| The Prince's Trust | |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1976 |
| Type | Charity |
| Purpose/focus | Helping young people |
| Location | 18 Park Square East, London |
| Region served | UK |
| Chairman | Charles Dunstone |
| Chief Executive | Martina Milburn |
| Website | www.princes-trust.org.uk |
The Prince's Trust is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by Charles, Prince of Wales to help young people. They run a range of training programmes, provide mentoring support and offer financial grants to build the confidence and motivation of disadvantaged young people. Each year they work with 40,000 young people, with around 80% moving on to Employment, Education, Training or Volunteering.
In January 2011 The Prince's Trust announced it would merge with another youth charity, Fairbridge, from 1 April 2011 [2].
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The Prince's Trust aims to work with young people from four priority target groups. These are the long-term unemployed, people who have been in trouble with the law, people who are in difficulty at school, and people who have been in care. These young people are considered by the Prince's Trust as being "disadvantaged".[1] A small number of people who are employed also go on some Prince’s Trust courses. Known as the employed participants scheme, it is used a learning and development opportunity (to develop the employee's skills), as additional support to the programme's young people (the employed participants act as additional mentors or support to young people) and as a fundraising initiative (as the employer pays a training fee for their staff member to attend)[2]
Charles, Prince of Wales, founded The Prince's Trust and is now its president, a figurehead position with no legal responsibility. The Prince's Trust Council are the trustees of the charity and are legally responsible for management, administration and deciding policy.[3]
Charles Dunstone was appointed Chairman of the Prince's Trust Council in July 2009 following the departure of Sir Fred Goodwin who had been Chair from July 2003.[4] It was announced that Sir Fred was going to cease to be chairman of the Prince's Trust Council when his term of office came to an end, although he was said to still have the support of the Prince of Wales.[5][6] The end of his chairmanship was marked by lunch with the Prince of Wales at Clarence House. [7]
Martina Milburn the chief executive of the trust has said of Sir Fred ".. in terms of his role at the Prince's Trust he has done an outstanding job", but according to other people, over the time of Sir Fred's chairmanship, the trust has "become absurdly safe and, arguably, lost sight of its founding philosophy and principles".[8]
Charles Dunstone has been a major fundraiser for the Prince's Trust and as a result is one of its Enterprise Fellows. He has been a member of the Prince's Trust council since 2000.
Under Charles Dunstone The Council was restructured in 2010, with a large reduction in the number of Trustees from 12 to 6 [3]. The Prince's Trust does not make public the basis on which appointments to Council are made.[9] The Council now consists of Peter Cruddas, Patrick Passley, Heather Hancock, Michael Marks CBE and Lloyd Dorfman CBE. Like Charles Dunstone, Peter Cruddas is an Enterprise Fellow of the Prince's Trust which means that they are large donors, with Peter Cruddas having recently given £1.5 million.[10]
In 2010 The Prince's Trust employed 644 people, including 555 people who worked in charitable purposes and support, 87 in fundraising and publicity, and 2 in governance. The cost of employing these staff is £21 million a year and is the organisation's single biggest expenditure. This is down from the 2009 total (£22 million on 695 staff) following an efficiency drive which saw a number of voluntary redundancies.[11] Two members of staff earned between £110,000 - £120,000. Fifteen staff earned between £60,000 - £100,000 - down from 17 staff earning these amounts in 2009.[12]
The Chief Executive of the Prince's Trust is Martina Milburn who joined the organisation in 2004. Previously she worked as the Chief Executive of BBC Children in Need.[13]
In 2009-10 The Prince’s Trust charity, and its trading subsidiary, Prince’s Trust Trading Ltd, had a total income of nearly £36 million, and expenditure of £38 million. Facing the impact of the economic climate and a decline in funding it drew on its reserves, which stand at £22 million, representing roughly six months operating costs.[14] The Prince's Trust is one of the 100 largest charities in the UK ranked by expenditure.[15]
Voluntary income represented the largest source of funding for organisation, totaling £18 million in 2009-10 (representing a very small increase on 2008-09. Public Sector income (contracts and grants to deliver support to young people from statutory bodies) fell from £17 million to just under £14 million.
