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Newly released IRS documents show that the largest donation made by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Foundation in 2023 was $250,000 to a new nonprofit launched last year by Ashley Biden, the daughter of President Joe Biden.
The nonprofit is the Pennsylvania-based Women’s Wellness Space, described as a “wellness center for women affected by trauma,” according to the foundation’s Impact Report, Vanity Fair reported. Its founder, Ashley Biden, is a social worker with experience working with formerly incarcerated women, according to the report. Her center “aims to offer a safe haven and community for women impacted by trauma, providing resources such as nutritious food, exercise, meditation and therapeutic interventions.”
The donation was hailed by supporters of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who say it benefits a good cause that aligns with Meghan’s philanthropic history, which has long focused on uplifting women and girls.
However, the Biden connection has raised eyebrows – and more – among the couple’s critics. The right-wing Daily Mail argued that the couple insisted they would remain politically neutral ahead of the presidential election, while the Daily Beast pointed out that the Biden administration has been accused of protecting the couple by not fulfilling a Freedom of Information request to release the duke’s immigration records.
The Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank that authored the controversial Project 2025 plan for the incoming Trump administration, sought Harry’s immigration records to find out if he had been honest about his past drug use when he applied for a visa. A federal judge ruled in September that Harry was entitled to privacy in the matter and his paperwork should not be released.
The news about this donation for Ashley Biden also comes as her father is under fire from various quarters, including legal experts and some Democrats, over his decision to grant a sweeping pardon to her older half-brother, Hunter Biden. The president pardoned Hunter Biden for his convictions on tax and gun charges, as well as for any “offenses against the United States” committed over the past 11 years.
As for the Archewell Foundation’s other charitable news, their tax documents showed they garnered a $5 million donation from an unnamed individual and gave out a total of $1.3 million in grants to various organizations.
One beneficiary was ArtTogether, an Oakland nonprofit that provides art programs that foster a sense of community amongst refugee and immigrant populations. The $27,500 ArtTogether donation was made under the umbrella of Archewell’s Welcome Project, which supports programming for women who have recently resettled from Afghanistan. Archewell said it supports 11 active Welcome Projects in the United States, which are “designed to foster a sense of belonging through activities including sewing, art, hiking, swimming, photography, storytelling and cooking.”
Other top Archewell beneficiaries include the NAACP and organizations that support community-based journalism and mental health services for aid workers in Israel, Gaza, Syria, and Turkey.
However, the tax documents also show that the $1.3 million in grants constituted only 39% of total expenses for 2023. The foundation spent far more in 2023 — $1.9 million, or some 61% — on salaries and compensation to executives and on a range of administrative costs, travel, events, legal services, advertising, and payment to consultants.
Charity watchdog organizations use a variety of measures to rate the effectiveness of nonprofits but often focus on “the program expense ratio,” according to Charity Watch. That is, the percentage of total expenses that an organization devotes to programs that benefit people or causes – as opposed to the percentage spent on overhead, which includes management and fundraising.
“While administration expenses are necessary for efficient charity operations, organizations that grossly underspend on their programs and services will most likely not have as strong an impact on their charitable missions,” Charity Navigator also said in its 2024 Rating Methodology Guide.
The Better Business Bureau has said that at least 65% of expenses should be for programs, while Charity Watch said that 75% is the ideal. In its rating methodology, Charity Navigator holds 70% as its ideal and won’t give points to organizations if their program expense ratio is under 50%.
As for Ashley Biden’s program, the first daughter told Elle in 2023 that her wellness center takes her back to the Philadelphia area, where she earned her master’s in social work through the University of Pennsylvania, before taking jobs at the Delaware’s Department of Services for Children, Youth & Their Families and Delaware Center for Justice.
In the Elle interview, Ashley Biden said she imagined the center, which is operational, as providing “a drop-in space where women can eat a healthy meal, hit the treadmill or box, listen to guided meditation, and access therapies including EMDR and infrared saunas, which Ashley herself has found effective and wants to share with others.”
