King Charles & The King's Trust: 50 Years of Changing Young Lives
Founded in 1976 with his navy severance pay, King Charles's Prince's Trust (now The King's Trust) has helped over a million young people. The story of his proudest legacy.
Ask King Charles III which of his many achievements he is proudest of, and the answer, by his own account, is not a building or a title but a charity: The King’s Trust. Founded almost fifty years ago, when he was a young man fresh out of the Royal Navy, it has grown into one of Britain’s most important youth charities, and helped transform the lives of well over a million young people. It is the King’s proudest legacy, and one of the great philanthropic stories of the modern age.
The Trust’s mission has been constant across five decades: to give disadvantaged and vulnerable young people the confidence, skills and support to build a future. In an era when the young are too often written off, it has quietly insisted on their potential, and backed that belief with practical help.
Here is the story of The King’s Trust: how it began, what it does, and why it means more to King Charles than almost anything else he has done.
Founded in 1976
The Trust began in 1976, when the 27-year-old Prince Charles, newly returned from service in the Royal Navy, used his severance pay to fund a handful of community projects for young people. It was a modest, personal start: seed money and a conviction that disadvantaged young people deserved a chance. But it grew from there into a national institution.
From those first small grants, The Prince’s Trust expanded steadily into one of the country’s leading youth charities, offering training, mentoring, and support to young people facing unemployment, poverty and disadvantage. That it started with the Prince’s own money, and his own idea, tells you how personal the mission has always been to him.
Helping over a million young people
Across nearly half a century, the Trust’s impact has been extraordinary. Since its founding in 1976, it has helped over one million young people, supporting them into work, education, training and enterprise, and giving many their first real belief that a better future was possible.
The numbers matter, but the individual stories matter more: the young person who found a first job, started a business, or simply gained the confidence to try, thanks to the Trust’s support. Countless successful people across Britain, in business, the arts and beyond, got an early hand from the Trust: a quiet network of transformed lives that stretches across the country.
From Prince’s Trust to King’s Trust
For most of its life the charity was known as The Prince’s Trust, reflecting its founder’s title as Prince of Wales. When Charles acceded to the throne, the charity marked the new reign by renaming itself The King’s Trust in 2023: a change of name, but not of mission.
The renaming was a fitting milestone: the charity the King founded as a young prince now carries his title as sovereign, a symbol of continuity across a lifetime of service. Its work continues exactly as before, helping young people aged from their teens into their twenties to find their footing, whatever their circumstances.
Why it means so much to the King
The King has spoken with unusual candour about how much the Trust means to him, and about the young people it serves. He has long believed that no young person should be written off, and that with the right support and encouragement, those who have had the fewest advantages can achieve remarkable things.
That conviction is deeply personal. For a man whose own path was laid out from birth, there is something moving in his lifelong dedication to widening the paths available to others. The Trust is, in a real sense, the cause of his life: the practical expression of a belief in young people that has never wavered across fifty years.
Part of a lifetime of causes
The King’s Trust is the best known of a remarkable portfolio of charitable work that Charles built up over his decades as Prince of Wales, spanning the environment, the built heritage, organic farming, education and the arts. Long before such causes were mainstream, he was championing them, often to some ridicule at the time and much vindication since.
The Trust sits at the heart of that lifetime of causes, which we explore more fully in our piece on King Charles III: a lifetime of causes. Taken together, they reveal a man who used the long apprenticeship of being heir to the throne not to wait, but to work: building institutions that have done lasting good.
Why the King’s Trust endures
The King’s Trust endures because it answered a real and permanent need with practical compassion, and because it never gave up on the young people others overlooked. Fifty years and a million lives on, it is proof of what one person’s conviction, backed by action, can achieve.
For King Charles III, it is the achievement he holds dearest, and it is easy to see why. Browse more of our Royal Figures stories to explore the causes and convictions that have shaped the King and the modern monarchy.
Frequently asked questions
When was The King’s Trust founded?
The charity was founded in 1976 by the then Prince Charles, who used his Royal Navy severance pay to fund community projects for young people. It was known as The Prince’s Trust until 2023.
Why did Prince Charles start The Prince’s Trust?
The young Prince Charles believed that disadvantaged and vulnerable young people deserved a chance and the support to build a future. On leaving the Royal Navy in 1976, he used his severance pay to fund projects that grew into the Trust.
How many young people has The King’s Trust helped?
Since its founding in 1976, the Trust has helped over one million young people through training, mentoring and support into work, education and enterprise: one of the great records of any British charity.
Why is it now called The King’s Trust?
The charity was renamed The King’s Trust in 2023, following Charles’s accession to the throne, to reflect his new title as sovereign. Its founding mission of supporting young people remained unchanged.
What does The King’s Trust do?
The King’s Trust helps young people, typically from their teens into their twenties, who face disadvantage or unemployment. It provides training, mentoring, and support into jobs, education, training and self-employment, helping them build confidence and a future.
Is The King’s Trust King Charles’s proudest achievement?
King Charles has indicated that the Trust is among the achievements he is proudest of. He has spoken with real feeling about the young people it serves and his lifelong conviction that no young person should be written off.
Details of The King’s Trust are drawn from the charity, royal.uk and widely published reports; figures are described as of 2026.