The cost of raising the voluntary income was £5.5 million, which means that for every £1 donated, 70p was spent on charitable activities.
The Prince’s Trust expenditure of £38.2 million was made up of £30 million spent on charitable activities with the rest being spent on administration and other costs.[16] The £30 million spent on charitable activities was divided between the different programme areas such as the Team programme and the Enterprise program.
£1.2 million went on grants to young people and institutions.
The Prince's Trust has six main types of charitable activity.
There are also some local and pilot programmes, as well as some special expenditure such as the Jason Kanabus Fund.
The Enterpise Programme is the programme for which the Prince’s Trust is best known and it helps young people start a business. Young people can benefit from the program if they are aged 18 to 30, are unemployed or working less than 16 hours a week. If they are in an unsatisfying low paid job they will need to become long term unemployed before they can be helped.
In 2007/8, 2,536 young people were helped to begin trading, in addition to support being provided to 6,423 young people already running businesses. 76% of Trust-supported businesses are still trading after one year and 59% after two years.[9]
The help provided usually consists of a loan of up to £4,000, which needs to be repaid by the young person together with 3% interest, although grants are sometimes given.[19] Each year young people pay the Prince's Trust around £360,000 in interest payments on their loans. In the event of a young person failing to repay the loan, the Prince’s Trust can be repaid up to 75% of the loan by the European Investment Fund.[20]
In 2007-08 the Prince's Trust spent a total of £12 million on the Enterpise Programme. From this £699,000 was spent on grants to young people. In addition low interest loans worth £5.3 million were awarded, with the average value of a loan being £2,200. Of the remaining money, £3.8 million was spent on Prince’s Trust staff costs, £3 million on other direct costs, and £4.6 million on support costs.
A substantial amount of the money for the Enterpise programme comes from the public sector. For example, in 2007, the Wigan Economic Partnership provided the Prince's Trust with £85,000 for 20 business startups.
In May 2008 Prince Charles pleaded for more funds for the Prince’s Trust Enterpise program.[21] In response the chancellor announced that the government would provide an additional £1 million.[22]
Many of the young people helped through the Enterpise program are also provided with a business mentor. Usually someone referred to as a business mentor will provide help and advice about a business. But in the case of the Prince's Trust, business mentors are personal mentors, whose role is the provision of "personal support, assistance, encouragement and inspiration" to a young person.[23]
The Team course is a 12 week personal development course which is operated as a franchise by the Prince’s Trust. The course involves team building activities, a residential week, a community project and a work placement, and it aims to raise self-esteem, build confidence and develop personal skills.
The course is usually run by a local organisation who is known as the delivery partner and many of the delivery partners are local fire and rescue service organisations. The delivery partner, a local college and the Prince’s Trust, all get paid, usually by the local Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Payment is made according to “results” in respect of young people completing certain parts of the course. Sometimes so much money is paid that there is actually a surplus.[24]
The people going on the Team course are usually unemployed, and if they are receiving JobSeekers Allowance and other benefits they are still able to receive these whilst on the course. People going on the course also get their travel expenses and other costs paid. Some people in employment also go on part of a course but their employer has to pay a course fee of £1,250[25] to the Prince’s Trust. The Prince's Trust employs fundraisers with "proven sales experience" to persuade employers to pay for their employees to go on the Prince's Trust Team Course.[26] In 2006/7 the Prince’s Trust received nearly £687,000 from employer’s fees for Team courses.
Get Into are short courses for unemployed young people that are related to a specific sector, usually one where there are many jobs available. The courses aim to help young people get a job in the sector, and they provide training and in many instances work experience.
Example of sectors where Get Into is provided, are logistics, sports coaching, customer services and construction.[27]
xl Clubs operate mainly in schools and are for young people at risk of exclusion from school and/or at risk of underachievement. The informal clubs take place during the last two years of compulsory schooling and meet for at least three hours each week. The clubs are described to young people as being where “you choose what you learn. You have a lot of fun. And you do it all in school”.
In 2006/7 the Prince’s Trust spent £4 million on the xl program and of this £298,000 consisted of grants to clubs, £1.26 million was spent on Prince’s Trust staff costs and £2.3 million on other direct costs and support costs.
