Diana Memorial Fund

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund Millbank Tower 21-24 Millbank London SW1P 4QP England

or telephone (UK): +44 (0)171 233 7676

The following statement, issued on Monday 22nd June 1998, is provided to our readers for information only, and does not reflect an endorsement of or by CricInfo by or of The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

THE FUTURE OF THE DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES MEMORIAL FUND: STATEMENT BY THE TRUSTEES

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund is to be a living memorial through helping those in need and distress, especially at the margins of society. It will continue this work indefinitely, settling into a pattern of making grants mainly or wholly from the income derived from its long term capital.

The Trustees intend that annual grant giving should be as large as the income on the Fund's capital allows, and should anyway be a minimum of GBP4m to GBP5m, even if this were to mean drawing on the Fund's capital as well as income. The Trustees will however, keep all aspects of the Fund under periodic review, and its long-term duration will depend partly on its eventual size, which cannot yet be accurately predicted. The running costs of the Fund will be kept to a minimum consistent with effectiveness.

In the longer term, the Trustees will concentrate on a limited number of priority themes for funding. From autumn 1998, the themes will be:

* displaced people - this would include children and adults made homeless, or deprived of rights for other reasons, e.g. young people living in residential care; * People at the margins (this includes those who are jobless, homeless or excluded through public prejudice or through mental and physical disability, addiction and disease); * Survivors of conflict and those requiring conflict mediation (this could include land mine survivors and those affected by family strife); * the dying and the bereaved.

The Trustees' overriding priority is to make a difference to the lives of these people. They do not intend to vary these broad themes frequently, but they may select different priorities within or between them from time to time. This will allow them to develop responses to new and emerging concerns as well as familiar ones.

The Trustees intend to make a limited number of substantial grants rather than a large number of small ones. They believe that a carefully targeted and sustained programme of support in limited areas, with careful dissemination of lessons learned, will make the most difference to the lives of the people whom the Fund exists to serve.

The Fund will continue to target some of its giving on projects in other countries, reflecting the international dimension of the Princess' interests.

The Trustees will give special weight, in considering grant applications, to the needs of those people and issues which would find it difficult to obtain recognition and support from sources other than the Fund.

A full consultation document is being published in the next few days seeking views from voluntary organisations and others about priorities within the categories selected by the Trustees and about detailed proposals relating to the Fund's grant-giving and other supportive activities. In the light of reactions, the Trustees intend to publish guidelines in the autumn as the basis for inviting a fresh round of grant applications.

In the meantime, the Trustees have already committed GBP13 million, including grants to organisations of which the Princess was either Patron or President at the time of her death, and to 85 other organisations with which the Princess was associated and which have been invited to apply for grants between GBP20,000 and GBP60,000.

The Trustees have been impressed by the quality and creativity of many of the applications and further announcements are imminent. They believe that the Fund has already brought support and hope to many people about whom the Princess of Wales cared deeply.

The Trustees will continue to keep the different options for raising funds under careful review. They do not wish to compete actively for funds which would otherwise be available to other charities. The large majority of funds raised hitherto for the Fund would not otherwise have been available for charitable causes.

In future, the Trustees will maintain their policy of not initiating fund-raising events. Those who choose to give donations or legacies to the Fund should and will have the opportunity to do so but the Fund will not conduct fund-raising campaigns. Nor will the Fund seek to stimulate the emotions which surround the memory of the Princess, but rather channel them into constructive work to support people in need and crisis.

The Trustees are aware of a very widespread desire to buy products associated with the Princess in some way. It is good that part of the benefits of such trade should be available to the sort of charitable causes the Princess supported. It is also important that the public should know which goods are authorised by the Fund and hence will genuinely bring help to its beneficiaries on acceptable terms.

The Trustees will authorise only such goods as are approved by the Princess' Estate and comply with restrictive criteria; the aim is to bring substantial and proportionate benefit to charitable causes and ensure that the Princess is remembered in an appropriate way. The detailed definition and application of these principles is a sensitive issue and will be kept under constant and careful review. The Trustees have also shown that they are willing, as a last resort, to take action through the courts against the unauthorised and illegal commercial exploitation of the Princess' name and image.

By providing new sources of financial and other help to charities working with the people about whom the Princess cared, the Fund will make a difference to their lives and carry forward the aims of the Princess of Wales' public work. She brought hope to many in distress and at the margins of society; the Fund, in its own way, will attempt to do the same.

For further information: Vanessa Corringham or Amanda Clow (UK) +44 (0)171 233 8787 The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund