Everything has gone silent around Sentebale in the past month, have you noticed? Ever since the UK Charity Commission began their investigation, the briefings from Sophie Chandauka has mercifully stopped, although many of the “trustees” appointed by Sophie resigned almost as soon as they were appointed. I bring up Sentebale because it’s still registered in the UK and under the purview of Britain’s Charity Commission. Prince Harry still has many connections within the British charity world, and he remains the patron of a handful of British (or British-registered) charities. I honestly hoped the Sentebale debacle would convince him to distance himself from any British charity, just because those charities will find themselves on the receiving end of palace machinations. But Harry keeps on connecting himself to Britain. He apparently sent a huge donation to Nottingham charity:
The head of a U.K. charity said he was “gobsmacked” by a generous donation from Prince Harry after the Duke of Sussex underscored that he’ll continue to support British charities despite losing a key legal appeal to restore his state-funded police protection in his home country.
In a statement seen by PEOPLE on May 21, the Nottingham charity Himmah announced that the Duke of Sussex, 40, made a “significant donation” to the organization. The social justice organization works to tackle poverty, racism and social exclusion, and the undisclosed donation that Prince Harry made in January will fund over 650 food parcels for families in need in the city.
“I could not believe it when we got the email. To have been chosen by such a high-profile royal once is amazing but to have been supported by Prince Harry too left us completely gobsmacked and hugely humbled,” Himmah director Sajid Mohammed said.
The charity may have been on Harry’s radar through his wife, Meghan Markle. The Duchess of Sussex, 43, made a donation in 2021 that helped the organization expand its food bank resources, support the Salaam Shalom Kitchen (the only joint Muslim and Jewish community kitchen in the U.K.) and address pressing social issues.
Himmah said that Prince Harry also sent a heartfelt letter to endorse his support.
“Nottingham holds a special place in my heart, having had the privilege of visiting and supporting the community there for over a decade. The incredible work Himmah does to address food insecurity, poverty, and social exclusion should be recognised and applauded,” the Duke of Sussex said in the letter. “I’m happy to be able to play a small part in your mission to bring communities together by creating opportunities and support for those facing hardship.”
It’s absolutely a worthy cause and it sounds like a great charity. I wonder why the donation came from Harry personally (??) and not Archewell, the Sussexes’ foundation. Of course, I also wonder why the left-behind royals aren’t raising awareness and funds for the Salaam Shalom Kitchen. That is right up King Charles’s alley – interfaith dialogue AND a food bank? Why isn’t the king donating refrigerators and making appearances at this charity?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Guests attend a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: London, United Kingdom When: 08 May 2024 Credit: Cover Images
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- Guests attend a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: London, United Kingdom When: 08 May 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Time100 Summit at the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Featuring: Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 23 Apr 2025 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
Good for him. It could be that the donation is from what he got as a settlement from the court case. Archewell may have already allocated its donations for the year – it’s not a big foundation.
That may be. In the BBC interview, Harry was clear about loving his country and that he will still be continuing in his philanthropic work despite losing the security case. So here’s evidence of that. Even if he cannot regularly visit his home country.
” Salaam Shalom Kitchen” what a lovely idea, we need more of that sort of thing.
Charles’ commitment to charitable work is not in doubt. Why use a donation his son made to belittle his decades of work? I’m guessing funding for 650 meals was a donation of about $5,000.
The food parcels contain a week’s worth of meals – I imagine they cost more than just $7 each.
It said food parcels for families. It’s 650 pallets at a minimum.
Parcels aren’t pallets and most food for food banks is donated. The direct costs are typically in getting food into the hands of program recipients. I’m not saying $5,000 is a small donation, but it doesn’t negate the donations Charles’ charity has been making for the past 35 years.
Nobody is negating what Charles has done in the past. The suggestion is for what he can do now as the vastly wealthy king of an entire realm. And the $5,000 number has come from your imagination. Unless Harry or the charity announces the amount, none of us know the actual amount.
Facts from the charity’s website say a “parcel” feeds a family for 1 week. If you look at groceries being at least 160 pounds a week for a family of four (low ball) and this donation funds OVER 650 parcels that means AT LEAST 104,000 pounds. I think FACTS trump your speculation. Where do you shop? I wish to shop there.
I don’t see a charity being “ gobsmacked” by $5000. And Charles supports charities by raising money for sure – but is he whipping out his checkbook personally?
If you read the BBC article you will also know that in addition to the food parcels the donation will also cover some new equipment for the kitchen. The charity rep said the donation was sizeable. Also, no red tape comes with Harry’s donation and any charitable donation from Charles or The Wales’ doesn’t come from their ‘personal’ wealth, nor does it come from ‘earned’ money.
