The King celebrates 40 years of PWCF

In the Gardens of Clarence House, The King met representatives of some of the hundreds of charities and organisations that have benefitted from the support of The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund (PWCF) over the past forty years.

Founded in 1979 by The King, when he was Prince of Wales, PWCF has a mission to transform lives and build sustainable communities. Over the last 20 years, PWCF has awarded over £70m in grants to a wide range of good causes across its funding themes: Environment, Countryside, Social Inclusion, Health & Wellbeing, Heritage & Conservation and Education.

At the Reception, the Fund announced a new initiative, the Coronation Food Project, which aims to reduce food waste by ensuring that produce that would otherwise have gone to landfills, is redistributed to those in need through partner charities and organisations. The work will build on previous projects by the Fund, which included funding to purchase and distribute 800 fridges and freezers to food banks and community centres across the UK.

Highlighting the Fund’s commitment to social inclusion, The King met representatives from BIGKID Foundation, which works to tackle youth violence in London and to empower young people to fulfil their potential through community engagement, leadership and mentoring programmes.

PWCF has long supported the Arts, and The King met a beneficiary of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, an organisation supported by the Fund, which encourages the training and education of talented and aspiring craftspeople, helping to sustain vital skills in traditional and contemporary crafts.

The King also saw art created by the creative beneficiaries of Arts Together, a charity that works to counter loneliness and improve the quality of life of older people through artistic projects.

Much of the work of PWCF is focused on building sustainable communities and protecting the natural world, and The King had the opportunity to meet volunteers from the Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, the Soil Association, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Fauna & Flora International, and The Prince’s Countryside Fund, all of which have been supported by the Fund.

In the last year alone, PWCF has supported over 100 smaller charities through a small grants programme and awarded over £1.95 million to seven strategic partners, (Plantlife International, Practical Action, The Wildlife Trusts, Age Scotland, Carers Trust, BIGKID Foundation and Omega) in support of their important work in the areas of environmental sustainability and social inclusion.

Most recently, PWCF created a one-million-pound Fund to support the Felix Project and other food charities across the UK, providing them with white goods such as fridges and freezers.

Much of the provision of grants by PWCF has been enabled by the Fund’s partner, Waitrose, through sales of the supermarket’s Duchy Organic line – established by His Majesty when Prince of Wales.

Read more about the projects supported by PWCF here.