The Prince's Charities Foundation

The Prince’s Charities Foundation was founded by The Prince of Wales in 1979 and was previously called the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation. The intention of the Prince’s Charities Foundation is to support charitable bodies and purposes in which the Prince of Wales has a particular interest. The trustees are appointed by the Prince of Wales but are also said to be appointed by the serving trustees. [ cite web|url=http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ |title=The Prince's Charities Foundation Accounts 2006/7 ] Current trustees are Sir Michael Peat, Philip Reid, Lord Rothschild and Leslie Ferrar.

The Prince’s Charities Foundation is based at Clarence House, employs eight staff, and is sometimes referred to as being part of The Prince's Charities group.

The Prince’s Charities Foundation Finances

Income

In the year 2006/7 the Prince’s Charities Foundation had a total income of £4.5 million of which £3.5 million was miscellaneous donations, and there was a total of £840,000 in donations from subsidiary companies. Contrary to this the accounts also state that the majority of the Foundation's income is derived from its subsidiary undertakings.

Expenditure

Total expenditure of £3.99 million consisted of £3.43 million spent on grants to 186 charitable institutions, and £551,323 was spent on support costs.

The largest grants made were to the Turquoise Mountain Foundation (£659,216), the Prince of Wales Education Summer School (£500,372) and The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health (£528,742).

Dumfries House

The Prince's Charities Foundation was one of a group of organisations and individuals involved in the purchase of Dumfries House in 2007. [ cite web|url=http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/ |title=Sales of Dumfries House completed as new Chief Executive appointed ] The Art Fund acted as the formal legal purchaser of the house and its contents, which were then passed on in November 2007 to the newly formed charity The Great Steward of Scotland's Dumfries House Trust.

The Prince's Charities Foundation borrowed a considerable proportion of the £45 million total cost and fundraising is continuing in order to repay this loan. The Prince's Charities Foundation also acquired for development some land in the Cumnock area. The redevelopment of this land will be planned by the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment and it is hoped that this development will also help to repay the loan.

The Prince’s Charities Foundation Subsidiary Companies

The Foundation has four subsidiary companies, Duchy Originals Ltd, A. G. Carrick Ltd, Prince’s Charities Events Ltd and Traditional Arts Ltd. There is also one indirectly held company Duchy Originals Foods Ltd.

Duchy Originals Ltd

Duchy Originals Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary company of the Prince’s Charities Foundation. [ cite web|url=http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ |title=Duchy Originals Ltd Accounts 2006/7. ] It was set up as a company by the Prince of Wales in 1990, and since then Duchy Originals and Duchy Selections have become well known food brands manufactured and sold by many different companies. The Duchy Originals company is paid royalties by the sellers of Duchy Original and Duchy Selections foods.

The turnover of the company, which is the royalty income notified to the company, and which is also the gross profit, came to £4.86 million in 2006/7. Administrative expenses came to £3.31 million giving an operating profit of £1.53 million. Out of this profit a charitable donation of £743,000 was given to the Prince’s Charities Foundation. One director of the company was paid a salary of £185,000 and also received a pension contribution of £19,000, and the company directors in total received salary and pension contributions of £400,000.

A. G. Carrick Ltd

A. G. Carrick Ltd exploits intellectual property rights generated by The Prince of Wales and donated to the company as well as running a shop at Highgrove. The company covenants all of its taxable profits to the Foundation.

In 2006/7 A. G. Carrick Ltd had a turnover of £1.1 million but costs of £608,590, which meant that there were profits of just £97,386, which were given to the Prince’s Charities Foundation as a donation.

Traditional Arts Ltd

Traditional Arts Ltd is a company that commissions, develops, sources, markets and sells a range of decorative art products under the "Traditional Arts" name. [ cite web|url=http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ |title=Traditional Arts Ltd Accounts 2006/7. ] In 2006/7 the comapny had a turnover of £417,985 and the cost of sales was £204,919. So there was a gross profit of £213,000 but as there were administrative expenses of £1,018,916, the operating loss for the year was £805,850. The administrative expenses included staff costs of £233,602.

Traditional Arts Ltd owes the Prince's Charities Foundation £1.3 million, on which it pays 6% interest with no fixed repayment date.

In 2006/7 £130,313 was paid by the company to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. £94,721 was in relation to salaries and £35,592 was in relation to an event held in Clarence House. £16,184 of expenses was paid to the charity Sentebale in line with costs incurred by the charity. £18,125 was paid to the Prince's School of Traditional Arts charity by Traditional Arts Ltd for costs incurred by the charity again on behalf of the Traditional Arts Ltd company. During this periood the Chief Executive of the company was also the Executive trustee of the charity Sentebale. Three of the Traditional Arts company directors were also trustees of The Prince's School of Traditional Arts charity.

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