The Royal Countryside Fund

Shining a light
on RURAL life

Founded by HRH The Prince of Wales as The Prince's Countryside Fund in 2010, The Royal Countryside Fund is a UK charity that helps rural communities work towards a more secure future by enabling family farms to thrive and building confident rural communities.

In order to create a real future for rural Britain, the The Royal Countryside Fund:

Invests at least £500,000 in grants for rural communities for projects providing community-led solutions each year.
Runs The Prince's Farm Resilience Programme, offering environmental and business skills training to family farms across the UK.
Provides emergency funding to tackle crises such as outbreaks of disease or extreme weather.
Undertakes research into problems faced by farming families and communities.
Runs schemes to help young people get into farming and strengthen support networks.
Brings together people and business to help tackle challenges such as climate change.

HRH The Prince of Wales meets members of PCF’s Farm Resilience Programme. Photo credit: Mark Lord

His Majesty King Charles III meets members of The Royal Countryside Fund’s Farm Resilience Programme. Photo credit: Mark Lord

Waitrose was one of the fund's earliest corporate partners and remains its biggest champion through an annual contribution of £150,000 and a donation of £200,000 a year from sales of Waitrose Duchy Organic products.

A BIG difference to SMALL communities

The Royal Countryside Fund's grant programmes aim to empower rural communities. In 2022, Black Mountains College, which is delivering community-based vocational training and short courses and has recently been supported by the Royal Countryside Fund and Waitrose, said of its grant:

“This is amazing. It will allow us to build and grow the great work we’ve piloted this year and reach more people.

"Climate change is affecting all communities and we need to scale up resilience as fast as possible.”

Find out more about The Royal Countryside Fund