The charity set up by Prince Harry in honour of his mother has dropped its fundraising polo matches after the Duke of Sussex quit over a racism and bullying dispute earlier this year.
A report into Sentebale’s accounts, published on Friday, revealed the sport would no longer feature in its fundraising efforts, despite the Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup making up 18 per cent of income last year.
Harry resigned as a patron of the charity in March, along with his co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, and several other trustees, blaming the “almost dictatorial” style of its chairwoman, Sophie Chandauka.
Chandauka had previously complained to the Charity Commission, accusing board members of bullying, misogyny and racism, and the relationship was said to be “beyond repair”.
After a subsequent drop in donations prompted redundancies in Africa and at its former London headquarters, Sentebale is now in the midst of a rebrand before its 20th anniversary next year.
The HIV/Aids charity, which supports children and young people in Africa, plans to cut £1 million annually and has said it wants to increase investment by widening its donor base instead of relying on individual high-profile donors.
Iain 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.
• Prince Harry ‘wants to come home much more and bring family with him’
“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 said that large donations from Harry — such as a £1.2 million payment from the proceeds of his memoir, Spare — had masked “the fault lines in the financial model which had really been producing losses since 2017”.
He added: “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.”
The closure of Sentebale’s London office, which was costing £650,000 a year, was listed in the report as part of its cost-cutting plan. The charity also said it had introduced a code of conduct “for defining trustees’ acceptable behaviour” in the wake of the scandal.
Tensions at the charity boiled over after the board challenged Chandauka over a £400,000 bill for consultants, which they said had brought little return. She was then asked to step down, but instead she complained to the Charity Commission, alleging bullying, misogyny and racism.
In a Sky News interview, Chandauka accused Harry of trying to “eject” her through “bullying” and “harassment”, which he denied.
The regulator “criticised all parties” involved in the dispute “for allowing it to play out publicly” and said it had “severely impacted the charity’s reputation and risked undermining public trust in charities more generally”.
Chandauka said on Friday: “As we reach our 20th anniversary next year, Sentebale is poised to soar, empowering even more children and young people across southern Africa to claim their futures.”