The "Where's Meghan" Question Has Been Definitively Answered ...

[MrsMaxDeWinter]

She's been busy!

I hope that those who expressed concern will be happy to know that she has been working with the Archewell team on their just released Impact Report.

Meghan and Harry are polarising figures but there is no doubt that they have galvanising power to get projects, both little and big, off the ground.

Harry, with William and Kate, was a co-founder of the Royal Foundation in 2011. They had a start-up fund of just under 5 million pounds, of which 1.3 million pounds was given away in grants.

10 yrs later, Harry and Meghan set up Archewell, with start up funds of 13 million dollars, and give away three million dollars in grants.

As with both foundations, the reserve is carried over.

The range of their projects is interesting, from working with the Vaccine Alliance to raise private sector contributions to distribute vaccines, endowing academic fellowships, working with partners in resettling refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan, working with World Central Kitchens, to smaller projects like the Uvalde community playground and park and a really cute project to a small charity that gives free hair braiding to young black girls in Texas.

archewell.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Archewell-Foundation-Impact-Report-2020-2022.pdf

I am so pleased for them, their advisors and staff as this is a dream start for any start up. I have long been sceptical that they may have spread themselves too thinly, so I am glad to see they are now focusing on just three areas, as they find their groove.

Is it their personal money?

I’m not concerned she’s been absent, I’m concerned she’s going to start showing up again. A Meghan free day is a lovely day indeed. She hasn’t been missed.

It all depends on the foundation.

Some, like the Gates Foundation use their own money in grant making. Only those with deep endowments do so.

Others, like Clooney Foundation, do a combination of what H and M are doing, using some of their own money, partnering with others, and fundraising.

The key for AF is to establish a good endowment, and I imagine that's what the remaining 10 million will go to.

I am surprised AF has done this well after just a year. Many of their initiatives were in partnerships, with Global Citizen etc, they fronted the VaxLive concert and convened a private sector fundraiser as well. A total of 306 million was raised, and some of that, especially the private sector funds, came from a roundtable hosted by M and H as part of a coalition. Funds wee also raised from the concert and other donations. So that money did not come from their pockets but they used their platform to raise the money.

The Daily Mail has a good summary if that's your preferred source :) and surprising good quotes for a change!!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11691901/Harry-Meghan-face-questions-remaining-Archewell-Foundations-remaining-10m-charity-money.html

I just like to know where these figures are? I actually like the idea of the small beneficiaries such as the young girls, playgrounds or have one outright focus. Otherwise they become a signpost charity where the money ends up going through more than one administration before it gets to those who benefit.

Is that the foundation they’ve registered in Delaware so they can Liam up,to 95% of income as expenses and only donate 5% to actual causes….? 🧐

I agree.

Honestly even with the larger projects it seems really oddly low profile.

So while its good and noble etc the Op does come across as desperate to find praise for this couple- it reads odd but I can't see why would PR person would bother with an obscure topic on a predominately UK talk board.

The financials have not been published, my understanding is that a financial report is often separate from a report on operations of this nature, and those figures will come with breakdowns but I could be wrong.

So a puff piece then basically?

OP sounds like one of those gushing MLM pushers.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11691901/Harry-Meghan-face-questions-remaining-Archewell-Foundations-remaining-10m-charity-money.html

The GC report also said that the couple 'called' for people to support the good cause but did not say how much Archewell itself had donated.

One said: 'Archewell was responsible for encouraging their fans to donate $535,000 resulting in 107,000 vaccine doses. Good, but no $ came from Archewell directly & just a small fraction of the 12.66mil doses'. Another tweeted: 'Archewell is stealing the credit from organisations they have "partnered" with'.

...

Former MP Norman Baker, an expert on royal finances, said: 'Harry and Meghan are raking in cash like wheat from a field in a bumper year. Their Archewell Foundation has been established as a vehicle for good causes yet only a fraction of the money raised appears to have been spent. I think those who have helped build up this mountain of cash will be keen to know what they intend to do with the $10million that is safely tucked up in a bank vault somewhere'.
Mr Baker said that it is prudent for a charity not to spend all their cash, but added that the couple should reveal 'the percentage of money raised which is spent on administration as opposed to being deployed for the purposes of the charity'.
Others on social media were also asking the same questions.
One wrote: '$13 million raised. $3 million distributed. Where’d the greater balance of $10 million go?' another tweeted: 'What has happened to the other $10 million?'.
MailOnline has asked an Archewell spokesman to comment.

I don't know if it comment like this adversely impacting me but I read that article - which does list many partnerships and was left slightly more cynical about their charity and it seems very band wagon jumping which I really hope is just the reporting.

