The Wimbledon Foundation
About the Foundation
The Wimbledon Foundation, established in 2013, is the charity of The All England Lawn Tennis Club. The Foundation builds on the success of an extensive programme of community and charitable activities over a number of years.
The aim of the Wimbledon Foundation is to change people’s lives using the resources and heritage of the All England Lawn Tennis Club and The Championships.
We will:
- Make a real contribution to meeting social needs in our local community of Merton and Wandsworth
- Use the power of sport, particularly tennis, to advance young people’s education and development
- Encourage and support charities and community activities relating to The Championships.
Support given to the Wimbledon Foundation by the All England Club and The Championships is in addition to the fact that every year the large majority of the financial surplus of The Championships is passed to the Lawn Tennis Association or its group for the development of tennis at all levels in Britain.
Activities and donations managed by the Wimbledon Foundation are currently undertaken within the following principal programmes:
Health & Wellbeing Fund
The Wimbledon Foundation is aiming to fund projects that will meet social needs and improve the health and wellbeing of residents in the London boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth.
Community organisations with experience working with local health issues and delivering effective, engaging and well-designed projects are encouraged to apply to the Wimbledon Foundation’s Health & Wellbeing Fund.
Local charities or community interest companies (CICs) based in Merton or Wandsworth, which have been established for at least two years, are eligible to apply online by 8 May 2015. Grants of £10,000 – £30,000 per annum are available for three-year projects.
Priority areas of work
Your application should show how your project meets at least one of our Health & Wellbeing Fund objectives for Merton and Wandsworth:
Healthy minds – we’re interested in projects that support better mental health through social or cultural activities which provide a greater sense of wellbeing
Healthy living – we want to support projects that will help people take better care of their health, tackle local issues and raise awareness of health risks
Making connections – work that can strengthen relationships and bring families and communities together, including people who are more at risk of isolation
Safer communities – feeling safe in your local area is important. We want to hear about projects that work with vulnerable groups and increase awareness of safety issues.
For more information about the Health & Wellbeing Fund and to apply online, please visit www.wimbledon.com/foundation/hwfund.
If you have any queries about the Fund or the application process, please contact Wai Chan, Grants & Community Officer by email: hwfund@aeltc.com or telephone: 020 8971 2707.
Community Fund
In June 2014, the Wimbledon Foundation Community Fund was launched in conjunction with the London Community Foundation. Grants of up to £5,000 are available to charities and community organisations tackling social problems in the London Boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth. The aim of the fund is to distribute up to £100,000 over the course of the year.
Click here to find out more about the Fund, and click here for details on how to apply.
At the end of 2014, the first £45,000 was distributed to the following 11 charities (click to view PDF):
FAST Project – awarded £2,606
Project: Establish a youth council for young people in and around the Patmore Estate, Wandsworth
Friends In St Helier – awarded £4,994
Project: Provide much-needed social events and activities for disadvantaged elderly people and those with disabilities living on the St Helier Estate and Ravensbury ward, Merton
Klevis Kola Foundation - awarded £4,400
Project: Provide a coffee morning for women from refugee and asylum seeking families in Wandsworth helping them to improve their English, learn new skills and access advice on issues including welfare, housing and debt management.
Mercy Foundation Centre – awarded £5,000
Project: Fund an IT training programme to help disadvantaged people in Wandsworth find employment or education.
Merton Centre for Independent Living – awarded £5,000
Project: Provide a structured volunteer training and activity programme for disabled people in Merton to build confidence and develop employability skills.
Mitcham Town Community Trust – awarded £3,000
Project: Enrich The Trust’s Shine on Saturday programme which provides extra tuition for up to 60 disadvantaged and underachieving 9-10 year old pupils in Mitcham Town.
Spare Tyre – awarded £4,500
Project: Develop Roehampton Radio, an internet community radio station run on the Roehampton Estate which aims to connect residents and help people to build skills and increase employability.
The Cara Trust – awarded £2,500
Project: Roll out a successfully piloted health and social welfare programme to older people living with HIV in Wandsworth borough.
The Vine Project – awarded £5,000
Project: Support 10 trainees and five volunteers for six months with training in basic woodwork, electrical appliance testing and repair, customer care, CV writing and interview techniques.
World Heart Beat Music Academy – awarded £3,000
Project: Double the intake and introduce new instruments to the Wandsworth-based Celtic Fiddle School set up last year to provide free instruments, full bursaries and low cost tuition to young people aged five and up.
YMCA London South West – awarded £5,000
Project: Run a winter night shelter providing a safe place to sleep, a hot meal and breakfast for nearly 30 rough sleepers in Merton.
In 2013, in conjunction with the London Community Foundation, grants were awarded to selected community projects in Southfields including:
Carney’s Community - £4,880 funded boxing fitness sessions and mentoring for young people identified by the police, Wandsworth Council and other youth agencies as being ‘at risk’ of gang involvement.
Chickenshed - £5,000 funded a student project aimed at addressing issues involving gang violence and encouraging improved communication skills. The majority of students were from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups.
Hestia Housing and Support - £3,776 funded a project designed to engage local elderly people in a ‘reminiscence group’ where beneficiaries meet to talk about their life stories, encouraging social networks and increasing levels of well-being.
Regenerate - £2,442 assisted with the running of a double decker bus mobile youth centre, providing young people with a positive place to play and workshops designed to improve health and well-being and reduce the risk of criminal behaviour.
Sheringdale School Association - £2,000 enabled the school to create quiet areas where children can take time out to read books, chat to friends during playtime or play creatively using new imaginative equipment.
