The Sussexes’ Archewell Foundation received $5.3 million in grants in 2023

Last week, the Daily Mail’s crack team of “charitable tax experts” were trying to scandalize their readership with a convoluted story about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell foundation. I didn’t cover the Mail’s story because I didn’t even understand what they were trying to say. It was just random sh-t like “Harry and Meghan’s MISSING MILLIONS” and “The Sussexes DELAYED releasing their TAXES!” Harry and Meghan support themselves, they don’t take one penny from the British or American taxpayer to fund their lifestyle, and they run their own charitable foundation in America. Why does the Mail care? Don’t answer that, I know already. Well, the Mail’s faux-reporting got under the Archewell team’s skin, so wouldn’t you know, People Magazine got an exclusive about what’s really going on at the foundation:

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s charitable organization, the Archewell Foundation, has reported growth in its third year of operation, receiving $5.3 million in grants — more than double the $2 million raised the previous year, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. According to the foundation’s 2023 tax records, reviewed by PEOPLE, the Sussexes’ nonprofit organization allocated $1.3 million of the over $5 million raised to charitable causes. These figures cover the period from January to December 2023.

Archewell, which the couple launched in 2020 shortly after stepping back from their roles as senior working royals, received a $5 million donation from an individual donor, as well as $335,000 from five separate individual contributors.

PEOPLE understands that Archewell’s efforts, including initiatives like The Parents Network and other community-based programs, have attracted more backing, leading to higher funding and assets at the end of the year. These funds will be used to support ongoing projects and expand the foundation’s work.

Contrary to previous reports that suggested $4 million had been unreported in Archewell’s 2022 tax return, the charity has clarified that all funds were properly accounted for, and that sum is reflected in the current tax filing for the 2023 fiscal year, PEOPLE understands.

In separate reports for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, benefactor Fidelity Charitable disclosed a contribution of $6 million to Archewell, while TisBest Philanthropy reported a grant of $10,000. Archewell, however, confirmed that it received two separate $1 million grants from anonymous donors. This discrepancy in reported amounts stems from differences in the timing of the grants, which has been clarified in the charity’s current filing.

Archewell’s total revenue for the year, including investment income, amounted to $5.7 million. The charity’s tax filing also disclosed the couple’s nominal one-hour-per-week involvement in Archewell’s operations, a standard practice for directors of U.S. tax-exempt organizations. The filing also confirmed that Meghan and Harry do not receive any salary from the foundation.

The tax records outlined salaries for several key staff members. James Holt, co-executive director, received a $228,500 salary, along with $18,428 in benefits. Co-executive director Shauna Nep was compensated with a salary of $272,241 and additional benefits totaling $26,356.

The tax return also revealed other key expenditures, including $997,285 in salary costs and just over $1 million in overall expenses. These expenses cover legal fees, event costs, and travel, with notable spending on the foundation’s public-facing initiatives like last year’s World Mental Health Day event in New York City.

The year-over-year increase in expenses is attributed to the expansion of key programs, such as The Welcome Project, which is fostering community support for refugees, and the continued growth of Archewell’s Parents Network.

[From People]

“Contrary to previous reports that suggested $4 million had been unreported in Archewell’s 2022 tax return, the charity has clarified that all funds were properly accounted for…” Basically, the Mail was full of lies and the British tabloids crawl up Harry and Meghan’s asses over nothing. Who would have thought that the Mail has no idea about the inner-workings of an American foundation? Also: the foundation’s executives are getting big money, but in Holt’s case, he’s been with Harry for a decade. Holt used to work in Kensington Palace, and Holt came to America to help the Sussexes get set up over here. That kind of loyalty is priceless.

People Mag also details where some of the Archewell grants are going. They donated $250,000 to Ashley Biden’s Women’s Wellness (Spa)ce, a trauma-informed wellness center for women in north Philadelphia. Harry and Meghan are founding partners in Ashley Biden’s center. They also donated $130K to Humanity Crew, $50K to “providing mental health support to aid workers in Israel and Gaza, while $80,000 was allocated to support mental health services for aid workers in Turkey and Syria.”

