Announcing our new name – King Charles III Charitable Fund
With the gracious permission of our Founder, His Majesty The King, we are delighted to announce our new name, King Charles III Charitable Fund.
The story began in 1979, when His Majesty The King, or His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales as he was then, established a Fund to support environmental projects in Wales. Over time The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund has grown in scale and ambition and our reach expanded across the four corners of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and beyond.
From the environment, countryside and conservation to social inclusion, health and education, the Fund has supported charitable causes His Majesty cares so deeply about. In the 44 years since its inception, the Fund has invested over £100m in charitable causes through grants and incubating new charitable initiatives.
Much of this good work would not have been possible were it not for the creation of the pioneering Duchy Originals brand in 1990 which was set up to sell organic food and provide a donation to the Fund. An exclusive partnership with Waitrose, established in 2009 and now known as Duchy Organic, has gone from strength to strength, generating in excess of £40m to date to support the Fund’s charitable activities.
A story that began with a modest desire to support a simple cause has now helped to transform the lives of millions of people. In the last year alone, over 100 charities have been recipients of the small grants programme and £1.95m has been granted to seven new strategic partners for their enormously important work in the areas of environmental sustainability and social inclusion.
Sir Ian Cheshire, Chairman of the King Charles III Charitable Fund (KCCF) said:
‘For more than four decades, we have been investing in charitable causes which respond to critical social and environmental issues facing people and the planet.
Our new name reaffirms our Founder’s commitment to the charity’s mission and will continue the legacy of His Majesty the King for generations to come.’
The first significant project under our new name will be the Coronation Food Project which seeks to tackle food waste and food insecurity across all four nations of the United Kingdom. At a time of urgent and growing challenge for so many households the Coronation Food Project will support a consortium of pioneering food-rescue charities across the United Kingdom in creating a fairer and more sustainable future for all.