How Harry’s Africa charity took £19,000 furlough cash
PRINCE Harry took the extraordinary step of suing Her Majesty’s Government over the withdrawl of his bodyguards, but his charity is happy to lean on the hard-pressed British taxpayer.
I can reveal that Sentebale, which the Duke of Sussex co-founded in 2006 to help African orphans, used the Government’s furlough scheme during the pandemic. The funding was set up to help businesses survive the crisis.
The charity claimed almost £20,000 of taxpayers’ cash over the past two years. Newly released accounts disclose that Sentebale claimed £5,000 from the Government’s Job Retention scheme last year, on top of £14,000 in 2020. The claim was made even though the charity boasted an income of £3.1 million in the 12 months to last August, an increase of £736,000 from the previous year.
It is not known how much was donated by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are said to have signed a £100 million deal with American streaming giant Netflix and a rumoured £18million contract with audio company Spotify, in addition to their other income. They live in a nine-bedroom mansion in Montecito, California, which has 16 bathrooms.
Sentebale’s accounts report that almost £1million of its income came from its U.S. division. Of the total, £1.2million came from events, £1million from institutional funding, £413,000 from trusts and foundations, £314,000 in gifts in kind, £144,000 from corporate donors, £31,000 from general donations, £21,000 in investments and £10,000 in legacies.
A note says: ‘After a difficult period, we are grateful to all our generous supporters who enabled us to end the year in a much stronger position than we started, with increased income compared to 2020.’
Total spending at the charity came to £3 million for 2021, against £2.8 million the previous year. Staff numbers increased to 104 from 64, comprising 66 in Lesotho, 32 in Botswana and six in London. A Sentebale spokesman could not be reached for comment while Prince Harry declines to speak to the popular Press.