King Charles III’s charity marked its 50th year of helping young people find education and employment with a gala in New York on Wednesday, as the British monarch continued his first state visit to the United States since becoming king. The event highlighted the charity’s long-running focus on youth employment and entrepreneurship while underscoring its expanded work across countries, including the United States.
In remarks at the gala, Charles emphasized a theme of developing young people’s abilities, telling attendees, “Potential and latent talent truly knows no bounds once you help develop it.” He also said he would not “see the long-distance future,” but described gratitude for supporters’ efforts to “champion the next generation” and help ensure their “talent and ambition continue to strengthen our societies for many years to come.”
The charity, which began in 1976 under then-Prince Charles using his Royal Navy severance pay, has since become known as The King’s Trust in honor of Charles’s reign. The King’s Trust said it has reached more than 1.3 million young people through its education and employment initiatives over the past half-century.
The gala drew a mix of public figures and philanthropists, according to the report, including Anna Wintour, Charlotte Tilbury, Donatella Versace, Lionel Richie, and Martha Stewart. The event also reflected Charles’s historic role as a patron of philanthropic causes, with observers pointing to his sustained attention to youth employment as the charity’s mission has widened.
Program leaders and participants described the charity’s approach as a mix of grants, career support, and structured education partnerships. The report said the charity works through schools and nonprofit partners, including its Get Hired program to help young people land their first jobs and its Development Awards, a grant intended to help cover purchases aimed at advancing careers, such as a laptop or professional clothing.
The charity also runs the Enterprise Challenge, described as an afterschool program in which students develop businesses intended to address problems in their local communities. Jeremy Green, a trustee of the King’s Trust Group Company and chair of the King’s Trust USA, said young people want more than funding, adding, “It’s not just giving them money. It’s giving them opportunity.”
Green’s comments were echoed in the account of LaKenya Sharpe, principal of The Collins Academy High School in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood, who said that being taken seriously by the organization has meant a great deal to her students. Sharpe said her students won the King’s Trust USA’s Enterprise Challenge by launching a business that grows and sells fresh vegetables to stores in their area, and she described how the program changed students’ sense of what they could achieve, saying, “This shows that they can achieve anything.”
Organizers also used the anniversary event to frame the charity’s ties between the United States and the United Kingdom. The report said Wednesday’s gala came amid political strain between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Donald Trump, noting Trump’s anger over Starmer’s refusal to support the United States’ war in Iran. Charles, however, said the gala offered a “wonderful opportunity” to celebrate what he described as the “enduring cultural bond” between the two countries, rooted in “shared creativity, enterprise and values.”
In the United States, The King’s Trust USA has set a target to reach 1,000 young people this year, according to the report. Its biggest partner in that effort is City Year, the education nonprofit that introduced The Collins Academy to The King’s Trust and sends young adults to help teach in schools nationwide, while the report said AmeriCorps members are helping pilot a version of Get Hired. The charity is also relying on Per Scholas and Maryland school districts to test additional programs, and Mike Welch—an entrepreneur who said the charity helped redirect his early career—described support he received, including a 500-pound grant and mentorship, as factors that helped his later path.
The report said the charity’s U.K. leaders and Charles’s remarks also pointed to longer-term planning around the anniversary, including a fundraising campaign to establish an endowment for The King’s Trust UK as part of the 50th celebration, with leaders saying their planning for the celebrations began before the recent political rift.
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment