Making a Difference
Each year, we donate more than £4 million to local, national and international charities helping to champion opportunity for all.
Making a difference locally
Strengthening and supporting our local community of Merton and Wandsworth
We support around 100 charities and community organisations in the two boroughs each year helping people facing challenges in their lives, particularly those from under-represented communities.
A three-year grant to AFC Wimbledon Foundation is supporting their Women and Girls' Inclusion Project which aims to address the barriers specific to women and girls accessing sport. The project has seen a 400% increase in the number of girls playing football and a new coaching pathway is supporting more girls and women into leadership roles in sport.
Work at Wimbledon
This joint initiative between the Wimbledon Foundation and AELTC’s HR department helps local people facing barriers to employment to access roles at The Championships. Each applicant is guaranteed an interview and unsuccessful applicants receive personalised feedback to provide them with valuable experience and to help them with future applications.
“I didn’t think people would even consider me to work or interact with the public. People would think, ‘He’s got a white stick, what’s he going to be able to tell me?’, but everyone was really brilliant. I felt like I was being seen by the public as a person and not just a white stick. Through being part of The Championships, it’s given me a lift that I can actually do stuff and I can actually be trusted to work and pull off a role.”
Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative (WJTI)
Led by the AELTC coaching team, the WJTI visits around 35 state primary schools with higher levels of pupil premium in Merton and Wandsworth every year for six-week periods teaching children tennis skills and improving fitness through fun exercises.
Since 2001, more than 280,000 local children have received a free session and up to 350 children attend free weekly tennis coaching.
“I didn't know what life held for me before joining the WJTI, but once I started to play within the grounds of Wimbledon, it was so amazing that it convinced me to commit to tennis. I cannot thank the WJTI enough for what they have done for me.”
Making a difference nationally
Inspiring the next generation
Set for Success is a youth leadership programme funded by the Wimbledon Foundation in partnership with Barclays and delivered by Youth Sport Trust. It supports young people in under-served communities, who may be at risk of not achieving their full potential for a variety of factors.
Using the power of sport and through sessions delivered by inspirational athlete mentors and teachers, Set for Success helps participants to increase their engagement at school, improve their life and leadership skills, and develop their confidence, aspirations and self-esteem.
Young people can work towards an SLQ accredited Level 1 Qualification in Developing Professional Skills at the end of the two-year programme and annual empowerment events enable young people to make connections with employers in the local area and help them to start thinking about their futures.
During the 2024/2025 academic year, 81 schools were engaged in the programme, reaching 1,274 students across 15 areas in the UK where a need for targeted support had been identified. 52% of young people on the programme were from low-income families and 34% had additional support needs. As a result of Set for Success, 78% of young people feel better about their future and 82% now know more about how their skills can help them in the future. 77% of teachers reported that the programme has improved the attendance of the young people involved and 80% of teachers agreed it had helped student engagement with school.
Thanks in part to the support from Barclays, Set for Success will expand to 150 schools in 30 regions around the UK by 2027, benefitting up to 3,900 young people.
Read the full Set for Success evaluation report.
Making a difference internationally
Building healthy communities
Water is vital to Wimbledon. It keeps our grass courts maintained and the competitors hydrated. Unfortunately, one in ten people around the world don’t have clean water which is why the Wimbledon Foundation began a partnership with WaterAid in 2017.
Since then, our partnership has helped to bring clean water, sanitation and good hygiene (WASH) to more than 500,000 people in communities around the world. In 2024, the Wimbledon Foundation announced it would be donating a further £2.2 million over four years to WaterAid to install WASH facilities at healthcare centres and in surrounding communities in Malawi, Mozambique and Pakistan.
These vital services relieve the burden on people’s time and energy, ensuring healthier futures, keeping children in school, and enabling women and girls to unlock their potential.
Responding in times of need
Our Emergency Relief Fund provides support to those affected by emergencies, both internationally and in the UK. An annual donation of £150,000 is made to the British Red Cross Disaster Fund which provides rapid relief to those affected by emergencies.
In 2024, the Disaster Fund provided support to those affected by the earthquake in Morocco, the devastating flooding in Nepal, the ongoing crises in Sudan, Gaza and the wider region as well as many other emergencies across the globe.
In 2024, we joined the British Red Cross' Disaster Relief Alliance, an active community of businesses that invest in the future of humanitarian action enabling the British Red Cross to help communities prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters.
