepting responsibility like a real adult now.
@Casey
Imagine having no reading comprehension skills. Shame on your teachers.
This makes me mad. My sister-in-law is an art therapist here in the U.S. and she is doing VITAL, important, healing work with children, veterans and people who are homeless. She works for a non-profit as well. I hope the publicity for this shameful situation brings more funding ASAP.
This is supposed to be a Royal’s job, right? Support patronages and encourage funding? DO YOUR JOB KATE.
*
To play devil’s advocate, if Kate did hold a fundraiser, that would keep the charity open for another year. Then what? If the charity doesn’t have a sustainable business model, then it can’t succeed. Ambassadors bring attention to a cause, but they aren’t tasked with managing a charity.
That’s the whole point of fundraisers. Have you ever heard of annual fundraisers? Charities don’t and usually are not self-sustaining. This is a rather modern concept of turning charities into, essentially, self-sustaining businesses.
It is always so funny to me that people who want to play devil’s advocate never actually know wtf they’re talking about.
I’ve worked in the nonprofit field and do you know where my paycheck came from? Our annual gala and donations/sponsorships throughout the year. Online campaign drives etc. That’s how nonprofits and charities operate. You’re welcome.
I actually do know that I’m talking about. I’ve worked in the charitable sector for 10 years and have a diploma in non-profit management. Charities need more then one revenue stream to survive long term. Yes, annual fundraisers are one important revenue stream (and a major one for some charities) but they cannot be the sole source of income for most. They need regular donors, bequests and grants as well. Where I work, our annual event covers salaries and admin but not the cost of implementing national projects. None of us have the financial records of the Art House, know it’s operating costs or are on it’s board and tasked with managing it. As much as Kate could have done more as a patron, it’s too simplistic to blame the closing of a patronage on her not hosting an annual fundraiser.
It doesnt have to be an annual fundraiser. Look at the Hub Cookbook – a steady source of income for the charity that they can expand on. They could turn kids art in any number of book, calendars, magnets, etc. Or if you cant think of a long term income generating project, tap into more donors. Do multiple fundraisers a year. Say, one fancy dinner gala, a fun annual family day and maybe a yearly art auction. After a few years, she wouldnt even need to show up. They can continue them without her.
I too work in field that is often overlooked by the public and relies a whole lot on donors and grant’s. And us nobodies have managed to stay afloat by actually working hard for the population that we are working with. Because we care about what we are doing. If so many charities can make it without the most perfect and keen and beloved duchess to ever grace the UK as the patron, then there is no excuse for her.
Just to clarify, is it £50,000 to rescue the whole charity or just the one location—I read that statement as it being for the single location in the one community? So… it would be a lot more money to really rescue the charity. It wouldn’t surprise me if Kate ultimately does something to help “re-launch” the charity in its new mobile capacity, and maybe that will help spread services to more kids, but it’s awful the communities are losing out on having more permanent set ups.
I would imagine they wouldn’t want her back as a patron. I can’t imagine any other charity asking her for her patronage.
It’s been said on this site many times over. They are setting this girl up for failure. Not only does she not know how to go about accomplishing any of these goals, it appears she’s not really interested anyway.
What a shame that Kate has no inkling at all for the business of how a charity operates Aside from smiling and waving, all I see of her are dye jobs/occasional wiglets, clothes, Botox, filler, and severe thinness. She can still maintain a modest PR strategy where she doesn’t upstage William- all I would like to see her do is help her patronage with meaningful action (and not another struggle survey).
Meghan would have handled this differently, and BETTER. So would Prince Charles.
maybe she should consider auctioning off some items in her extensive wardrobe. I’m sure it’ll generate some good coin for her charities
This I do know-a lot of wealthy patrons with issues that align with the charities Harry/Meghan champion will be highly interested in contributing to their causes. I know Ellen DeGeneres want to help with the Walk for Elephants charity that Harry is in charge of. Harry and Meghan talk to and connect with sponsors who believe or have an interest in their causes.
I wish Catherine would copy Meghan’s work ethic as she does her style
She has two jobs.
1) Make heir babies
2) Show up for events to bring attention and money to patronages.
So she’s fulfilling half her duty.
What a great queen she will be… in 25 years.
No surprise. Kate does nothing for her patronages that have any real impact. This is something that would not happen if Kate had a real interest in her causes.
It’s sad but not surprising. Kate does the bare minimum for her patronages. As others have said, there were lots of things she could have done to raise awareness and support for the charity.
I think Kate worked hard to land Will so she would never have to work hard again.
I mean, she could literally just direct her staff to work on this and show up for a photo shoot. It’s not like she would have to do a whole lot.
This is why I laugh at her early years project. If she really cared about the early years she would do something.
Come on people…Kate doesn’t care. Look at the haphazard way she rolled out the Early Learning Poll…she doesn’t care. It’s all FAKE and Brits heap praise on her for being Lazy. Kate to Brits is like Trump to Fox…DELUSIONAL
Oh come on, the only charity they truly work for is themselves.