Duchess Meghan, Prince Harry's Archewell Foundation suffers $11M drop in donations

Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan's charity, the Archewell Foundation, suffered a $11 million decline in donations in 2022 compared to the year before.

According to the foundation's recent tax filing, disclosed on Tuesday, the charitable organization received just over $2 million in contributions in 2022, compared to $13 million in 2021.

The foundation, started in 2021 by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, was created to "uplift and unite communities," according to its website.

Archewell's total expenses during the 2022 tax year exceeded its revenue in 2021, leaving it in the red by more than $674,000, according to the filing. Its revenue in 2021 was just over $9 million.

Laurie Styron, the executive director of independent charity watchdog group CharityWatch, says celebrity "passion project" organizations like the Archewell Foundation often receive most of their support from a few individuals, such as its founders or one family.

"This is particularly true within the first few years of their existence as they work towards drumming up broader support," she tells USA TODAY via email.

That's the case for Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan's foundation, which received nearly all of its donations for fiscal year 2022 from two individuals, who are not revealed to the public. But, based on the tax filings, the foundation appeared to have much wider public support in 2021.

"We can deduce from this reporting that the majority of the charity's donations in 2021 came into the organization in the form of small donations from the general public, whereas nearly 100% of donations in 2022 came from only two donors," Styron says.

The foundation has time to drum up more wide-ranging support before being deemed a private foundation by the IRS (which has tax and reporting implications, including operating restrictions) she says, but it has other issues at hand.

"The charity reports only two board members," she says, making it more difficult to ensure checks and balances that are not used to further personal interests. "The widely accepted minimum in the nonprofit sector for board size is five if a charity is concerned with following best practices."

The tax filing also sheds light on specific expenses. The nonprofit's executive director and president, James Holt, earned a salary of $207,405, a $20,000 bonus, and over $15,000 in non-taxable benefits in 2022. Holt's salary in 2021, the foundation's first year in operation, was $59,846.

The foundation still holds over $8.3 million in assets and cash.

Harry and Meghan's Archewell Foundation timeline

The Archewell Foundation's philanthropic efforts include The Welcome Project, started in 2023, created to support women-led programming for resettled Afghan women; The Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award, an award to celebrate leaders in the online civil rights movement in partnership with the NAACP; and initiatives for parents and mental health, including support provided to people in Turkey and Syria following earthquakes early this year.

Through the foundation, the couple has helped support the completion of emergency relief centers in parts of the world prone to climate change, including in Dominica and Mumbai, India.

To celebrate turning 40, the duchess launched "40x40" in 2021, an initiative aimed at pushing people around the world to dedicate 40 minutes to support women's return to the workforce. And to celebrate son Archie's 2nd birthday, Harry and Meghan released a statement on their foundation website urging donations for vaccine equity around the world.

The nonprofit is a separate entity from the couple's for-profit Archewell Audio and Archewell Productions companies. The former involved a deal with Spotify that ended this year after completing a single series. A deal with Netflix under Archewell Productions is ongoing.

In 2020, the couple shared the meaning behind the nonprofit, saying the foundation was an opportunity to "do something of meaning, to do something that matters."

"Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon," the couple said in a joint statement to USA TODAY, responding to an April 2020 report from The Telegraph about the foundation's name. "We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right."

Contributing: Charles Trepany and Cydney Henderson, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry's Archewell Foundation donations decrease