The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s charity received $13 million from two anonymous philanthropists in its first year of operation, tax records have revealed.
Archewell Foundation received $10 million from one unknown individual donor and $3 million from another, alongside $4,470 in public donations.
The organisation has never asked the public for donations and it operates based on making partnerships and investing “millions of dollars across the non-profit space for sustainable programs and campaigns”.
The tax returns of the Duke and Duchess’s non-profit organisation listed the couple as working one hour per week each for the charitable arm of their company, but this is standard practice for directors in the US for these forms.
Archewell Foundation is understood to have filed its tax returns on time for the fiscal year 2021, which was the charity’s first full year of operation after it was established in October 2020.
Charity spent $163,085 on salaries
The document, which is a 990-tax form, is an overview of all revenue, expenditure and donations for tax-exempt organisations.
It also showed that the non-profit spent $163,085 on salaries, which the Duke and Duchess do not take.
James Holt, the chief executive of the foundation, was listed as working for an hour a week and received a $59,846 salary as well as $3,832 in other benefits.
As the Duke and Duchess transitioned from the UK to the US and set up the company, Mr Holt first joined the board of the non-profit as a non-compensated individual. He later joined the foundation as executive director.
It is understood that in 2022, Archewell Foundation’s 990 tax returns will reflect the hours worked by Mr Holt in his executive position. This will include his full salary and total weekly hours he is working for the year.
The two other salaries on the tax return are $40,867 for program service and $22,811 for management and general expenses.
Other expenses total $727,666, which includes $427,110 in legal fees, over $69,000 on conferences, meetings and conventions, and just over $12,000 on travel.
A total of 16 staff members have left Archewell since it was founded, with the most recent including Ben Browning, internal content head of Archewell Productions, the filmed content arm, and Fara Taylor, who led Archewell’s marketing team.
Those departures, announced in January, followed the earlier announcement that the couple would take “full lead” of their company after Mandana Dayani, who ran Archewell for less than 18 months, stepped down.
The organisation, which is based in Beverly Hills, includes the couple’s business and their non-profit ventures and was founded after they stepped down as working members of the Royal family.
Its name originates from the Ancient Greek word “arche”, meaning the source of action, and the English word “well”.
Three million dollars donated
The tax returns come after the foundation’s first Impact Report was released in January, showing that the Sussexes non-profit organisation donated $3 million of the $13 million raised.
The money raised was given away to causes including refugee resettlement and humanitarian relief centres.
For example, it went towards providing 50,000 meals through a partnership with World Central Kitchen and rescuing more than 7,400 people from Afghanistan through a partnership with Human First Coalition.
The couple’s focus for the charity next year will include building a better online world, restoring trust in information, and uplifting communities.
In its first year, the charity expensed a total of $3,987,070, with just over $3 million going as various grants to over 40 organisations across key focus areas including vaccine equity, relief centres, refugee resettlement, and building a better online world.
The remaining $369,925 covered administrative expenses including employee compensation, benefits and taxes, legal fees, events, and travel. This ratio of program services to administrative expenses is standard practice for an organisation of its size.
