Sentebale, co-founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso to help children living with HIV in Southern Africa, is now in financial and operational crisis. Under the leadership of chair Sophie Chandauka, the charity has seen programme cuts, staff reductions, and mounting questions about governance. Central to the controversy are her early pay demands, consultant spending, and the link between her charity role and her struggling private ventures.
NEED TO KNOW
- Salary request allegation – The Daily Mail reported that Chandauka allegedly asked for $3,000 (£2,200) a day for her role as Sentebale chair, despite it being a traditionally unpaid position. The Times also documented this claim, noting trustees were alarmed at the scale of the request.
- Consultant spending – The Times reported that trustees raised concerns over a consultant bill said to be in the region of £427,000, as well as questions over the selection of consultants with personal or professional ties to Chandauka.
- Fundraising failure – The Times noted that a key factor in the trustees’ call for her resignation was a failed effort to replace lost donors with new funders, which left Sentebale facing severe financial strain.
Sophie’s Unprecedented Pay Request For Voluntary Position
When Chandauka joined Sentebale’s board, she asked fellow trustees for $3,000 (£2,200) a day for her time. She argued that this was a significant compromise from her usual £2,500 fee for a one-hour speaking engagement. Trustees expressed surprise, noting that the role is voluntary and that charity chairs are expected to serve without receiving personal financial benefit. Though she eventually agreed to work pro bono, the request left questions about her intentions and priorities.
In late March, The Times reported that trustees became concerned after receiving a hefty consultant bill of about £427,000. Their concerns deepened when a bid to secure new US donors failed and Ms Chandauka allegedly requested a $300,000 salary for what is typically an unpaid role. These factors, the paper said, prompted the board to ask her to step down.
Sentebale’s Financial Decline Under Her Leadership
Chandauka’s push for the chair role began after the board initially turned her down. She launched what sources described as an “all-out pressure campaign” for a formal explanation, eventually securing the position with Prince Harry’s public endorsement. Later, when asked to resign multiple times, she reportedly resisted strongly and even prepared to sue to retain the voluntary post. Her determination to hold onto an unpaid role has fuelled speculation about the influence and access it provides.
After Prince Harry, Prince Seeiso, and five other trustees resigned, Sophie Chandauka appointed Iain Rawlinson as a trustee. Rawlinson, who also works for one of Prince William’s charities, Tusk Trust, received £24,000 for consultancy work and is reportedly owed a further £66,000, though no invoice has been filed. In Autumn 2023, Global Philanthropic, where Rawlinson formerly served as director and chair, billed Sentebale £21,000 for a “strategy envisioning” project.
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Questionable Ventures and Conflicts of Interest
Nandi Life Sciences, founded in 2023 and headquartered in Houston, operates from the same address as Texas Medical Center Innovation (TMCi) but has no formal partnership with the organization. InnovationMap described Nandi as “developing antibodies for Avastin-resistant ovarian cancer, with further application in breast, colorectal, and lung cancer,” noting the company is based out of TMCi.
Numeris Media similarly reported that Nandi is “an immuno-oncology biotech working with scientific founders, backed by Texas Medical Center Innovation, and enrolled in the elite Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics, which is within the same ecosystem as MD Anderson Cancer Center, the number one cancer research center in the US.”
However, under Chandauka’s leadership, Sentebale has paid consultants with personal and professional ties to her. Sentebale paid Sarah Essien, a former Morgan Stanley colleague, £41,451, and listed her as an employee of Nandi Life Sciences before later removing her information from the site. The charity also paid Dawn Whyte, who worked at the Black British Business Awards founded by Chandauka, £26,110. Critics argue these appointments, along with Nandi Life Sciences’ use of Sentebale branding on its website, reflect a conflict of interest. The overlap between her charity role and her business network, combined with the absence of clear oversight from the charity’s two remaining trustees, has deepened donor concerns.
Related | Sentebale Decline Raises Conflict of Interest Accusations Over Nandi Life Sciences Link
Embed from Getty Images
Flashback to the 2024 Sentebale Polo Cup, where members of Dr. Sophie Chandauka’s close circle posed with the trophy. Dr. Margaret Ikpoh, later appointed as a trustee on 25 March 2024, stands in the center wearing brown trousers. She resigned just six days later, on 2 April. Sarah Essien, third from the right and a former colleague, shared the moment on Instagram and praised the event.
Final Thoughts
Sentebale’s decline under Chandauka’s leadership raises concerns about how the charity is managed and where its priorities lie. Her initial pay demand, resistance to stepping down, and use of charity-linked networks for consultant hiring have put governance under the spotlight. With services scaled back and the organisation’s reputation at risk, restoring donor trust will require transparency, stronger oversight, and a clear separation between charitable duty and private interests.
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She liked to be in the limelight with Harry . I would describe her as a disruptive entity . She one of these people who enters a community causes chaos and takes no responsibility.She didn’t like Meghan attending events as it took the spotlight from her. She attention seeking and desperately bad at her job. She needs to be removed at once.
The charity commission is supposed to be there to support the causes the charities are benefiting from . We’ve noticed that sentebale has cut staff, cancelled a youth camp and other activities yet they kept the person at the head of it regardless that it’s the children that are suffering. The charity has had nineteen years of economic well-being yet they haven’t questioned why it suddenly with the new chair, became so toxic that all the people who ran it resigned . They’ve not thought of the children at all ,if this was not Harry’s charity I bet Chanduka would have been investigated thoroughly and ousted the minute it came to their attention something was wrong. It’s so disheartening to see that the people in charge who are responsible to uphold and governance with transparency, integrity and truth are so corrupt and unworthy of peoples trust.
Thank you, KayKay for speaking truth to power!
You hit the nail right on the head.
The vulnerable youth communities who are the beneficiaries of this Sentebale, which was co-founded by Prince Harry as a mere teenager almost twenty years ago and had run smoothly without any hitch until recently, are the losers of the corrupt and irrational findings of the Charity Commission, in that whitewash investigation. And it’s only because of its link to Prince Harry!
I have no doubt that had it been any other person in his role, the findings would been different – ie what any rational and reasonable thinking person would have expected – that the fake “Dr” Sophie had misappropriated, and mismanaged the charity’s funds, from the moment she fought for and got into that role!
Who will, or why did she fight so hard to stay on in a non-paying role?
According to Prince Harry’s Netflix documentary on Polo, still showing on Netflix, the Polo matches he’d played in had raised $15 million for Sentebale since 2015!
Prince Harry also donated over £1m from his SPARE sales to the charity. That’s how committed and caring he was to the success of the charity.
Then within a couple of years as Chair, this person destroys the reputation, and upends the charity’s mission, and also attempts to ruin Prince Harry’s reputation too – without any thought or consideration for the adverse effect all her reprehensible behaviour would have on what really matters – the continued support for these vulnerable communities of youths.
If there’s any justice in this world, this woman will be held accountable soon before she does more damage elsewhere! Karma is always waiting for her ilk!