# Gift horse #2 requires oral inspection

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/1997/11/10/gift-horse-2-requires-oral-inspection/
- Published: 1997-11-10T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**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”.

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 * **[Gift horse requires oral inspection](https://fundraising.co.uk/1997/11/06/gift-horse-requires-oral-inspection/)(
   6 November 1997)**