Every member of the Royal Family receives hundreds of requests each year from organisations asking for their support.

The benefits of Royal patronages are twofold. They add status to an organisation, and visits and involvement from a Royal Patron can often bring much needed publicity.

For this reason, members of the Royal Family tend to limit their patronages to a manageable number to ensure that they can give each organisation a significant amount of their time.

Royal Patrons only very occasionally take on completely new charities and the majority of their patronages are of UK-based organisations.

The Queen’s patronage carries the most weight, and Her Majesty receives the most requests for patronages of all the members of the Royal Family.

Applications for the patronage of any member of the Royal Family are submitted to the appropriate Private Secretary who will pass on requests which they deem may be of interest to their principal.

If the member of the Royal Family concerned thinks that one of these requests would be rewarding or important to take on, then they will usually ask for more research to be undertaken so that an informed decision can be made.

It is then decided whether or not that particular member of the Royal Family will take on the patronage.

A range of factors are taken into consideration. These include that the organisation making the request is reputable and well-established and has a good financial track record.

Once it has been decided that the patronage will be taken on, the duration of the patronage must be decided. There is no set length. Sometimes members of the Royal Family might take on a patronage relating to a specific campaign or event which only lasts a finite length of time. Other times patronages are for life.