All England Club establishes the Wimbledon Foundation

London, UK: The All England Club, Wimbledon, today announced the establishment of its new community and charitable arm, the Wimbledon Foundation.

Using the heritage and resources of Wimbledon, the Wimbledon Foundation’s principal aim is to bring together and enhance in a more cohesive, coordinated and effective way the extensive programme of community, development and charitable activities currently undertaken by the All England Club and The Championships (see examples below).

The Wimbledon Foundation, which will be a non-profit making organisation, will focus on three themes:

• Community  -  activities and support within the London Boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth;
• Charity -  particularly charities supported by key groups involved in The Championships;
• Development - support for projects and charities using sport, and particularly tennis, to provide opportunities to assist people, especially the young, with education and  potential personal development.

Philip Brook, Chairman of the All England Club and The Championships, said: “The establishment of the Wimbledon Foundation will provide a proactive framework for the enhancement and co-ordination of our community, charity and development activities and is an exciting and important development for The Championships, the Club and our Members.”

WIMBLEDON’S COMMUNITY INVESTMENT PROGRAMME

Taking tennis to local juniors – the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative (WJTI): 

• Dedicated AELTC coaching team visits around 60 state primary and secondary schools per year in the London Boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth.  Since the programme started in 2001, over 120,000 local children have had a racket put in their hand by WJTI and around 300 children attend the free tennis coaching held at the Club over 45 weekends a year.

HSBC Road to Wimbledon National 14 and Under Challenge 

• The largest national junior grass court tournament involving some 20,000 young players. 
• The National Finals, 64 boys and 64 girls, made up of the 44 County winners and 20 best runners-up are held on Wimbledon’s Championship grass courts in August. 

Charity and benefits to the local community

• Financial donations to charities (many local charities) from monies raised through Ticket resales - total net income 2012 was a record £167,000 and HSBC match means the total funds available for charitable donation were £334,000.
• Support for Wimbledon Village Summer Fair (since 2003) and Southfields Christmas Lights and a number of other community projects in the neighbourhood.

Ball Boys and Ball Girls

• Around 700 pupils from local schools compete annually for the prestige of being selected as one of the 250 ball boys/girls at The Championships. 

Museum Education Programme

• Around 7,000 children and young people have taken part in the Museum’s primary and secondary school educational sessions in 2012.
• Community project 2013 is a multi media project titled Quite Revealing revealing some of the lesser known stories of Wimbledon and The Championships using recorded voices and vintage images. Access online via www.wimbledon.com or the official YouTube channel.

Creating tennis opportunities for juniors in less developed countries

• Since 1986, an annual financial contribution (US$400,000 in 2013) to the Grand Slam Development Fund to encourage and increase competitive tennis opportunities for aspiring juniors in less developed countries and regions. 

Supporting grass-roots British tennis

• Annual payment (£3 million in 2012) to the Tennis Foundation to support its schools, disability and community tennis programmes.