PWCF pledges £1.95m to new strategic partners

The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund (PWCF) is pleased to announce that seven charities will become strategic funding partners, receiving £1.95m of grant funding over the next three years.

The seven charities PWCF will support are: Plantlife International, Practical Action, The Wildlife Trusts, Age Scotland, Carers Trust, BIGKID Foundation and Omega. These charities were selected by Trustees for their enormously important work in the areas of environmental sustainability and social inclusion, both subjects close to The King’s heart.

Plantlife International works with in the UK and across the globe to inspire and support action for healthy abundant wild plants and fungi. Our support will enable the charity to launch its Science and Impact programme, helping to demonstrate impact, expand and share organisational learning, develop research networks, and provide a platform for an education programme in the longer term.

PWCF is excited to be supporting Practical Action in putting ingenious ideas to work so that people in poverty can change their world. Our funding will mean that Practical Action can support small holder farmers transition to regenerative farming approaches and demonstrate this in different agricultural and community contexts across sub-Saharan Africa – helping both people and our environment.

Supporting the environment is a key funding priority for PWCF, and so we are supporting The Wildlife Trusts. This major funding will help the charity to explore opportunities for green finance and investment markets to access new forms of finance for nature’s recovery. It will also help the Trusts to establish a professionalised national land management advisory service to help shape our countryside in a way which enables nature’s recovery and promotes biodiversity.

To help provide more support for older people, PWCF is supporting Age Scotland. This award will help to fund services to improve the financial resilience, health, and wellbeing of older people through investment in the charity’s expert advisory team – particularly focusing on helping older people to access social security funding they may not realise they are entitled to. Over half of older people do not feel their contributions to society are valued and over one third say they are made to feel like a burden on society – so supporting this group of people is key in building sustainable, thriving communities.

Within the funding theme of social inclusion, we are supporting the Carers Trust. Funding will help to deliver an integrated strategy for carer involvement across all their work, with a particular focus on young people and young adult carer involvement. Carers Trust believes that caring responsibilities should not result in financial difficulty for anyone, yet in a recent survey 1 in 7 unpaid adult carers said they had used a food bank recently. It is therefore more important than ever to support carers, and to involve carers in creating solutions to the issues they face.

Finally, we are pleased to be supporting two smaller, community-based organisations. BIGKID Foundation is based in Brixton, London and has a mission to end youth violence. Through community engagement, mentoring and Breaking Barriers, an in-school leadership programme targeting young people at risk of exclusion, their focus is on equipping young people to find, develop and act on their own potential. Our support will help BIGKID to develop their Brixton delivery hub, Dexter’s, and expand their model across the capital, helping more young people.

We are also supporting Omega, the National Association for End of Life Care – a small end of life charity based in the West Midlands and home of the Chatterbox Action Against Loneliness programme and the A Letter from Louise safeguarded pen pal service. The charity is working to reduce loneliness and isolation for vulnerable elderly people facing multiple challenges, such as caring responsibilities, mental health issues and bereavement. Our support will help Omega to build their sustainability and increase staff capacity in line with increasing demand for this vital work.

Nikki Jeffery, PWCF Executive Director said: “We’re really excited to be announcing our new strategic funding partnerships and look forward to working with these charities over the next three years. Our support – across the UK, the Commonwealth and Internationally – will have a real impact in helping those vulnerable or in need and those looking to create sustainable solutions to support nature and mitigate the climate crisis.

We are extremely grateful to Waitrose & Partners for their continuing support through sales of the Duchy Organics range.”

Since 2009, royalties from the Waitrose Duchy Organics range have generated in excess of £34m for PWCF and the good causes it supports. This funding has made these strategic partnerships possible.

Waitrose & Partners Executive Director, James Bailey said: “We’re delighted to see the ongoing benefit that the Waitrose Duchy Organic brand brings to communities across the UK. We’re grateful to our customers for their continued support for this very special range of products which epitomise Food To Feel Good About and we look forward to seeing the impact that these latest round of grants will bring to good causes, and remain committed to supporting PWCF and its important work.”

PWCF looks forward to supporting more organisations in 2023 across our key funding priorities: health and wellbeing, social inclusion, education, the environment, heritage and conservation and the countryside.

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