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Monarchy Monday: How to receive a Royal Patronage

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Prince Harry, Patron of Sentebale, speaking at the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup.

Running a charity is a tiring, yet rewarding, process. The success on helping others balances on how much awareness you can draw to your charity. One way to achieve this is by getting the help from a Royal Patron.

Receiving a Royal patronage will not only bring publicity to your cause, but will build the status of the group. Visits from a Royal Patron are often covered by media outlets which brings coverage many groups could only dream of. However, finding a Royal Patron to help support your cause isn’t so easy as members of the Royal Family get hundreds of requests a year.

Family members are very select as to who they choose in order to give each cause the time they deserve. Very rarely to do they take on brand new organizations and the majority of the time they are UK-based.

To make a request to a member of the Royal Family, one may apply to the appropriate Private Secretary of each member. Only then will applications be vetted and passed on if they deem a match. If the member of the Royal Family is interested, research into the organization will take place and more information requested in order to make an informed decision.

Things that may be looked at include the reputation of the organization, how long they have been around and a solid financial record. Another decision that will be taken is the how long a patronage will be held, a patronage can be for a certain campaign up to supporting a charity for life.

Queen Elizabeth is the most popular royal as having her as a patron would bring the most weight to a charity. She currently has around 600 patronages, many of which were inherited from George VI, her father.

Since the 18th-century, members of the Royal Family have lent their names to groups through formal patronages, with the first recorded patronage being George II and the Society of Antiquaries. The organization works with art and architectural history, conservation and heraldry, and is still around today, with its current Royal Patron being The Duke of Gloucester,

Altogether a total of approximately 3000 charities are represented with Royal patronages including the National Osteoporosis Society represented by The Duchess of Cornwall and Sentebale by Prince Harry.

Photo Credit: Michael Chu via Flickr, Land Rover MENA via Flickr