So in the same way some people always seem REALLY keen to lowball the amounts that H+M win in damages against the tabloids, there are some who always seem keen to discount the amounts that H+M disburse to charities. It is William and Kate and their royal foundation who have form for loudly announcing that they have made substantial contributions, only for it to turn out to be a mere pittance, or nothing at all. Harry and Meghan do NOT move like that.
@Megan — The royals don’t donate money to charities, they merely highlight their work. It’s no more than waving fairy dust from a magic royal wand. They’re all as tight-fisted as Ebenezer Scrooge. And $7 is wrong — for a family of, say, 4, it would be at least $20. My guess is that he donated around $15K at the very least.
I keep coming back to from my recollection when Diana died, her money went to Harry because William was going to inherit the two massive duchies. I think it was 20 mill pounds 30 years ago. It’s a massive amount of money these days any conservative money managed would have tripled that. So Harry has money apart from buying the house, funding Archwell. He’s spoken a number of times about his investments. This is part of that
My experience btw which is just personal but even conservative money management doubles your money every roughly 10 years. For some crazy conservative British Wot nots I’m sure it was less.. Either way Harry should have about 60 million.. He’s not poor, grasping, desperate for M to make money. His book probably gave him 50 million, probably 70 and counting.. Harry’s investing a lot and he’s loaded.. He’s fine.
Yes, this is what I’ve long thought as well, that Diana left the bulk of her money to Harry. However, the UK media have long claimed that her money was “divided equally between the two”, in the same way they keep claiming that Harry inherited money from the queen mother despite Harry’s firm denial that this was the case.
It is possible that the powers that be within palace walls ignored her wishes and gave William half (especially if he threw a tantrum about it), but in any event, there is no doubt that Harry is very loaded. Wealthy and moisturised, as he truly deserves to be.
The story I’ve always heard is that Diana split her wealth evenly between the two in her will. The story about Harry getting more was based on reports regarding the QM’s will (that she left Harry more) but that has been debunked a few times now – its even unclear if the QM left any of the great-grandchildren anything.
I think it was 20 million between the two so 10 million each. This has been a pretty consistent story over the last 25 years. its honestly just been in the last few weeks that i realized some thought harry got all/most of it.
I think if Harry had 60 million from his inheritance he wouldn’t have laid awake at night worrying about security.
ETA but either way no one here knows and I guess as much as we like to gossip its none of our business lol.
The QM spent extravagantly so QE II had to pay her expenses. Harry said that there was no inheritance from the QM in his book, Spare.
Yes, I’ve noticed that it’s been radio silence on Sentebale — I’m hoping for a quick resolution that ousts Call-Me-Doctor and lets Harry and Seeiso step back in and get things going in the right direction again. We’ll see.
As for this charity, I see the point about UK charities supported by the Sussexes possibly coming under fire from the Palace machines, but I wonder if Harry isn’t choosing to make it clear that he won’t allow them to cut him off from the parts of the UK he loves.
I also think this choice of charity at this time may be partly a response to Archewell finding it necessary to withdraw support from that Women’s Coalition in April, due to hate speech. This is a good way to direct funds back to the Muslim community while specifically supporting joint Muslim-Jewish outreach.
Thank you, Prince Harry and HRH Meghan, for all that you do for others. 💖
If Sophie knows what’s good for her reputation and the charity, she’d better start unwinding.
As for Willy’s mole, another palace incompetent making his mark 😂
I have to think Sophie’s reputation is permanently trashed, at least in the charitable world. Who would hire someone who behaves as she has?
And I think she made it blindingly clear that she doesn’t give crap on a cracker for the actual work Sentebale was founded to do, and did. She wants to use it to further her personal ambitions and agenda.
My fear is that Billy Idle’s attempt to steal or destroy his brother’s heartfelt project, by forcing it to wade at snail’s pace through the courts and the Commission, may wreck it beyond repair. People need jobs, they move on.
I trust Harry to put all the energy and time in that’s needed to revitalize it — I just hope it’s possible.
I don’t see why Harry will feel the need to compensate for their withdrawal support of the Women’s Coalition in April as their motive was pertinent. Himmah is the kind of charity the Sussexes support. Since the beginning of 2025, Harry have given more visibility to his charities in the US. Like Meghan, I believe, 2025 is the beginning of something for him!
@Julie — I don’t think H&M *need* to compensate for what happened with the Coalition.
But I can see them *wanting* to find a good fit with a charity that benefits the same wider community.
And in this case, Harry’s choice makes a clear point about the value of working together to reach past barriers, as opposed to building barriers with hate speech.
👏👏👏
Well done Haz. Your good deed did not go unnoticed and I’m glad the charity publicised your good works. Perhaps this is paving the way for IG? A series of charitable donations around the north of England.
I suspect the money comes from the settlements he got from the Mirror and the Sun. That’s probably why the money comes from Harry alone and not Archewell or Meghan. Nobody’s going to stop Harry from contributing to his country.
