Sophie Chandauka is closing Sentebale’s UK office & canceling polo fundraisers

Back in March, Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso resigned as patrons for Sentebale, the charity they co-founded in honor of their mothers. Sophie Chandauka was the reason why they stepped down – as Sentebale’s chair, Chandauka was looting the charity’s reserves and blowing money on high-priced “consultants” who didn’t do anything or bring in any extra money. When the board of trustees asked Chanauka to step down, she ran to the British Charity Commission and lied her ass off, claiming that she was being bullied by racists. She kept giving unhinged interviews and making a horse’s ass out of herself for months. During that time, the Charity Commission investigated both sides. They cleared Harry and everyone else of bullying and harassment, but they did nothing to rein in Chandauka’s sinister actions within Sentebale.

To this day, Chandauka is still Sentebale’s chair, though almost all of the original trustees have resigned in disgust. In August, we learned that Chandauka mothballed Sentebale’s Children’s Center in Lesotho, a center which provided critical care to kids with HIV. We also learned that she’s blowing through the cash reserves of the charity, and she fired almost all of Sentebale’s London staff. Well, on Friday, Chandauka finally revealed Sentebale’s current finances, and she and Iain Rawlinson – a longtime associate of Prince William – also announced that they closing Sentebale’s London office. Not only that, but Sentebale will no longer have fundraising polo matches.

No more polo matches: Sentebale has scrapped its fundraising polo matches after a row with the Duke of Sussex. The charity based in southern Africa said it would stop using the sport as a way of raising money as it distances itself from the Duke after a bullying and racism dispute. Funds raised from the Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup – which the Duke personally took part in – represented 18 per cent of the charity’s income last year. However, a report into its yearly accounts published on Friday showed that polo would no longer feature as the charity’s flagship fundraiser.

Iain Rawlinson the weasel: Rawlinson, a member of Sentebale’s board of trustees, told the Telegraph: “These polo games, which attract great generosity from high-net worth individuals or funds who want to support the charity – those events definitely have their place. We’re not being critical about that as a concept. The reason for [dropping it] is it puts quite a lot of pressure on individuals, and it can mask structural weakness in the financial model of the charity.”

Rawlinson on Harry’s generosity: As an example, he cited the Duke’s £1.2m donation from the proceeds of his memoir, Spare, as masking “the fault lines in the financial model which had really been producing losses since 2017… Those problems can be summarised by saying there was a very narrow but very loyal donor base for the charity. But it also masked the very high level of cost…where those costs could only be borne by the virtue of the generosity of Prince Harry.” He explained that what future donating organisations would like to see is “a more resilient financial model, which is not dependent on a single patron, for example”.

No more London office: Elsewhere in the accounts, the closure of Sentebale’s former London office, which was costing the charity £650,000 yearly, was listed as part of an effort to reduce £1m a year. Mr Rawlinson said: “If you have got a £600,000 plus cost in the centre of the organisation, which is not programme specific and can’t be recovered through programmes, you have to go and do events. You have to lean on the patron to play polo, you have to do all of that type of thing. And then that creates a certain modus operandi in the organisation.”

[From The Telegraph]

The Telegraph’s report also included quotes from Chandauka, which read as corporate double-speak, lies and bullsh-t. Don’t even bother. They’re still doing the most to blame Harry for… financially supporting a charity HE founded to honor HIS mother. They have a grudge against Harry for… giving millions of dollars to Sentebale and organizing polo fundraisers. They claim that model wasn’t sustainable. Well… we’re seeing Chandauka and Rawlinson’s sustainability in action. They lost the Sentebale polo matches’ main donor. Most of the old donors left with Harry and Seeiso. Chandauka is looting the reserves to pay for “consultants,” and they’ve now mothballed Sentebale’s Children’s Center in Lesotho AND closed Sentebale’s London office. I thought Sophie had all of these big plans, I thought her expensive consultants were fundraising rainmakers? Why is Sentebale struggling so badly under Chandauka and Rawlinson’s leadership if they’ve gotten exactly what they wanted?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, ITV.

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33 Responses to “Sophie Chandauka is closing Sentebale’s UK office & canceling polo fundraisers”

  1. Dee(2) says:

    If they feel like having the polo event put too much pressure on one event to support the charity, and they want smaller scale charitable endeavors instead, that’s fine but what are those endeavors? And why haven’t those endeavors been implemented to raise money to show how they could be just as effective? She’s been in charge for over a year, and Harry has been gone for more than 6 months. If they have these great ideas that she spent all the money on these consultants to generate, you should be able to point to how the things that you’re doing differently may not have raised a ton of money but you have good prospects already.

