Gift horse #2 requires oral inspection

Howard Lake

Blogs

Nov 10, 1997

Pledged donations can have a habit of veering more towards the pledge than the donation.

There can’t, however, be many bigger donations that have slipped through a fundraiser’s fingers than the £625 million pledged by His Royal Highness Prince Hadji Mohd Al Alsagof van Eldik to the United Nations for technological development in the Third World. His Royal Highness even got a standing ovation at a Melbourne Conference last month for his generosity.

Unfortunately for the recipients, who apparently believed he was one of the world’s six wealthiest men, HRH turned out to be a failed Australian builder who lives penniless in the Philippines. His brother commented: “He says he’s a billionaire prince exiled from North Borneo, but that’s the biggest load of **** I have ever heard”.

• Gift horse requires oral inspection (6 November 1997)