The Prince’s Charities Foundation has three principal roles.
To support a wide range of causes and projects by making charitable donations.
To undertake charitable projects. Examples of projects are START, which is an initiative to show people how they can ‘start’ being more sustainable, and The Prince’s International Sustainability Unit, which includes The Prince’s Rainforests and The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Projects.
To facilitate synergy and coordination and promote and oversee a high level of charitable and operating best practice within The Prince’s Charities group (of which The Prince’s Charities Foundation is a member).
The Prince’s Charities Foundation receives its funding from the profits of Duchy Originals, the food company which The Prince of Wales launched in 1992, from the Highgrove shops, from royalties, from books written and films made by His Royal Highness, from the sale of lithographs of his watercolours and from fundraising.
In addition, The Prince’s Charities Foundation is taking forward a sustainable mixed-use development at Knockroon on the edge of Cumnock in East Ayrshire. It is hoped and believed that this development will not only create employment and help bring prosperity to the area, but will in the longer-term generate profits for donation to charitable causes, once loans associated with the development have been repaid. The level of indebtedness has already been reduced by more than half.
All the trading activities, including Duchy Originals and the Knockroon development, are undertaken by wholly owned trading subsidiaries of The Prince’s Charities Foundation.
The Foundation was established by The Prince of Wales in 1979. It was known as The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation until 2006.
The Foundation receives an ever-increasing number of requests for assistance, which are considered on a regular basis by its trustees.
Donations are made by the Foundation to a wide range of charities covering environmental issues, health and hospices, community and welfare, education and training, heritage and the built environment, as well as charities supporting servicemen and women and people affected by natural disasters.