    Sounds like they’re upset that the former donors didn’t just decide to stick with them, and that potential new donors haven’t just fallen out the sky to give money. The problem is they wanted to make it seem like the conflict was Harry’s fault, but she spent so much time talking about how Harry was the dead weight and how she was the genius and now she has nothing to show.

    • Lia says:

      Right. The concept in theory makes sense to have a larger and consistent donor base, but they are clearly incapable of delivering that, despite the money squandered on fundraising “experts”.

      • DK says:

        I think they’re clearing the deck so Will can copy the model. I suspect that within 5 years (maybe even less!), Earthshot will be hosting polo fundraisers.
        Other Brother can’t come up with an original idea, so has to copy his bro – but must destroy him first so it doesn’t seem like copying.

  2. Amy Bee says:

    I can’t see how Harry donating and raising money for Sentebale is a problem. The reason why they have to cut costs now is because he has left and they’ve lost sponsors. I really don’t see the charity lasting for much longer.

  3. MsIam says:

    Sophie is a crook and this Iain is a tool. Sentebale published its financial reports every year, but this year under Sophie, they failed to publish on time. And it’s not like Harry gave a huge donation every year, he gave that donation to help insure that Sentebale would continue to be on a firm foundation going forward. They’ve f*cked Sentebale up, just like they were instructed to do so.

    • bisynaptic says:

      Yes, curious, about those financial statements, isn’t it.

    • SpankFD says:

      I just cannot comprehend the mental state wherein a person would seek revenge on a sibling by sabotaging a charity serving sick children. Here is my best guess:

      paralyzing insecurity + pathological entitlement + moral bankruptcy

      How much money do these villains have to burn? Can they be cut off?

    • Not a Subject says:

      It’s not exactly as if William has been subtle. He sent his man Ian Rawlings in to do this. But you can’t keep a good man down. Seeiso & Harry will start something else. I know Seeiso’s heart is probably broken because he’s there in Lesotho watching these centers close. But he will pick himself up, dust off and refocus. You can’t keep good men down. Evil doesn’t prosper when good fights back. Period.

  4. Jais says:

    A tragedy. What egotistical monsters Sophie and Iain are. They’ve hurt the kids who were benefitting from sentable.

    • Exactly Jais!!! They thought this would hurt Harry which it does but it hurts the children more! I hope Harry and the other Prince will start something new that can’t be taken over for the children.

  5. Julia says:

    Sentabale suffered during the pandemic like many charities. That’s why Harry donated money from Spare to Sentabale and Well Child to make up for shortfalls caused by the pandemic. Well Child has recovered and doing fine now. We can’t say the same for Sentabale which is burning through its reserves at an alarming rate. I can’t see it lasting another year unless they get a big donor.

    • Yvette says:

      @Julia … Why do I have a suspicion that the Royal Foundation might soon step in to save the day?

    • C-Shell says:

      @Yvette — I doubt the Royal Foundation, or William, will do anything to bail Sentebale out. William has accomplished what he wanted. He took one of Harry’s prized “possessions” away from him. Highly unlikely that William wants to spend money or effort on keeping Harry and Seieso’s dream alive, when he can just wreck it — which will hurt Harry more than if Sentebale could actually continue to help children in some way.

      • FrenchLadyJuliet says:

        Or William would get more “pleasure” if he was going in as a “savior” … and “stealing” the charity from his brother.

        On the other hand, it would look too obvious… the man prefers plotting in the shadows.

  6. aquarius64 says:

    At the end of the day Sophie will be the scapegoat for Sentebale’s demise and Iain will execute his escape route pre planned by KP. When will POCs learn doing the BRF’s dirty work gets yoi no where?

    • Me at home says:

      Sadly, yes. Look for Rawlinson to turn up in a nice sinecure at Earthshot working with Knauf the Knife. Sophie will be blamed, as she very much deserves.

      William will–at least for now–escape blame for setting this disaster in motion. Maybe someday Sophie will come clean about William’s role. Perhaps because nobody will hire her, and she’s desperate for money. Sort of like Scamantha turning on the Mail. We can only hope.

  7. Visa Diva says:

    It is generally true that non profits want a broad donor base to manage risk of relying on a few donors, but you definitely need those few large donors. By alienating Harry and Seelso, Sophie lost virtually all of Sentebale’s large donors and their friends who donate and/or play in their key fundraising event. She shrunk their donor base.

