According to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Foundation, the organization is experiencing the normal growing pains of a young, high-profile nonprofit, as its tax forms show that its donations were down by $11 million in 2022 and it made just over half as many grants as the year before.
The California-based couple’s foundation still received a total of $2 million in donations in 2022, which many nonprofits would be thrilled about, and the foundation issued $1.2 million in grants to more than a dozen organizations, according to its 2022 IRS documents, otherwise known as its Form 990. Then again, Archewell boasted in 2021 that it donated more than $3 million to a number of causes that year.
Earlier this year, headlines focused on how Archewell received a total of $13 million in donations in 2021, with a $10 million infusion of cash coming from an anonymous donor, via the Mountain View-based Silicon Valley Community Foundation, according to SVCF’s 2021 IRS documents.
It could be said that the $10 million from the anonymous donor, plus an additional $3 million in donations, created the generous seed money that Archewell needed to ramp up its philanthropic work in 2021, after launching in 2020. Thanks to the $13 million, Archewell still had some $8.3 million in net assets at the end of 2022.
However, Archewell started out 2022 with more than $9 million in net assets, and its $2 million in contributions in 2022, reportedly from just two benefactors, didn’t cover its $2.6 million in expenses, leaving it with a loss of $674,000.
In a statement, Archewell said that it’s not unusual for high-profile foundations to receive a significant influx of funding in its first year to be used over several years as part of a financial plan to build its philanthropic work, the Independent reported.
“It is most fiscally responsible not to continue to raise large sums of money with millions still in reserve,” the statement said. “In 2022, (The Archewell Foundation) focused on building out original programming that successfully launched in 2023.”
The statement also said that Archewell “is grateful for such a successful year and looks forward to continued growth in 2024.”
It’s not clear, though, how Archewell plans to grow. From the Form 990, it doesn’t appear that the nonprofit expends any money to engage in the sort of fundraising that is common for nonprofits. It appears to instead rely on very large donations from a few well-off benefactors.
Meanwhile, the foundation’s $2.6 million in expenses included the $1.2 million the foundation issued in grants and some $640,000 it paid in salaries and other compensation to its five employees and consultants. The foundation also spent $786,000 on other expenses, including legal services, office costs, event costs and travel. Harry and Meghan do not draw salaries for their work with Archewell, but the nonprofit began giving salaries to its staff, including to its executive director, James Holt, who earned an annual salary of $227,000.
Archewell made its Form 990 available on its website after releasing its 2022-23 “Impact Report” and a one-minute video that purports to highlight Harry and Meghan’s philanthropic activities in 2023. Under the motto, “Show Up, Do Good,” the report said that Archewell’s work is rooted “in fostering community and remaining responsive to those in need amidst the evolving challenges we encounter in today’s world.”
The ever-critical U.K. media questioned the timing of Harry, Meghan and Archewell releasing its Impact Report. The Daily Mail suggested that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are hoping for some positive PR for their charity work right now, as they’ve faced angry headlines, and even calls to have their royal titles removed, over the Nov. 28 publication of “Endgame.” The scathing critique of the British monarchy was written by Omid Scobie, an author who has become one of Harry and Meghan’s fiercest defenders and who is often called their “mouthpiece.”
The Sussexes also have been under fire because a Dutch-language version of “Endgame” named King Charles III and Kate Middleton as two family members who were at the center of race controversy first ignited by Meghan during her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey. There have been accusations in the U.K. media that Scobie wrote “Endgame” with the Sussexes’ cooperation, or at least on their behalf.
Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter, one of the leading trade publications for the entertainment industry, listed the couple among the town’s “biggest losers” in 2023, suggesting they had exhausted the American public’s good will with their “whiny Netflix documentary,” Harry’s “whiny” memoir, and Meghan’s “inert” podcast which led to Spotify dropping them as partners. Brand experts also warned that the couple’s effort to launch themselves media moguls is not going according to plan, as they are regularly attract controversy.
It makes sense that Harry and Meghan’s team would like to change this negative news cycle by highlighting their accomplishments with Archewell.
According to the report, the accomplishments include launching the Welcome Project, which supports “women-led programming for recently resettled Afghan women to help build more inclusive and connected communities.” Archewell also is involved in initiatives to provide housing and mental health support to expectant mothers at risk of domestic violence, substance abuse and homelessness, and it worked with the City of Uvalde, Texas, and another organization to build a playground in the community that suffered a mass shooting in May 2022.
According to Archewell’s tax documents, the nonprofit contributed to 17 organizations in 2022, including $100,000 to the Halo Trust, a mine-clearing charity once supported by Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana; $200,000 for a gender justice project at Georgetown Law School; $125,000 for a civil-rights charity and $100,000 for a project promoting responsible use of technology.