Prince Harry still has many charitable connections in the UK. One of those connections is with the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, which still generates annual income. Years ago, Harry and his brother agreed to split this income, with both brothers directing the money in different ways. Originally, Harry’s portion had been donated to Sentebale, the Lesotho-based charity he cofounded as a teenager. Last year, Harry stepped down from Sentebale after Sophie Chandauka looted the charity’s funds and refused to step down as the chairwoman. After Sophie smeared Harry and Meghan in the British press for months, she then sued Harry and his dear friend Mark Dyer. So… Harry’s portion of the Diana Memorial Fund is no longer allocated to Sentebale. Where is that money going? To elephants!!
The Duke of Sussex has diverted money from his late mother’s memorial fund away from Sentebale and to a Botswana-based elephant charity. Prince Harry had for years chosen to donate the annual income generated by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund to Sentebale, the charity he co-founded in his mother’s memory to help orphans in southern Africa. But his relationship with Sophie Chandauka, the chairman of the board, imploded in 2025, prompting him to step down alongside the board of trustees amid a blaze of recriminations.
The Duke was later sued for defamation by the charity over allegations he co-ordinated an “adverse media campaign” which caused “operational disruption and reputational harm”, allegations he rejected as “offensive and damaging”.
He has opted to send his share of the proceeds from the Diana fund to Elephants Without Borders, a conservation group with which he and the Duchess of Sussex have forged close links. Dr Mike Chase, founder of the charity, has known the Duke for more than two decades and said his support had always been a “tremendous honour”.
He told The Telegraph they had used the money to fit satellite-tracking collars to two “magnificent” elephants in the Okavango Delta, which they named Archie and Lili after the Sussexes’ two children.
“The Duke has a very strong passion for the Okavango Delta, Botswana, its people, and its wildlife,” he said. “I am deeply grateful that he is supporting us through the Diana Memorial Fund, it means a great deal to us and to the elephants we are working so hard to protect. We wanted to pass on that legacy to the kids, in the hope that his passion for Okavango and Botswana would rub off on them, and to allow them to monitor the elephants in real time across the world.”
Prince Archie chose a blue collar for the elephant named in his honour, while Princess Lilibet chose purple, before they were deployed across the plains of northern Botswana.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was founded shortly after her death in 1997 and was closed in 2012. In 2013, the Royal Foundation assumed legal control of the fund to safeguard any future income. While it no longer raises money, it occasionally receives some legacies and donations, with the bulk of the proceeds going to charities chosen by Prince William and Prince Harry. After the Sussexes’ departure from royal duties in the UK in 2020, the brothers agreed to divide the future proceeds of their mother’s memorial fund between them as part of the separation of their charitable activities.
Prince Harry had asked for his share to go to Sentebale, which helps the victims of poverty and HIV/ Aids in Lesotho, Botswana and Malawi. According to annual accounts filed by the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Sentebale has received £43,866 from the Diana fund since 2020, with the last payment of £16,743 made in 2024.
The latest accounts reveal that in 2025, for the first time, Prince Harry’s slice of the fund, which at this time was £5,432, went to Elephants Without Borders. It says: “In accordance with a request by The Duke of Sussex, half of the net proceeds received by the Diana Fund since 18 December 2019 are being donated to a charity of The Duke’s choosing. In 2025 all funds will be donated to Elephants Without Borders.”
The Duke has known Dr Chase for more than 20 years. The pair are very close and Dr Chase is considered a member of Harry’s “African family”
That’s adorable – the elephants being named Archie and Lili, and the kids picking out the collar colors. I honestly didn’t realize that the Diana Memorial Fund still had any income whatsoever, but I’m glad that Harry is now redirecting that money away from Sentebale. It’s also a reminder that we haven’t heard anything about Sophie Chandauka’s deranged lawsuit in months. The last we heard, Sentebale’s funds had completely dried up and she had halfway shuttered the entire charity. You can donate to Elephants Without Borders here.
Photos courtesy of Meghan’s Instagram.
Given the PEPFAR defunding, they couldn’t find another way to get funds to people doing HIV prevention and support work with kids in Lesotho?
No guarantee the funding would go to the children based on that woman’s financial mismanagement
Sentebale isn’t the only charity that does this work.
They probably are, just aren’t using this Diana fund money to do it. The available amount seems to have decreased pretty significantly anyway, from $16K in 2024 to $5K in 2025.
Harry was part of a PSA for UN AIDS last year & Archewell was named as a sponsor for them so I think he’s continuing that work via Archewell Philantropies
William will be furious because his charity is; ‘Tusk’, also elephants. Harry is cheeky. Checkmate! Lol!
It’s not just that Will is affiliated with the Tusk Trust (he’s the Royal Patron). Iain Rawlinson was a Tusk trustee for years. That’s the same Iain Rawlinson who’s now been a trustee of Sentebale for the last year or two, with big question marks around his role in helping to engineer Chandauka’s takeover of the organization.
It is kind of amusing for Harry to redirect those funds previously going to Sentebale to a totally different elephant related charity.
(Also, is Jecca Craig connected to Tusk at all? Seems to ring a bell…)
That’s really awesome about the elephants.
I wonder if Archie and Lili have visited Botswana and picked out the collars in person?
How do you know they’re not donating money to the children in Lesotho? Just not where the fake doctor can use any of their money.
“In 2013, the Royal Foundation assumed legal control of the fund to safeguard any future income.”
I did not know this, and I wonder how much of it is spent on “administration” by the Royal Foundation before they decide how much is to be disbursed to Prince Harry as “his share”. Hmm.
I knew that Harry’s friends in Botswana and other African countries had already forged close ties with Prince Archie and Princess Lili. This is such a sweet story.