    • OriginalMich says:

      Exactly. Rawlinson acts like it is an either/or situation, which is fantastically stupid. You don’t get rid of your high profile fundraiding events and donors, you keep them *and* expand outward to hopefully broaden your donor base.

    • Me at home says:

      I get that a diverse donor base is good. But if your largest donor started the charity to honor his mother, you can pretty much count on them to keep the charity afloat during crises. Like Harry did during the pandemic, when he sent his Spare proceeds to Sentebale.

      Sophie’s not going to get hundreds of smaller donations, either. After her demonstrated financial mismanagement and unhinged performance in Britain last fall, very few smaller donors, probably not even William, are going to trust her enough to make even small donations.

    • sunnyside up says:

      They also lost the free advertising that comes with Harry. She is now in charge of a charity whose reputation has been ruined, I can’t see many donors contributing.

  8. maja says:

    There was no “bullying conflict”. There were unfounded and dishonourable accusations against Prince Harry and the old board. The fact that the former major donors are now being accused of causing the misery is Orwellian Newspeak, which is currently incredibly en vogue with anyone who wants to cover something up.
    I think there is a lot of thinking in the background by the old board about how to help the children in the future without the current personal failures. And I am sure that solutions will be found. I think these people should be banned from using Harry and Seeiso’s names and those of their mothers.

  9. Eurydice says:

    A UK charity is required to have a UK office. This closing of Sentebale’s “former London office” sounds like they closed one office and opened another. I don’t know why that office should have cost 650,000 a year – that sounds excessive. Does it include staffing, like maybe a salary for Sophie?

    As for the rest, of course a charity would want to increase its donor base. But you don’t cancel your major source of fund-raising before securing alternate sources. Ian makes it sound like it was the current board’s decision to cancel the polo fundraiser, when it was actually that they alienated all their major donors.

  10. bisynaptic says:

    Hope you’re happy, William.

  11. Grandma Susan says:

    Sophie is just a plain old criminal.

  12. Chantal1 says:

    The pathological lies keep piling up but the financial statements were revealing. William wanted to destroy one of Harry’s charities from the inside and unfortunately it’s working. Sabotaging a children’s charity is truly reprehensible!

    Sophie is still lying and tap dancing to distract from the clear evidence of her shadiness, incompetence and likely thievery bc a charity that’s been pretty self sustaining for 2 decades doesn’t all of a sudden become virtually financially insolvent a year after the arrival of a new “CEO”. Sophie & Iain are all talk and no action. Some of their statements are actionable but they apparently haven’t taken any action to implement them. Instead it sounds more like they’re winding down operations to eventually close the foundation while continually smearing Harry. Will Sophie have a job in the Royal Foundation once her mission is accomplished? And why would any sane person trust her after this bs?

  13. Debbie says:

    Has she given any of the money back? Or at least seen to it that it went to its intended sources?

  14. MsKrisTalk says:

    What I’ve noticed is that it appears that Harry is the only one connected to that family who is creative and innovative. They’re mad at him for hosting polo matches to make money, now he’s separated from the charity, and they can’t come up with another idea to make money for the charity. Was she really expecting Harry to continue to fund an organization to bankroll her lifestyle while bankrupting the charity that means so much to him? Put everyone involved in this malpractice under a prison and give the Princes their charity back! It is disgusting that they have allowed children to suffer just to target Harry.

  15. sunnyside up says:

    It looks as if William is going to win this one, I’m worried that it will be Invictus next, I doubt if the armed forces will be happy about that. Harry is one of their own.

  16. Lau says:

    I honestly don’t think that she had any plans other than enriching herself. It’s just the Windsors taking down one of Harry’s creations because let’s face it, they didn’t have any plans for Sentebale as they don’t care about the people who benefit from the organisation. If they do manage to get their hands on something like the Invictus Games you just know that they would make it all about themselves and never let go of it.

  17. Kirk says:

    Chicky Cra-Cra just can’t stop herself, can she? Of course there aren’t going to be any more polo fundraisers. Recall when major sponsor ISPS Handa said they wouldn’t be present at any more Sentebale polo fundraisers as long as you, DOCTOR!!! Sophie Chandauka, were involved? They’re talking about you, you idiot Chanfakery. No announcement needed. ISPS Handa is happy to continue working with “the Duke of Sussex” along with Invictus Foundation. Ohohoh, but not you baby girlie. Is this your last gasp before sinking your toxic personality below the waves?

  18. blunt talker says:

    Evildoers will reap what they sow-my hope is that Harry creates something that does not have any connection to the old Sentable

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