Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is no stranger to making headlines. He made a few more in the nonprofit world recently as he stepped down as a patron of Sentebale, a charity he cofounded alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006.
In a joint statement, Harry and Seeiso said, “With heavy hearts, we have resigned from our roles as Patrons of [Sentebale] until further notice, in support of and solidarity with the board of trustees who have had to do the same.”
Sentebale, which means “forget me not” in the Sesotho language, is dedicated to helping children in Southern Africa who have HIV/AIDS. The organization was founded in memory of the two royals’ mothers. Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, helped destigmatize HIV/AIDS, was a patron of the National AIDS Trust and opened the first HIV/AIDS-exclusive ward in the UK.
Sentebale is one of a wide array of charitable efforts Harry has been involved in over the years, both before and after he and his wife Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, stepped down as working royals in 2020. We’ve covered the couple’s primary philanthropic vehicle since that time, The Archewell Foundation, which Harry cofounded alongside Meghan. The foundation’s work is spread out across a number of issue areas, including support for women and girls, uplifting communities, supporting parents, responding to humanitarian crises, building a better online world and restoring trust in information.
But why is Harry stepping away from Sentebale? According to his joint statement with Seeiso, the rift came after the relationship between Sentebale’s board of trustees and that of the board’s chair, Dr. Sophie Chandauka, “broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation.” The board members said they had lost confidence in Chanduaka’s leadership and asked her to resign. Chandauka refused to do so, and the board members stepped down as a result.
Chandauka has alleged wrongdoing, stating that she was blowing the whistle around issues of poor governance, abuses of power, weak executive management, bullying, harassment, misogyny and misogynoir.
The U.K. watchdog group Charity Commission has announced it is launching an investigation into Sentebale’s governance. (Sentebale operates in Africa but is registered in the U.K.) Chandauka said she welcomed the Charity Commission’s investigation and that Sentebale initiated its own internal governance review last year, whose findings Sentabale will share with the Charity Commission. Harry also expressed relief at the inquiry.
It remains to be seen how the controversy at Sentebale will play out — and how it might end up reflecting on Harry. Whatever the end result, Harry’s other philanthropic efforts seem likely to continue, having been a throughline for the prince for decades. That’s despite an array of other controversies and simmering tension between the Sussexes and the rest of the British royal family. As a follow-up to our piece on Meghan Markle and the Archewell Foundation, here’s a look at some of Harry’s philanthropic work over the years.
Harry’s early charitable work
Prince Harry has served as a patron of WellChild since 2007. WellChild is a U.K. organization that supports children and young people with complex medical needs as they seek to leave hospitals and receive care and support at home. WellChild’s work includes WellChild Nurses, who, among other things, provide care both in hospitals and in patients’ homes, train parents and caregivers on the use of medical equipment, provide emotional and practical support, and arrange respite care.
In 2009, Harry, along with his brother, Prince William, launched what was then called the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry. The princes’ spouses, Catherine Middleton and Meghan Markle, went on to join the foundation as patrons after their respective marriages in 2011 and 2018. Some of the foundation’s work included support for the inaugural Invictus Games, United for Wildlife and the Heads Together campaign, which sought to end the stigma around mental health. In June 2019, Harry and Meghan left the foundation, which is now known as the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
After returning from his deployment in Afghanistan, Harry founded the Invictus Games Foundation in 2014. The Invictus Games is a biennial sporting competition to celebrate and spotlight service members. In addition to the games themselves, the foundation works to offer pathways to recovery and post-traumatic growth for international wounded, injured and ill service members, particularly through sports, esports, adventure challenges, employment, volunteering, speaking opportunities and a peer-to-peer support network.
Harry also worked with the conservation organization African Parks in 2016 to implement the first phase of a project to move 500 elephants in Malawi. Between 2017 and 2023, Harry served as president of African Parks, and in 2023, he was elevated to its board of directors.
In 2019, Harry founded Travalyst, which characterizes itself as a nonprofit coalition of travel and technology companies — including Booking.com, Expedia Group, Mastercard, Tripadvisor and Visa — with the aim of providing information on sustainability for the travel industry and for travelers. For instance, Travalyst partners include estimates of flight carbon emissions on their booking websites.
Related Inside Philanthropy Resources:
For Subscribers Only
Harry’s philanthropic activities post-royal-exit
After the schism in which Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals in 2020, Harry lost his royal patronages — official relationships of recognition and support for organizations, which, in Harry’s case, previously included Rugby Football Union, Rugby Football League, the London Marathon Charitable Trust, and a role as president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust — and stepped away from some of his philanthropic work.
However, he has continued some of his earlier charitable activity, including through the Invictus Games Foundation, Travalyst, WellChild, African Parks, Dolen Cymru, the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund, Rhino Conservation, and until very recently, Sentebale. Harry used some of the proceeds from his bestselling memoir, “Spare,” to support two of those organizations, pledging $1.5 million to Sentebale and £300,000 to WellChild.
Since 2021, Harry has served as chief impact officer for BetterUp, a mental health platform that provides coaching, mentorship and interactive content to individuals and organizations.
Harry also served as a part-time commissioner for the Aspen Institute’s 2021 study on disinformation and misinformation in the U.S. The Commission on Information Disorder was made up of members representing academia, civil society, government and philanthropy. Its final report offered recommendations on how all parts of society can help increase transparency, build trust and reduce harm.
As noted, Harry’s main philanthropic vehicle since 2020 has been the Archewell Foundation. Its mission is simply “show up, do good.” In addition to the couple’s other focuses at Archewell, strengthening fair and accurate journalism and supporting efforts to address misinformation and disinformation online are critical parts of Harry’s work, and especially relevant given that he and Meghan have been impacted by both sensationalist British tabloids and online misinformation. In fact, the sheer amount of misinformation and vitriol online often makes it difficult to find accurate information about the two.
The Archewell Foundation has supported Free Press, an organization that aims to change media to transform society in the hopes of building a just society. Archewell is also an initial partner for Press Forward, a national coalition that is investing more than $500 million over five years to strengthen local news. The foundation also worked with the NAACP to launch the Digital Civil Rights Award to honor the people and organizations who are “at the forefront of the civil rights movement online.”
Most recently, Harry joined a group from the Invictus Games Foundation to visit the Superhumans Center in Ukraine, which works to rehabilitate wounded military personnel, adults and children in the war-besieged nation. As is customary for the Duke of Sussex, the trip was bound to provoke some level of controversy.