So they got the donation in January and are announcing it now. Almost as though there were some debate about whether to publicly acknowledge it.
If memory serves me correctly, isn’t this the same charity which also didn’t acknowledge the donation from Meghan for some time, and where one of the directors described M as “Marmite”, to a tabloid, claiming that this had factored into their decision about whether or not to accept/acknowledge it – leading Sussex Squad to suggest that they return the money if they are too ashamed to be associated with M but not ashamed to hold on to the funds? So yes, clearly M is the connection which led to this donation. I can’t help but notice how effusive their statement is about Prince Harry’s donation, in comparison to the tepid acknowledgement they gave about M’s donation. Hmmm.
No, ironically that was a anti-bullying foundation, that kept Meghan’s donation secret.
@Melissa, OMG, they cited the op-ed in their statement too. Yeah, I saw that “H&M lied” weird talking point before. It is a sh*tty talking point. Mural shows it wasn’t just one thing with the founder, so it was right decision for Archewell to stop associating with that foundation. They donate to a lot of charities. If people want to talk sh*t, they can donate themselves to the foundation. Archewell also only made a statement after the founder released a statement talking sh*t about H&M. They did it privately, the founder made it a public discussion. H&M don’t work with people like that who like to create public mess.
I am not loyal to H&M. It is their money, they can give it to anyone they want. I won’t criticize them for not wanting to associate with a foundation whose founder is creating public discourse. They have that enough already.
Melissa, I had to research what was going on because I didn’t know anything about it. I have to admit that the mural is eyebrow raising at the least. I didn’t know that the phrase used was considered antisemitism by Jews. There’s so much I don’t know, but I can see where that would be a concern. I am against any genocide. There is the Jews For Peace who also protest because of the Palestinian genocide. There’s enough disinformation out there that people need to be discerning (I’m not saying you aren’t). I can’t help but think there is something that’s not being said/reported. I wonder what all went on in that phone conversation?
@magdalena, your memory absolutely serves you correctly. It was this organization Himmah that delayed an announcement (I think over a year) of Meghan’s generous donation because they were afraid, essentially, that it would bring negative attention to their charity, as, you noted, it said Meghan in Britain is like marmite.
FUCK HIMMAH. I would never donate to a charity like that, one that bashes a generous donor – after taking their money- who’s only fault is being picked on by the rabid British Press.
This charity won a king’s award & duke of Gloucester visited recently so it’s on the palace ‘s radar.
Meghan’s donation was directed from proceeds from together cookbook. Whilst I don’t underestimate press & Sussex trolls harassment, I thought it was cowardly that the charity hidMeghan’s donation initially especially given its object is to fight racism. According to people this donation was in January so interesting it’s just been announced now by the charity. But I’m happy Harry is showing service is universal & continuing to support an org in Nottingham tackling things like food insecurity.
Harry & Meghan have donated to uk orgs/initiatives separately from Archewell Foundation so I don’t think this is new. We know that Harry donated to sentebale & WellChild in his own right from proceeds from Spare. Good for him & happy for those who will benefit. Hope Harry doesn’t allow the BRF to harm his links with the UK or his philanthropic image & continues to support UK orgs
Are you sure this organization delayed announcing Meghan’s earlier donation? As @sevenblue notes above, I remember that situation with the anti-bullying foundation, but not about this one.
At this point I think it’s fine if an organization delays making a Sussex donation public, or doesn’t acknowledge it at all, especially one like this, already operating in a sensitive space. They’re getting the money to provide services, not to celebrate the donors. We know the anti-Sussex backlash can be more than just online and press harassment. And this group doesn’t just fight racism, they also tackle poverty, and apparently much of this money has been directed towards providing food resources. If the funds were given in January maybe the several month delay gave them time to get everything in place to begin providing the services they envision, before the inevitable onslaught of negativity. For all we know, that’s what Harry advised.
Yes, Meghan donated £10,000 to this organization and they only publicly announced it after watching the Oprah Interview (in which mentioned racism), the next year after the donation. The reason given for not acknowledged the donation when it happened was because they were afraid Duchess Meghan would “damage” the charity’s reputation.
Maybe they weren’t offering a photoshoot so Charles decided that a donation wasn’t worth it.
Whoever gave Will and Kate an award for philanthropy should take it back and give it to Prince Harry, who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk.
Everything about this Prince and his wife is about doing good. How can anyone not love that.❤️
Harry makes a generous donation to a charity – contrast that with W&K “highlight” a cause (not with their wallets, mind you) or W&K ask the public to donate. Well done Harry!!!
Also interesting to see this post garnered fewer comments than one with Kate smashing a bottle of whiskey.
There’s Harry out there again, doing good and proving that service is universal.