The Duke and Duchess of Sussex dropped two Christmas cards and a major update last Friday. The second card, the more personal, family card, was posted by Meghan on her Instagram, and it includes their two redheaded children, Archie and Lili. You still can’t see the kids’ faces, which is making the deranged community lose what’s left of their minds. But I’m still interested in the big announcement about the Archewell Foundation. The Sussexes are renaming and rebranding it, and it’s becoming Archewell Philanthropies. I wondered if this was merely a superficial name change or whether there was a larger strategy at play. Axios had some interesting info:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are restructuring their charitable organization, the Archewell Foundation, and renaming it Archewell Philanthropies.
Why it matters: The organizational shift is the latest example of the couple’s tendency to pivot, following a pattern of initiatives that have been launched and then reworked or abandoned.
Under the new structure, the organization will maintain its tax-exempt status and adopt a fiscal sponsorship model, which allows the outsourcing of back-office functions while giving Archewell the flexibility to incubate or fund initiatives without setting up new nonprofits. This model will also allow the Duke and Duchess to do more philanthropic work globally by reducing administrative overhead and speeding up how money moves.
The organization, named after the couple’s eldest child Archie, was launched in 2020 as a social impact vehicle focusing on mental health and digital wellbeing. According to the latest filings, the foundation gave its largest grants to organizations like Women’s Wellness Space, NAACP Empowerment Programs, Inc., and the Markup News, Inc.
The Sussexes could expand their work further by investing in values-based companies or startups through a fund. The Duke of Sussex has historically prioritized companies that align with his personal values around mental health, like BetterUp.
“Adopt a fiscal sponsorship model, which allows the outsourcing of back-office functions while giving Archewell the flexibility to incubate or fund initiatives…” So it is a substantial change. If you couldn’t tell from Axios’ reporting, Archewell Philanthropies will be letting some staffers go in the restructure. The Daily Mail gloatingly reported that the Sussexes are firing three foundation staffers and obviously, this means that something something Archewell is in trouble! Nevermind that the British taxpayer-supported royals go through tons of staff fluctuations on a regular basis too (speaking of, whatever happened to the hunt for Kensington Palace’s CEO, huh??). The Sussexes’ spokesperson ended up speaking to People Magazine about the restructure, saying: “The move toward a fiscal sponsor operating model does mean that some staff redundancies are inevitable, particularly with junior admin roles. We will not be discussing these personnel details further, other than to say that we are honored to have worked with incredibly talented and caring people who dedicate themselves to helping others.” It… actually would not surprise me at all if Archewell has been overstaffed this whole time. Some commenters also suggested that restructuring will also give them more freedom to fundraise and diversify how they raise money.
Photos courtesy of Meghan’s IG and Cover Images.
