When King Charles III was still Prince of Wales, he used his military pension of £7,000 — earned from his time in the Royal Navy — to establish a nonprofit. Called The Prince’s Trust, it focused on helping vulnerable young people in the U.K. build successful careers. The Prince’s Trust operated solely in the U.K. for its first 40 years, then, in 2015, expanded its work, first to Malta and then to Greece. Over the years, it also took on other funders, including in 2019, the Aga Khan IV, who became the Global Founding Patron of the then-Prince’s Trust, helping support programs for young people in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and through local partners in India, Jordan, Pakistan, Malta, Barbados and Greece. Other founding benefactors of the endowment include John Booth, Julia and Hans Rausing, Richard Oldfield, Heather Stevens and Simon Turner. Celebrity ambassadors of The King’s Trust have included Amal and George Clooney, Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Tom Jones. Charlotte Tilbury sponsors an annual Amal Clooney “International Women’s Empowerment Award” for the King’s Trust.
Flash forward to today: The prince has become king, and his now-renamed The King’s Trust has grown into a leading U.K. charity focused on youth and young adults. It has helped more than 1 million young people in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales with job training, education and confidence-building programs. It has also spawned similar trusts in other countries, including The King’s Trust USA, as part of what is now a larger umbrella group called The King’s Trust Group. The King’s Trust Group helps support other affiliates including The King’s Trust Canada, King’s Trust Australia and King’s Trust International, which works in 20 countries throughout the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
The charitable sector in the U.K. is smaller than in the U.S., partly due to the fact that its population is roughly five times smaller than ours. The U.S. has historically been the leader both in charitable participation and amount given per donor, while the U.K. clocks in at sixth. Americans gave $557.16 billion to charity in 2023 (including individuals, foundations and corporations); the British donated an estimated £13.9 billion that same year and £15.4 billion in 2024, though giving is down in both nations. As a percentage of the total GDP, U.S. individual giving is more than double that of the U.K., a fact generally explained by tax incentives, extreme wealth, and the culture of individual giving in the U.S., as well as the stronger state support in the U.K.
This year, The King’s Trust hit its 10-year anniversary of working outside the U.K. Celebrations have so far included a May 1 glitzy gala at Manhattan’s Casa Cipriani, the second gala since King Charles’ coronation. Celebrity guests included Helena Christensen, Iman, Heidi Klum, Nile Rodgers, Gayle King, FKA Twigs, LaQuan Smith, Teyana Taylor and Adut Akech (but not the king). Singer/songwriter Lionel Richie co-chaired the event, along with stylist/former magazine editor/Editorial Director Edward Enninful (who is starting a new magazine, as I just learned on Substack). Judging from Instagram and celebrity rags, this was a gala fit for, well, a king. (King Charles, who is undergoing cancer treatment, sent a video message.)
The king still supports The King’s Trust through the Charles III Charitable fund, which is itself funded by profits from Charles’ organic food company, and “absolutely takes a keen interest in what the trust is doing and likes meeting young people wherever he goes if he can,” said Victoria Gore, CEO of The King’s Trust USA. A senior management team runs the day-to-day operations, both here and in the U.K., and oversees fundraising. King Charles doesn’t pop by the office “but likes to receive regular updates,” Gore said. “When he’s traveling, he likes to meet beneficiaries of the trust and learn about their experiences as much as he can.”
King Charles’ charity supports students and young adults around the world
The first beneficiaries of the then-Prince’s Trust were young entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds, people who likely couldn’t get bank or corporate loans and didn’t have family money to launch their businesses. People would pitch business plans to regional panels. “It was very small grants in the beginning and started against the backdrop of huge unemployment in the U.K. at the time. He was very aware of that climate,” said Gore.
Over the years, the trust expanded its focus to include not only enterprise/entrepreneurship, but also education and employability, particularly in thriving industries such as healthcare, entertainment, construction and hospitality.
