Prince and Princess of Wales named in Time’s 100 most influential philanthropists

Time Magazine has released its annual awards and amongst the 100 names in the Philanthropy category is The Prince and Princess of Wales.

The magazine has praised William and Catherine as innovators for ‘modernising royal philanthropy’. The Time100 Philanthropy 2025 celebrates ‘the 100 most influential people shaping the future of giving at a pivotal moment’.

Prince William and Catherine attended the St Patrick’s Day parade with the Irish Guards (@kensingtonroyal)

Time commended the couple as innovators for “modernising royal philanthropy” noting that “Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, are less concerned with cultural preservation and more attuned to social issues.”

The magazine added: “Crucial to the Waleses’ approach is aligning social imperatives with sound business strategies and building corporate alliances.”

Prince William in a new photo taken by The Duchess of Cambridge when the couple visited Pakistan; this is at a glacier in the Hindu Kush mountain range, in the Khyber-Pakhtunkwa Province. (Kensington Palace)

Prince William was recognised for creating his Earthshot Prize Awards, which is now entering its fifth year. The Prize is ‘an ambitious set of challenges to inspire a decade of action to repair the planet’ and named following the moon landings, which was a decade-long plan called Moonshot. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot challenge, Earthshot aims to find and fund solutions to the planet’s most pressing environmental issues. The five ‘Earthshots’ are based around five goals to repair our planet: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean our Air, Revive our Oceans, Build a Waste-free World and Fix our Climate.

The Princess of Wales joins a family portage session at a local specialist centre in Sittingbourne to highlight the importance of supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families. (Picture by Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace)

Meanwhile, Catherine has focused on transforming societal understanding of early childhood. Her work is centred on the belief that investing in the first five years of life is crucial to lifelong outcomes in mental health, education, and well-being. In January 2023, she launched the Shaping Us campaign, an awareness initiative under the umbrella of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. Just months later, in March 2023, she established the Business Taskforce for Early Childhood, engaging major UK corporations such as Deloitte, IKEA, and NatWest.