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red, Cover Images, Archewell, CBS and Save the Children.

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24 Responses to “The Sussexes’ Archewell Foundation received $5.3 million in grants in 2023”

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  1. Chloe says:

    “ The tax records outlined salaries for several key staff members. James Holt, co-executive director, received a $228,500 salary, along with $18,428 in benefits…”

    Those KP staffers are crying lmao. Working for scraps

    • Inge says:

      I think KP expects them to be grateful they get to work for them.

      Anyway good for the Sussexes for paying properly.

    • Kingston says:

      The shitmedia cabal is not only also crying on hearing of Holt’s salary, but theyre puke-green with envy jealousy and anger. Hence the attacks on H&M and their Foundation

  2. Amy Bee says:

    Is Archewell one of the most scrutinized charities in the world? I have never seen such an extensive article written about the Royal Foundation finances. The one time something was written about William and Kate’s foundation, Richard Eden lied and said that they had given a large donation to the Invictus Games when it was really a transfer of funds belonging to the Endeavour Fund.

    • Visa Diva says:

      Its not the most scrutinized, it just gets a lot of tabloid attention compared to other non profits. David Fahrentold of the NY Times does a lot of reporting on non profits and their finances and that’s where the serious scrutiny takes place.

      The metric not reported by People is what percent of Archwell’s budget goes to mission, fundraising and Administrative overhead. (Like Exec Director compensation). That’s a key metric to see if a non profit is delivering on its mission.

      • Square2 says:

        I’m satisfied with what’s been revealed in this people mag article and Archewell’s annual Impact Report. They shown which organizations the money was spent on & for what purpose.

        The Wails’ (and then the Cambridges’) Royal Foundation annual reports has always been so vague. You saw how much it got & how much it spend in separated categories but most of the time, readers had no idea which organization/charity received the grant, how much money, and what impact it achieved? Now WanK won’t even release the annual report on the Duchy of Cromwell. Transparency, anyone?

      • Megan says:

        @Visa Diva the absolute worst way to measure an organization’s effectiveness is overhead numbers. They are meaningless. You need to be looking at impact. For example, if an organization fed 5,000 hungry children with 3% overhead, are they more impactful than an organization that fed 500,000 hungry children with a 50% overhead? Guidestar brainwashed donors to focus on the least important piece of nonprofit measurement.

      • Hoopjumper says:

        I think they’re doing a solid job being transparent. Their 990s (IRS form for nonprofits) through 2023 are on their website. Yes, this is standard because 990s are publicly available, but it’s still good practice to have them right out front. The forms include a lot of detailed information about both income and outlay, so anyone can view them and make up their own mind. For example, the 2023 form shows about ten payments of about $27K each ($270,00ish total) to local organizations in a number of American cities to support the Welcome Project. You can find similar detail about their other projects.

        I want to know who gave them 5m this year. The Spencers are my guess, which is very sweet.

      • Hoopjumper says:

        Forgot to note it also could have been H&M who made the 5m gift. They’re as entitled as anyone to make an anonymous donation.

  3. As usual the British gutter press fills their articles with lies and more lies.

  4. Jais says:

    Harry and Meghan know that the BM will scrutinize every detail of their foundation so it’s probably one of the most above board and transparent foundations. They have to make sure their ducks are perfectly in a row bc of that.

  5. Inge says:

    I’m impressed by the professionlism, what they have achieved and what is to come.

    • Harla says:

      Agreed! I love hearing about the various causes/initiatives that they deliver grants to, it’s given me a way of finding different charities that I didn’t know existed.

