A charity Prince Harry has been supporting since 2013, which his mother, Princess Diana, also supported has not been listed under the Duke of Sussex's name on the Royal Family's website, prompting a leading expert in charity organizations to wonder what's the story behind this.
Caroline Fiennes of Giving Evidence was discussing the official Royal Family website's patronage list with Graham Smith, the head of the anti-monarchist group Republic, in the podcast Abolish the Monarchy. Fiennes mentioned that there has been a significant oversight on the listing because Halo Trust, the humanitarian landmine clearing organization, was missing under Harry's profile.
The expert said that Halo Trust is such a high-profile charity because of Diana. The Princess of Wales attracted a lot of attention for the organization's work in 1997 when she walked through a minefield in Angola.
Fiennes found it baffling that this wasn't acknowledged on Harry's page given Halo Trust's prestige. Harry, who has actively worked with the organization since 2013, also walked the same minefield when he visited the country and continued his mother's work.
In 2020, the Duke of Sussex even penned a letter to Halo Trust to thank them for their efforts despite the world grappling with the pandemic. This suggested that he is still in contact with the charity and this needs to be indicated in the Royal Family website.
Fiennes pointed out that the Royal Family official site's listing of patronages has been incomplete and full of errors for some time. In a Twitter post in 2020, the expert said that one of the charities on Harry's profile redirects to a porn site while there is also a listing of a defunct charity under Prince Andrew's name. The said charity has ended its campaign more than a decade ago.
Amid her observations, the podcast episode also touched on the claims that charities do not gain real benefits from having royal patrons. Data collected by Fiennes showed that the royals are merely "high profile cheerleaders" who can't help generate an increase in contribution or generosity from other people. While Fiennes said she is not an anti-monarchist, her recommendation for charities was to reconsider taking on royal patronage because it will not help with the revenue or bring the expected outcome.
Buckingham Palace has not commented on Fiennes' findings and analysis.