I would like to think they were doing good - but I just can’t help being a bit sceptical about the financials. I am reserving judgement till I see what the remaining sum is being used for and for whom.

It seems worthy to support small charitable endeavours but often the funds are not managed professionally, there is little transparency and there is a duplication of staff, so paying five Marketing Directors for five charities which are doing the same work.

No they didn’t.

A fundraiser for Archie’s birthday raised $440,000.

Mastercard (and 2 others) agreed to match dollar for dollar.

Actually from GC website

The Archie’s birthday donations came from the SussexSquad, so they are hitting up their superfans for money. They can’t count on this well to never run dry.

To the person who accused the UK of being racist - I have never, ever been racist! OK I know I am one person, but no-one I know is racist either!

Good approach.

They have to file the financial of tax purposes, so am sure all will be revealed.
There's some confusion on Twitter about the 12.6 million figure, which is clearly 12.6 million vaccines, which is being mistaken as 12.6 million dollars. They have not said anywhere that they raised the vaccine money alone, but state clearly that it was in partnership with Global Citizen etc.

I am interested to see how much staff costs are, they can't be TOO high because a lot of staff seem to work for AP, the commercial arm. If I could advise, I would advise that M and H take no salary from the Foundation, but certainly, they can earn from their commercial projects.

I’ve worked on many published annual reports so have a background in this area. This report shows that Archwell don’t create anything, the OP is insulting the real creators of these charities and projects, which is terrible

They seem to be operating as a ‘marketing arm’ for these charities. Drawing attention to then through the headlines the SussexMs generate

They’re just upmarket chuggers, taking a slice of the charity pie.

According to this telegraph article the foundation should be shut down immediately. <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/2023.01.09-204002/www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/01/09/why-harry-meghan-need-close-archewell-immediately/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">archive.is/2023.01.09-204002/www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/01/09/why-harry-meghan-need-close-archewell-immediately/

And I saw this on Twitter claiming that the foundation doesn’t yet have charitable status and that a 3rd extension has been made to the application. Photo of said application included. twitter.com/SabirahLohn/status/1619869122384494592?cxt=HHwWgIDQ5cyY9_osAAAA

Well there are a couple of threads on this board asking where meghan is. They seem to be quite popular. So some people have been wondering.

So we don’t actually know if in partnership means financial or as an ambassador and if financial the extent. This is a statement of the impact Archewell has achieved but other than 3 million spent (I haven’t actually seen this figure) the impact is difficult to establish.

You say private foundation, I hear murky dodgy dealings behind an opaque facade of self-defined charity.

Just looked into the claim that Archewell has lost 16 members of staff.

This is not true.

The 16 are counted to include people like Jason Knauf and others who never worked for Archewell.

The claim is from a Daily Mail story that lists all the people who have left the employ of the Sussexes in the five years since 2018.

Some of the people lost their jobs after H and M left the UK, and have nothing to do with Archewell.

Of the 6 who actually worked for Archewell, one moved into an advisory position, and two left after the projects they were working on were completed.

Read all about it!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11688123/Harry-Meghans-revolving-door-sees-two-staff-members-leave-Archewell.html

I don't understand how foundations such as this make money?
Do they donate their own money?
Do they collect funds? How do they fund raise?

IME of this sector they network with the charity industry in order to attract investors and fundraisers who supply much of the money, while sometimes using the "partnership" term to enhance the appearance of their own input

It's certainly not exclusive to Archewell and isn't even necessarily a bad thing, but as ever with PR it can be worth looking a little deeper before handing out laurels - especially at the hard figures in financial reports, if available

But you claimed several times that they did raise that money alone, "they also raised millions for the Vaccine Alliance, including 25 million from one donor alone?"

You haven't replied to my post above about how you know this for a fact. The 'report' is, as someone above said, basically a puff piece with no hard financial information, just glossy photos and vague talk about 'partnerships'.

If I donate 10 quid to a charity which raises millions, can I claim that the Iced Purple Foundation, in partnership with said charity, raised millions? That seems to be basically what 'Archewell' is doing here.

I really hope someone is getting paid for all the hours they put in on MN.

This is a statement of the impact Archewell has achieved but other than 3 million spent (I haven’t actually seen this figure) the impact is difficult to establish

That's partly why it can be worth waiting to see the figures rather than rushing to judgement, especially as "impact" can be a bit of a nebulous word, vulnerable to misuse

See also OneYoungWorld and similar, where even some professional minds are struggling to unpick the financials among all the noise and puff