Charities founded by King Charles while he was the Prince of Wales will be renamed following his accession to the throne, Buckingham Palace has revealed.
The charities being renamed are The Prince’s Trust, which will become The King’s Trust; the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund, which will be renamed the King Charles III Charitable Fund; and The Prince’s Foundation, which will become The King’s Foundation.
The announcement preludes the King’s 75th birthday this week.
The Prince’s Trust, which was set up in 1976, helps young people who have faced disadvantage and adversity to access employment, education and enterprise.
It has helped more than one million young people in the UK.
The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund was founded in 1979 and awards grants in areas including the environment, social inclusion, health and wellbeing, heritage and education.
The Prince’s Foundation, which was formed in 1986, works to “educate, inspire and demonstrate how practical knowledge from the past can create sustainable community prosperity in the present”, according to its website.
Last month, the Daily Mail newspaper reported that plans to rename The Prince’s Foundation had hit a stumbling block because there was already a charity registered under the name of the King’s Foundation.
The charity, which operates as the King’s Active Foundation, educates young people “through their leisure time activities so as to develop their physical, mental and spiritual capacities”, according to its website, and has been operating under the name since 2004.
A spokesperson for The Prince’s Foundation said: “The King’s Active Foundation, which was legally registered as The King’s Foundation but has traded under the name The King’s Active Foundation for a long time, gracefully and generously allowed The Prince’s Foundation to adopt this name. We are grateful to it for its support in this matter.”
The Prince’s Foundation found itself mired in controversy in 2021 after The Sunday Times newspaper reported that billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz used funds from his vast fortune to pay people with links to the King to secure a CBE.
This led to the chief executive of the foundation stepping down after claims that he helped Mahfouz, who denies any wrongdoing, secure the honour.
The Metropolitan Police announced in August this year that it would take no further action over the allegations.