Over the past year, there have been, easily, two dozen major stories about Prince Charles and the sleazy corruption running through his charitable endeavors. Charles has been fundraising for decades for his charities and foundations, and people are only discovering now that Charles has consistently offered access and honours to shady billionaires and despots. Charles accepted suitcases full of cash and acted as an unofficial lobbyist. He happily went along with a particularly corrupt scheme to bail out one of his worst ideas, an eco-village in the middle of nowhere. Many of these scandals have landed with a quick flurry of “wow, that’s ridiculous” only to be largely whitewashed and forgotten in a week. Part of the reason why Charles is able to brush off all of these highly-credible and well-sourced stories is because Charles is insulated by a huge staff at every level, and Charles’s story is that mistakes were made (passive voice) but it wasn’t his call and he wasn’t involved. So this story from the Mail+ is pretty interesting:

A collection of letters the Prince of Wales wrote to the former head of his American foundation has thrown fresh light on his controversial fundraising activities. The cache shows how closely involved Charles was in trying to secure contributions from wealthy donors, in contrast to official assertions from Clarence House that he kept himself at arm’s length from such decisions.

Written in his characteristically clear but spidery handwriting, the correspondence with Robert Higdon, when he was managing director of the Prince of Wales Foundation USA, has been put up for sale by a leading collector of Royal memorabilia. The 19 letters show he took a close interest in the fundraising, even taking time on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve to write about tactics. In one, he complains about throwing a Clarence House dinner for potential donors before they had pledged any money, saying: ‘I fear I was not amused as, of course, it was a total waste of my time!’

Previously Charles’s courtiers have issued statements insisting his charities ‘operate independently of the Prince himself in relation to all decisions around fundraising’ and that it is the trustees who ‘are responsible for all operational and governance duties’.

Mr Higdon ran the Washington-based Prince of Wales Foundation from 1997 to 2011. He raised millions for the charity but his high salary – a reported £500,000 a year – attracted criticism. Further controversy came over his introduction of American fundraising methods into what had previously been a rather staid – and controlled – royal world.

The 19 letters offered for sale at $3,500 (£3,000) each, were written between 1997 and 2008. In one, dated December 31, 2008, the Prince bemoans the fact that wealthy philanthropist Lee Annenberg, the widow of Walter Annenberg, a former US ambassador to Britain, had donated only $100,000 (£82,000) towards a visitor’s centre at the Castle of Mey, the late Queen Mother’s Scottish estate. He wrote ‘As you can imagine… trustees are very sad a bit more help wasn’t possible, particularly in view of Walter’s great affection for my grandmother… I hate being a bore about this but I must just make one final plea to see if we could get a bit nearer to the $1.4 million that [was] hoped for? Forgive my pestering, especially at New Year, but I feel I owe it to my darling grandmother to do as fine a job as possible with this building.’

In another letter, dated June 21, 1997, and written on notepaper from his private Gloucestershire residence Highgrove House, he praises Mr Higdon for organising a dinner where all the charitable donations were made in advance. Charles wrote: ‘I can’t tell you what a difference it made to my morale to know, in advance, that the money had already been raised!’ He also wrote about a conversation he had after dinner with two guests who ‘mentioned what vast amounts of personal wealth are waiting to be tapped…’

[From Mail Plus]

Yeah, this is certainly fascinating on a lot of levels. The main level is that Charles has been laser-focused on “charitable fundraising” for decades and he knows exactly who is giving what and who needs to be glad-handed and given special attention to give more. Which, arguably, is what makes Charles such an effective fundraiser in general, the fact that he is detail-oriented and able to assess who can give more and what various rich donors need and want. But that also means that he has always been perfectly aware of the sleazy trade-offs he’s made to actively pursue relationships with wealthy-yet-problematic donors. Charles isn’t just showing up somewhere and meeting a donor for the first time at a fundraiser or a meet-and-greet or an honours ceremony.

Also: the fact that Charles has raised so much money in America is notable too – this is what I’ve been saying, the monarchy is institutionally anti-American, yet they’re desperate for American money, American media, American charitable donations and American tourism.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.