It was noticeable that proper journalists reported the story as a contribution from the fund to Elephant without Borders, with a positive story about Harry’s children being involved in his elephant preservation work as a full circle moment considering the Diana link, but the drama addicts in the UK media chose to use it as an excuse to repeat allegations from the scammer who did the hostile takeover of Sentable while bleeding the charity dry. This was a solid move from Prince Harry and I wonder whether he had done this some time ago and the stalkers at the Telegraph only found out about it recently.
Definitely a worthy cause! I firmly believe that, if God had any sense at all, elephants would rule over all creation instead of humans (and it’d be a matriarchy!). Lovely, intelligent, sweet souls who are superior to us in every way and must be protected at all costs.
I feel the same way! I find elephants to be such beautiful and intelligent creatures … the way they react when they see a human who has cared for them in the past! So lovely!
They are the best! Whenever I need a pick-me-up, which is daily anymore, I go to the Sheldrick Trust’s IG and just watch the elephant videos, babies, adults, nanny groups, rescue ops, the works. So uplifting.
I keep hoping to hear that “Call Me Doctor” Chandauka has finally been ousted from the remains of Sentebale, and also prosecuted for financial crimes.
It’s been long enough that it’s probably a pipe dream, but I also still have hope that if she’s ousted, Princes Harry and Seeiso can reopen and revitalize Sentebale, moving its corporate entity out of the UK entirely, so that it’s no longer vulnerable to the horrible people Harry is unfortunately related to.
Meanwhile, of course Harry would find a way to still benefit his beloved Africa with the Diana Memorial funds. I’m delighted that he’s bringing the kids into charitable endeavors in their own right, even at such young ages.
Same. That woman took down a great charity and I don’t even understands she’s the villain in this whole saga.
I’m surprised Lili didn’t choose pink! Lol
Seeing elephants (and all the other animals in their natural habitats) on Safari (these were open border retreats) was a life changing experience. The way the herds protect the calves, the dust “baths”, the watering…even up to pulling up food for the babies… the whole herd will circle around a baby to protect it if it senses danger.
My favorite part was when I was getting out of the tub, and looking out (the whole wall was floor to ceiling windows/doors), I saw an elephant walking over to the cold plunge pool on my ground height deck. Naturally my phone cam was charging across the suite! I watched it dip its trunk in, drink, dribble some of the cold water over its head… then it looked me straight in the eyes before walking away. It’s like it said to me, “Ok, lady, you got your look, now I’m gonna peace out!” Lolol Bucket list trip of a lifetime!
We went on safari a couple of years ago. My husband was born in South Africa and still has family there. The whole thing was amazing but the elephants were my favorite. So amazing to just sit there in the midst of them as they sort of moved around us. I loved it and loved them.
Oh, y’all, how wonderful!! That’s now my goal, to experience such wonder!
Knowing that Harry’s half of the Diana funds were going to Sentebale I was interested to find out where the money was going to now. I saw a GB News clip with a royal commentator complaining that the money wasn’t going to Sentebale anymore but it was delusional to ever believe that Harry would continue to give money to an organization that he’s no longer involved with. As for the money not going to HIV/AIDS relief. When he left Sentebale it was said that Harry will find other ways to make a contribution. More than likely this is part of the plans for the revamped Archewell Philantrophies.
When in January Harry and Meghan announced that the Archewell Foundation has been renamed Archewell Philanthropies, they also announced that their children have become part of their philanthropic work.
I think this is the kind of things they ment for prince Archie and princess Lilibet to get involved in. This is well thought by their parents. Lovely.
And also, in 2025 we already saw Archie and Lili helping their parents preparing meals in a charity kitchen. They really have planted the seeds for the kids to do good in the world, early on.
Sophie C said she didn’t need Harry to raise money for Sentebale and in fact he was a hindrance to her fundraising ability due to his ‘reputation’. Welp, can’t cry about him washing his hands of the whole thing now Sophie, you got just what you wanted. Actually, this fits with the Sussexes goals of not starting their own charity programs and just contributing funds to other programs that are already established. Them partnering with the UN on Aids relief is part of that goal.
Coming in 3,2,1…WanK’s children LOVE elephants doncha know! LOL
Didn’t the children get to name a kangaroo at the Irwin zoo recently? Mind you , William is patron of Trusk but he hasn’t had the foresight to involve his children yet. Harry always lead, and William criticizes and tries to trash what he does.
Hooray for Harry! Again and again he pushes on despite the sabotaging efforts of his nasty Other Brother. William is just IRATE that Harry continues to do impactful charity work. So he’s trying to dethrone Harry from his charities by destroying the charities themselves. William does no real charity work himself, and if he does none, then Harry WILL NOT show him up. Solution: Do charity work, William? No. Better Solution: Dismantle and corrupt every charity Harry has. So the brothers will be on even ground. Or so William thinks. William’s solution is never to do more, but for Harry to do less, by any means necessary. It would not surprise me if William and his blokes go on safari to shoot elephants (Africa is mine, Harold).
I think after Sentable they are never going to start a new charity. Look at this mess with Sophie and how they got hamstrung by British laws that she was able to have everyone quit and still stay in charge. There’s barely anyone there and Sophie’s headshot is unprofessional.
The Sentebale website still has MULTIPLE pictures of Harry playing polo. Now that’s unprofessional, at least in my view. I guess their fundraising is in the toilet, so they’re implying connections with Harry and with polo as a fundraising focus, without directly saying so. That’s sleazy.
That headline sure makes it sound like he did something crooked.
He didn’t redirect anything. He made a different donation.
Yup. They’re sleazy, as ever.