Even if you did make the cut for the highly-secretive guest list of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry for their upcoming May 18 wedding, don’t worry about checking their online gift registry. The couple has decided to eschew the traditional gifting of kitchen and home decorations, instead asking for donations to charities of their choice.
“The couple have personally chosen seven charities which represent a range of issues that they are passionate about, including sport for social change, women’s empowerment, conservation, the environment, homelessness, HIV and the Armed Forces,” Kensington Palace explained, adding that the couple do not have official relationships with the charities they’ve chosen. These causes include Chiva Projects, an organization helping kids dealing with AIDS; Crisis U.K., the national charity for homelessness; Corporal Scotty, a group for children of the armed forces; youth sports charity Street Games; the ocean conservation group Surfers Against Sewage; and Wilderness U.K., which gives urban youth access to the great outdoors.
They also selected the Myna Mahila Foundation, which assists in empowering women in Mumbai slums with access to professional growth education and menstrual products. Markle has a personal connection to this one: She visited Mumbai and Delhi just last year, and wrote about her eye-opening experience for TIME interacting with the women she met. “When we empower girls hungry for education, we cultivate women who are emboldened to effect change within their communities and globally. If that is our dream for them, then the promise of it must begin with us. Period,” she wrote at the time.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Your Vote Is Safe
- The Best Inventions of 2024
- How the Electoral College Actually Works
- Robert Zemeckis Just Wants to Move You
- Column: Fear and Hoping in Ohio
- How to Break 8 Toxic Communication Habits
- Why Vinegar Is So Good for You
- Meet TIME's Newest Class of Next Generation Leaders
Write to Raisa Bruner at raisa.bruner@time.com