Prince Harry’s former charity Sentebale is “poised to soar” months after his bruising public split from the south Africa-based organisation, Chairwoman Dr Sophie Chandauka has said.
Earlier this year, claims of bullying and misogyny by the chairwoman widespread resignations from the charity’s board, including the Duke of Sussex.
After the breakup, the fierce feud between Harry and Dr Chandauka continued as she accused him of causing “incalculable damage” to the charity.
A UK Charity Commission report into the organisation did not find evidence of widespread bullying, harassment, misogyny, or misconduct by Prince Harry or by any other trustees but did acknowledge that several people involved felt they had been mistreated, and that those feelings should not be dismissed.
Prince Harry cut ties with Sentebale earlier this year over, now cleared, claims of bullying and misogyny at the non-profit
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As Sentebale approaches its 20th anniversary, the organisation released their Annual Trustees’ Report and Accounts.
Within the report was a reference to a “challenging period in the public eye” as part of “unplanned 2025 events”.
It confirmed that, following the Charity Commission report, the charity has now rolled out more effective means to resolve internal complaints, clearer definition of roles and a “new approach to trustee recruitment”.
Dr Chandauka also issued a personal statement in the report in which she celebrated some of the charity’s decisions over the year and ambitions for the years ahead.
The charity’s chairwoman, Dr Sophie Chandauka, has said Sentebale was ‘poised to soar’ months after the split
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Despite the public falling out with Prince Harry, the organisations chairwoman was confident Sentbale was “poised to soar” moving forward.
“This 16-month period marks Sentebale’s bold transformation: building stronger programmes, governance, and financial resilience,” she began.
“Working collaboratively across borders, bottom-up, we tackled structural weaknesses head-on: slashing our cost base by £1million through workforce restructuring and contract renegotiations, while protecting 92 per cent of our vital Africa-based staff who power our high-performing regional team.
“We retained 100 per cent of our institutional funders and secured over 70 per cent of 2026 funding goals.
“Throughout, our direct support for 78,000 children and youth continued uninterrupted – testament to our Lesotho and Botswana teams’ resourcefulness.
The charity’s annual report made reference to a ‘challenging period in the public eye’
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GETTY“Since year-end, new 2025 programme awards lock in impact through 2027, while strategic advisers supported us to access the US philanthropic market, generating a $5million five-year funding pipeline .
Dr Chandauka concluded: “As we reach our 20th anniversary next year, Sentebale is poised to soar, empowering even more children and young people across southern Africa to claim their futures!”
Also announced at the charity recently was the decision to end fundraising polo matches in what appeared to be an effort to distance itself from the Duke of Sussex.
The equestrian events will no longer be used to generate income, despite the Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup accounting for 18 per cent of revenue last year.
Sentebale has also recently made the decision to drop polo as a fundraising event, long associated with the Duke of Sussex
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Prince Harry has long been associated with the matches and regularly took part.
Iain Rawlinson, a trustee, told the Telegraph: “These polo games, which attract great generosity from high-net worth individuals or funds who want to support the charity – those events definitely have their place. We’re not being critical about that as a concept.
“The reason for (dropping it) is it puts quite a lot of pressure on individuals, and it can mask structural weakness in the financial model of the charity.”
Mr Rawlinson pointed to Harry’s £1.2million donation from the proceeds of his memoir, Spare, which he said had obscured “fault lines” in the charity’s finances.