The Jason Kanabus Fund was created from the £2.5 million left to the Prince’s Trust by Jason Kanabus, a young farmer in Sussex who died from cancer in July 2006. He left his money to the Prince’s Trust, with the request that the income was used to help young people become established in farming.[28] There has been some controversy over the use of this money by the Prince's Trust, with the claim being made in 2008 that the Trust was not using the money as Jason Kanabus had requested.[29] In 2009 it was said that only one young person had been helped in the way that he had requested.[30] In the UK charities are not legally required, but are generally expected, to spend money in the way that the person giving it has requested.
The Prince’s Trust obtains money from two main sources. Firstly, there is the income received as a result of the charitable activities it undertakes, and secondly it raises voluntary income.
This totalled nearly £16 million in 2007/8 and was mostly contract payments for courses, training, mentoring and other services. Of the £16 million, nearly £2 million came from local and national government, over £9 million from other public sector sources, nearly £4 million from the European Union and £753,000 from the Community Fund.
The "other" public sector sources included:
Regional Dev. Agencies (One North East) £775,000 East Midlands Development Agency £730,000 The Big Lottery Fund £660,000 Department for Education & Skills £158,000
It is unclear how much money in total came from the European Union (EU), as although some money (£4 million) is declared as coming directly, other money can be channelled indirectly through other organisations. Previously much of the EU money for the Prince's Trust came from the European Social Fund (ESF) and could only be spent to help young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET).[31] Some of the ESF money went directly to the Prince’s Trust (£816,000 2006/7), but mostly it went to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) who “doubled it up” with government money that then had the same restrictions placed on it. Some LSC money was given directly to the Prince’s Trust (£1.3 million 2006/7) but the majority went to the regional LSC offices who took out contracts with the regional Prince’s Trust offices to provide services for unemployed young people. The ESF money was channelled through so many routes it is difficult to determine how much it amounted to, but in 2006 the funding provided by the LSC to the Prince’s Trust in total came to approximately £11 million, although clearly these figures have decreased somewhat in recent years.[32]
The voluntary income raised in 2007-8 was more than £20 million, consisting of £5.2 million from charitable trusts, £4.7 million in corporate donations, £4.5 in individual donations and £2.1 million donations in kind.
Leadership Groups are an important part of the trust's fundraising from individuals. These groups are made up of successful (i.e. rich) individuals within certain business sectors, such as the Technology and Construction sectors. The aim with these groups is that the individuals not only give donations, but also that they encourage employee donations and volunteering from within their organisations.
The trust still has some fundraising events, including a Rock Gala that aired on December 25, 2010 on DirecTV.
|1976|The Prince of Wales launches the charity. |1982|First fund-raising concert. |1986|The Prince's Trust All-Star Rock Concert in Wembley Arena to celebrate first 10 years of the Trust. |1988|£40 million appeal is launched for the Prince's 40th birthday year. |1990|The Prince's Trust Volunteers programme launched. |1996|First rock concert in Hyde Park. |1999|Trust charities are brought together as The Prince's Trust. This is recognised by HM The Queen at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace, when she grants it a Royal Charter. |2000|The Trust is devolved. Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and each of the English regions now has it own Director and Council but overall control remains in London. |2002| BBC News and general media outlets report on Dee Narga’s high profile tribunal claim. The former Asian, Prince’s Trust, divisional director claimed she suffered sexual discrimination and unfair constructive dismissal.[33][34][35] |2003|The Prince's Trust loses appeal in high profile tribunal case, former, black Manchester City football star Darren Beckford, suffered racial discrimination and victimisation by a director and assistant director at the Trust. He was brought in to lead a project in Manchester for black and Asian young people under the title "Don't Let Us be a Minority".[36][37] |2003|The 10,000th Development Award. |2003|Volunteers programme renamed Team programme. |2003|Prince's Trust Council restrict help to four "core groups" of young people.[38] |2006|The Prince's Trust turns 30 with a 30th Birthday concert at the Tower of London, an ITV documentary, The Prince of Wales: Up Close, a live televised event on ITV and featuring the first interview with all three princes - Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. |2008|Controversy over Sainsbury family legacy[39] and Bill Gates donation.[40] |2008|25th anniversary of the Enterpise Programme.
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