“How do you get young people from hard-to-reach backgrounds into those key sectors? We work with companies and partners,” said Gore. “For example, we have a big partnership with the National Health Service in the U.K. We have a very strong partnership with JPMorgan and across the hospitality industry around the world. In Ghana, for example, we have a ‘get into hospitality’ program where we work with a number of privately owned hotels. In the U.K., we’ve done partnerships with the Marriott and the Savoy hotel in London, and in retail, TK Maxx, so it’s many different levels of the hospitality and retail industries.”
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Giving royally at the gala and through other fundraising efforts
While the U.K.-based King’s Trust is endowed, The King’s Trust Group is not. Thus, the glitzy gala. We’ve written about the pros and cons of galas for giving, including how much they cost. Gore said that the gala remains a highly successful endeavor for The King’s Trust. It raised $2.4 million (gross) in 2024. “We’re still totalling it for 2025, but it will be in excess of $2.5 million,” she said. “The gala provides very essential funds that can be used immediately and are not donor-restricted. That’s very important. It also provides an opportunity for stewardship, and to share about the work and increase brand awareness. We have seen significant donations come from the gala, maybe not that night, but people say, ‘It really solidified what I understood the trust to be doing.’”
The King’s Trust also does a gala/fundraising dinner in the U.K. and an annual awards ceremony, and has hosted smaller fundraising dinners and events in other countries, including the Bahamas and New Zealand. “It’s very country specific. Not everywhere has that gala mentality,” said Gore, noting that gala fundraising is a thing in the U.K., but maybe not quite to the extent that it is in the U.S. “The U.S. absolutely leads in philanthropy, and it’s ingrained in the U.S. psyche. We are always looking at different ways to do it,” said Gore. “I think in some ways, COVID brought out a lot of innovative ways of fundraising. We are always reevaluating the impact of hosting something like a glitzy gala.”
The New York City gala earlier this month included a few young people who had been supported by the King’s Trust, who came to share their story with attendees and the press. “They talk about where they come from and where they are now. It’s very motivating for people in the room,” said Gore.
The King’s Trust USA flips the job-searching script to support Americorps graduates seeking work
The King’s Trust USA has a dual mission: It fundraises for work in the U.S. and globally and it runs and funds two programs here. In 2024, it spent nearly $460,000 on these two programs, run in partnership with City Year and AmeriCorps, reaching 487 young people. This translates into about $1,000 per young person. “The ROI is high,” said Gore.
The first program, called the “Enterprise Challenge,” teaches middle schoolers about business in a fun way, including with Shark Tank-like pitch sessions. The King’s Trust has run versions of this in nearly a dozen countries. The U.S. program this year included about 105 mostly seventh and eighth graders in the South Bronx and Brooklyn who came through City Year, as well as kids in Detroit, Chicago, Orlando and San Jose.
The second program, “Get Hired,” helps AmeriCorps graduates find jobs. “Once they finish their year of service, we do a two-day event on helping them position themselves in front of employers,” said Gore. On the first day, the young people learn about different industries and companies, and get coaching on their interviewing skills. “The second day, the organizations make their pitch. The balance of power is flipped. The companies pitch to young people and the young people choose who they want to interview with. JPMorgan has been a champion of this work, and we try to give a broad scope of different industries.”
Last year, every AmeriCorps participant passed through at least a second interview, said Gore, and more than half were offered employment: “For companies and young people, both of them benefit so much from it. What you put on a resume is no real reflection of who you are. When you’re 18 or 19, your experience is limited, and your aptitude doesn’t come through. We run this program in Jamaica, London, here. It’s had huge success. We also ask the companies to guarantee at least a year placement.”
Gore has met participants from around the world. “What I think is so powerful about The King’s Trust is that young people are the same the world over; they are facing very similar obstacles and hurdles, whether they are in Ghana or London or Athens,” she said. “On the surface, they have very different challenges, but deep down, they are worried about how they will get a job, sustainability, how they will support a family. These programs are not identical, but the fundamentals are. It can completely change the trajectory and how a young person regards himself. The belief that the trust gives young people in themselves is extraordinary.”
Correction (5/20/2025): A previous version of this story stated that King Charles no longer financially supports The King’s Trust. He does still support it though the King Charles III Charitable Fund.
