No need to spend tireless hours trying to pick out the perfect wedding gift for Harry and Meghan. What does one buy the world’s most talked about couple? And is Crate & Barrel even on their registry?
Fortunately, the couple is making it easy on everyone by announcing that in lieu of gifts, they’d like well-wishers to donate to one of seven charities they’ve chose to benefit from their royal wedding.
Prince Harry & Ms. Meghan Markle are incredibly grateful for the goodwill they have received since their engagement, & have asked that anyone who might wish to mark the occasion of their wedding considers giving to charity, instead of sending a gift. https://t.co/lzfrRmoeUv pic.twitter.com/nxrTZtIKBY
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) April 9, 2018
Kensington Palace made the announcement this morning: “The couple have personally chosen seven charities which represent a range of issues that they are passionate about, including sport for social change, women’s empowerment, conservation, the environment, homelessness, HIV and the Armed Forces.”
The charities include CHIVA (Children’s HIV Association), which supports children growing up with HIV and their families. The charity helps to create a more hopeful and optimistic future for them, ensuring they achieve their greatest potential.
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Crisis has also been chosen by the couple. Crisis helps people directly out of homelessness, working side by side with thousands of people each year to help them rebuild their lives and leave homelessness behind for good.
The Myna Mahila Foundation is another charity, which holds a special place in the heart of Markle. She visited Delhi and Mumbai last year, meeting girls and women directly impacted by the “stigmatization of menstrual health.” She wrote about her experience for TIME.
The charity gives women access to low-cost sanitary pads at their doorstep, which helps mothers in these communities equip their daughters to stay in school. Ms. Markle visited @MynaMahila in January last year & wrote about it in @TIME: https://t.co/sn5EhZjaFy
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) April 9, 2018
Rounding out the charities is Scotty’s Little Soldiers, Street Games, Surfers Against Sewage, and The Wilderness Foundation UK.
In 2011, Prince William and Kate Middleton made a similar move for their wedding, creating the “Royal Wedding Charitable Fund,” which raised nearly $1.5 million for 26 charities.
By contrast, when Prince Charles and Diana got married in 1981, they received a windfall of gifts, including 20 handcrafted silver platters, each inscribed on the back with the date of the marriage, from Australia…and an entire kitchen worth nearly $19,000 was accepted from a German company. After all, the newlyweds had an entire home and apartment to furnish.