  6. Dee(2) says:

    The BM doesn’t really care what happens with the money there are only two viewpoints they will take. No one gave them any money, so they’re such huge failures and should come back. Or, who gave them that money and what nefarious deals and favors are expected out of the donations. Because of course charity for charity sake is something that they don’t understand, and also don’t seem to have much familiarity with when it comes to Royal foundations. I’m sure that they’re already articles about the fact that they gave money to Ashley Biden. It’s so weird to me that people would hope that others wouldn’t be helped and that a charity would fail because they hate the people who founded it.

  7. Walking the Walk says:

    I still don’t get why the UK people doesn’t go after the press for wasting their time on two people who don’t live there and their taxes don’t support.

  8. Catherine says:

    Did People get an actual exclusive or are they simply the first to do a story about the report which was posted on the Sussexes website. I have noticed that People and other outlets will claim “EXCLUSIVE” in regards to the Sussexes and then simply have a story about information made public that hasn’t been reported yet or they will piece together info and package it as a new story. Hello just did a story like this for Thanksgiving. Headline claimed exclusive but it was just copy and paste and old info. Is there any indication that they were given access to the info ahead of time. Also, Archwell addressed the bogus “missing millions” story at the time, In the article, it said that the money would be reported in this years filing because there were two separate donations. One in 2022 and one in 2023. That was a perfect example of a provocative headline that is a lie with the truth buried in the story so they cover their a** to prevent being sued. It was obvious at the time that it was the Fail up to their dirty tricks.

  9. aquarius64 says:

    It must chap the BM that the Sussexes would respond to a US publication and in detail how Archwell spends its money and receive grants. It’s still under the delusion that Harry and Meghan must come crawling to them for interviews and exclusives. The British rags have basically accused them of committing financial crimes, punishable by prison, or in Harry’s case deportation. It’s right to set the record straight with US media. I think putting out Holt’s salary is a F U to the KP/BP lackeys who bullied Harry and Meghan. They are getting paid the annual salary of a fast food worker and the occasional table scraps from the BM to be sources for malicious gossip. An OBE can’t pay the bills.

    • Robert Wright says:

      Well, I don’t think that People got this information from the Sussexes as all of this information is publicly available, and there isn’t anything in this article that couldn’t have been gleaned from their public filings. Holt’s salary and everyone at the organizations salary is public as well. All expenditures, from Donations to how much the spend on toilet paper per year is required for Charitable Organizations to be report every year. I’m not sure the Sussexes gave them any access at all. The article states: “PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. According to the foundation’s 2023 tax records, reviewed by PEOPLE”. And that seems to say, to me, that they simply reviewed the tax records first. Or they may have gotten ahold of the Annual Report that is given to board members. I don’t believe that Harry and Meghan are the big F You type. More like the water off a ducks back type.

  10. Maxine Branch says:

    Very proud of the Sussexes for sticking with their mantra of “showing up to do good.”

  11. Nicole says:

    Building a foundation takes time. Soliciting grants and donations to build your endowment when you’re starting from zero will take at least a decade. The fact that they are able to have impact during that time is really telling. Archewell will continue to have scrutiny but honestly creating a nonprofit from scratch is hard and sustaining one is really hard.

  12. B says:

    The Archewell foundation is doing amazing work as we can see in the impact report and highlight reel. Hats off to Harry, Meghan and their team, they are doing impactful work that are benefiting communities. THIS is the point of a foundation not the money laundering and PR stunts that goes on with the firm.

  13. Saucy&Sassy says:

    My thoughts when looking at everything that Archewell is doing is, ‘great job’. When I think of WanK’s foundation, I understand why Trump wants to be King.

  14. L4Frimaire says:

    Love how the Sussexes let the work speak for itself. As a small organization, their model of partnership is starting to pay off and making an impact. When the tabloids ask where’s Meghan or what does Harry do, well they are working, helping out communities and building partnerships. To focus only on Netflix or how in Hollywood they are is deliberate erasure of how much they actually do. They are transparent with their numbers because they have to because for some reason the UK thinks a small American nonprofit and how it’s run has direct impact on them, lol.