Prince William gets fundraising tips from beyond the grave

The Prince of Wales has been given a stark lesson in how to get financial donations rolling in – from his late grandfather.

Prince Philip would bluntly ask: “Why don’t you just give them the bloody money?”

Prince William, 41, was in Belfast to announce Northern Ireland as one of the flagship locations for his ambitious new homelessness programme, Homewards.

He visited the East Belfast Mission at the Skainos Centre, in Newtownards Road, and was shown around by the Rev Brian Anderson, who chairs the board.

The Methodist minister told him that when Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the old East Belfast Mission hall in 2008, they were shown plans for the Skainos Centre.

When the late monarch asked why it had not yet been built, one of the reverend’s predecessors explained it was because of a lack of money.

The Rev Anderson described how Prince Philip turned around to the assembled politicians and civil servants behind him, saying: “He just immediately asked them: ‘Why don’t you just give them the money?’ There was an expletive in there, but I’m not going to say that. And three weeks later, the money turned up.”

William replied: “That sounds like my grandfather”, and later smiled as he told a crowd of well-wishers gathered outside: “The Reverend has been telling me stories about my grandfather.”

The Prince later visited Aberdeen and Sheffield, the last two stops on his UK tour, both of which will be key areas of focus during the project.

The other three locations, unveiled on Monday, are Bournemouth, Lambeth and Newport.

In Sheffield, the Prince was at Reach Up Youth where he was joined by footballer and Homewards ambassador Tyrone Mings for a nail-biting basketball competition.

Despite the huge pressure, William scored on his third attempt, raising his arms aloft in relief and celebration, to huge cheers, beating Mings who failed to score.

In Aberdeen, the Prince told nurses working at the Tillydrone Community Campus: “You guys have been chosen for a reason. You’ve got ambition, you’re doing amazing work and we want to help what you’re doing.

“It’s not just about a person sleeping in the street – support services are crucial.”

Homewards is a five-year programme designed to prove that homelessness can be eradicated if the whole of society pulls together and focuses on prevention.

It will focus on six flagship locations, of which Lambeth, in south London, Bournemouth, Newport, Northern Ireland and Aberdeen have so far been announced.

The Prince heard that Belfast, like the rest of Northern Ireland, was suffering from a lack of social housing and an overheated market that had led to rocketing and unaffordable rents in the private sector.

The future King met experts and thanked them for the work they were doing, vowing that Homewards would change the narrative and put the UK on the road to ending homelessness. 

“I see this as a kind of rocket boost for the next five years to all the fantastic work you are already doing,” he said. “So please do use it, test it to find new solutions, test new innovations, new ideas.

“Hopefully we can bring more people together and remind people that homelessness is still going on. But it is preventable.”