World Heart Beat Music Academy - £5,000 funded a sessional musical director of the 51st State Band for one year and the rental of their new premises, giving children and young people, many of whom would never have access to musical education, the opportunity to learn.
Grants were also awarded to the following local charities:
19th Wimbledon Scout Group building a new scout hut in Wimbledon, £10,000
Beyond Autism running well-established schools in Wandsworth providing primary and secondary education for children with autism, £5,000
Carers Support Merton providing support, advice and respite to carers of all ages in Merton, £10,000
Home-Start Merton providing support, friendship and practical help to families in Merton, £7,500
Mayor of Merton’s chosen charities: £15,000
Mayor of Wandsworth’s chosen charities: £15,000
St Mary’s Church, Wimbledon towards the repair of the church spire, £50,000
Will to Win Foundation distributing grants to individuals, organisations and clubs to enable people of all ages and abilities to play sport, £5,000
Wimbledon Civic Theatre Trust facilitating innovative performing arts-based education projects for the local community focusing on young people with special needs and those experiencing disadvantage, £7,500
Wimbledon Guild providing a range of services including counselling, grants to tackle poverty and support for older people, £10,000
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 resold to other spectators celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2014. Together with match funding from HSBC, official banking partner of The Championships, the scheme raised £315,162 which is being distributed through the Wimbledon Foundation’s grant programmes.
Rally for Bally
On 4 May 2014, the former British No.1 Elena Baltacha sadly lost her battle with liver cancer, aged just 30. The tennis world united behind the Rally for Bally appeal to raise funds for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and the Elena Baltacha Academy of Tennis (EBAT). The sale of Rally for Bally wristbands during The Championships raised over £22,000 for EBAT and the Wimbledon Foundation made donations of £10,000 to both the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and EBAT.
Coin Toss
The 2013 Singles Champions each nominated a charity for the 2014 Coin Toss Ceremonies; Nathan Bullimore took part in the Gentlemen’s Singles Final Coin Toss after Andy Murray nominated Action for Children Scotland and Medina Djouada took part in the Ladies’ Singles Final Coin Toss after Marion Bartoli nominated ELA - a French charity that works with children with life-limiting genetic conditions. Both charities received donations of £10,000 from the Wimbledon Foundation.
Benevolent Funds
In 2014, the Wimbledon Foundation gave a total of £87,500 to the Metropolitan & City Police Orphans Fund, the Royal Naval Benevolent Fund, 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 2014 nominated the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and a Leonard Cheshire Home in Zambia to receive donations of £5,000 each.
The Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative (WJTI)
The WJTI is the AELTC's community tennis programme, established in 2001 in partnership with the local authorities of Merton and Wandsworth.
The scheme aims to broaden the base of young players at grassroots level and reaches out to all schools across the two boroughs. It is estimated that more than 150,000 children have been given their first experience of tennis through the WJTI scheme since it started in 2001.
Each week two schools, one in each borough, receive a full day of coaching from the WJTI team (led by Dan Bloxham, Wimbledon head coach). After each school visit, a number of promising children may be invited back (until age 16) to receive free tennis coaching sessions held at the All England Club most weekends during the year with, over a typical weekend, more than 300 children participating.
THe WJTI aims to maximise the potential of its members as both tennis players and young people, and show how participation in sport can develop life skills and offer exciting opportunities.
The Road to Wimbledon
The Road to Wimbledon is for junior tennis players, aged 14 or under.
It encourages boys and girls of all standards to play and enjoy competitive tennis. Supported by HSBC and linked to ‘the magic of Wimbledon’, the The HSBC Road to Wimbledon tournament is open to clubs, tennis centres and schools in England, Scotland and Wales and attracts more than 10,000 young people to take part. It gives opportunities for keen juniors, possibly Britain’s fledgling stars of the future, to progress to county finals and then onwards to the national finals on the grass courts of Wimbledon.
Click here to find out more about the Road to Wimbledon
In 2014, the Wimbledon Foundation launched the Road to Wimbledon in India, a new initiative in partnership with HSBC and the All India Tennis Association, aimed at boosting the development of junior tennis in the country. India is the first country where Wimbledon has run an event of this kind outside the UK, with tournaments taking place in Delhi and Mumbai for junior tennis players, aged 14 & under.
Click here to find out more about the Road to Wimbledon in India
Education and Learning
Through our Education and Learning programme we use the heritage and experience of Wimbledon, both as a historic sporting tournament and also as an international business operation, to support the education of young people.
More than 6,300 5 to 21 year-olds came to curriculum based workshops and tours in the last year, with more than 46,000 having attended since the programme began in 2001.
- The Primary Education Programme supports the national curriculum subject areas of History, Art and Design, and Literacy;
- The Secondary Education Programme meets the needs of students studying for GCSE, BTEC and A-Level courses in Business Studies, Geography and Physical Education. Topics include tennis and technology, nutrition and fitness, and marketing;
- The Higher Education Programme offers a more bespoke experience dependent on the course they are studying, but primarily focuses on the business of Wimbledon and how The Championships maintains its position as the world’s premier tennis event.
Other Community support
The Wimbledon Foundation also engages in, or facilitates, support for a variety of other community or charitable projects in Merton and Wandsworth. Some recent examples include:
- support for the Wimbledon Village Summer Fair (a community event run by the local charity the Wimbledon Guild) and Southfields Christmas Lights
- donation of nets from The Championships to grass court venues around the UK and the Will to Win Foundation
- food donations to Wimbledon Food Bank, the Klevis Kola Foundation in Tooting and The Vine Project in Merton
- donation of plants from The Championships to UK charity Groundwork
- in conjunction with Slazenger following The Championships, disposal of surplus tennis nets and balls for use by the local authorities, schools or clubs.
