The Wimbledon Foundation manages a significant programme of grants to charities each year in support of the Foundation’s objectives.
For full details of grants and donations made in 2015 click here for our Annual Review.
Grant Programmes
The Wimbledon Foundation makes a valuable contribution to meeting social needs and reducing inequalities in the London boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth via three grant programmes.
The Wimbledon Foundation Community Fund distributes £100,000 annually to local projects addressing poverty, disadvantage and isolation, improving education and training, increasing employability and encouraging community cohesion. Click here to find out about projects awarded grants by the Community Fund.
Small grants to local organisations are a vital part of the funding landscape
Our Health and Wellbeing Fund supports eight local charities with grants, totalling £150,000 per year over three years, towards projects that meet social needs by improving the health and wellbeing of residents in Merton and Wandsworth. Click here to find out about more about our Health & Wellbeing partners.
Our most recently launched Get Set, Get Active Fund awards grants totalling £75,000 to help increase opportunities for local people of all ages and abilities to participate in sport and exercise.
Giving through The Championships
The Championships present a unique opportunity for the Wimbledon Foundation to support a range of charitable activities.
Ticket Resale Scheme
The unique ticket resale scheme whereby tickets no longer required by spectators leaving the Show Courts are re-sold to other spectators celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2014. Together with match funding from HSBC, official banking partner of The Championships, the scheme raised £318,662 in 2015 which is being distributed to charities and community organisations through the Wimbledon Foundation’s grant programmes.
Benevolent Funds
In 2015, the Wimbledon Foundation gave a total of £100,000 to the Metropolitan & City Police Orphans Fund, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and the Fire Fighters Charity. The donations are in recognition of the long-standing working relationship between The Championships and military and emergency service personnel who give up so much of their time to volunteer as stewards.
Honorary Stewards
Each year, the Honorary Stewards are invited to choose a beneficiary charity and in 2015 nominated the Alzheimer’s Society, Teenage Cancer Trust and Trinity Hospice Clapham Common to receive donations.
Community Support
The Wimbledon Foundation and the All England Club provides support to the local community in a variety of ways from hosting community events at the Club to continuing its long-standing sponsorship of the Wimbledon Guild Village Fair and the Southfields Christmas Lights.
In 2015, the Wimbledon Foundation supported a number of community arts initiatives including:
- Fifty Faces of Merton, a portrait exhibition of young people celebrating 50 years of Merton borough, organised by Wimbledon BookFest and displayed at the All England Club’s Wingfield Café
- A Soldier’s Tale, a cross-arts project between the Wimbledon International Music Festival and Merton Music Foundation delivering music and art workshops in Merton primary schools
- Lantern Arts Centre’s Silver Screen project which shows free films for older members of the community in Raynes Park.
The Foundation also co-ordinates in-kind support to local charities including: - 250kg of food donated to the Wimbledon and Wandsworth Foodbank
- Wimbledon merchandise donated to the children’s ward at St George’s Hospital
- Donation of computers and televisions
- Donation of wheelchair-friendly picnic tables
- AELTC Groundsmen supporting ‘One Man Went to Mow’ volunteer team in the upkeep of the Wimbledon Village War Memorial surrounds.
