Wimbledon has been held annually since 1877, but a more recent arm has expanded the tournament’s charitable reach. Since 2013, The Wimbledon Foundation has served as the official charity of the All England Lawn Tennis and Championships Club, distributing grants, donations and programs across a range of sectors within and outside of tennis.
Unlike large foundations such as the Gates Foundation in the US or the Wellcome Trust in the UK, the Wimbledon Foundation operates as a funding charity that distributes the resources it generates. Its funding comes primarily from annual tournament profits and related revenue sources, and does not follow fixed payout requirements.
It should not be confused with the AFC Wimbledon Football Foundation, where the organization is partly funded by the All England Club, ticket resales, sales of used tennis balls, and partners such as Barclays and IBM. In 2025, she donated £4.76 million ($6.37 million), bringing her total charitable contributions to more than £24 million ($32.1 million).
Rather than being established by an individual donor, the Foundation was set up collectively by the All England Club to formalize its existing charitable work. Since 2022, it has been led by Foundation Chair Paige Murphy, with a team and board of trustees supporting an expanding footprint beyond its local base in Merton Wandsworth in south-west London.
The people who run the Wimbledon Foundation
While the All England Club oversees the Foundation, its day-to-day running is managed by its trustees, staff and ambassadors.
Paige Murphy joined as president of the foundation in 2022. With a background in nonprofit grantmaking and community engagement, she oversees initiatives such as the national expansion of Set for Success and the foundation’s long-term strategic planning.
On the trustee side, retired PricewaterhouseCoopers CEO Bruce Wetherell has served as Chairman since 2020. Other board members include:
- Sir Keith Ajigbo: Retired university administrator, knighted for services to education
- Ann Keothavong: Retired professional tennis player and current commentator
- Kevin Havelock: Retired CEO of Unilever
- Deborah Jevans: Retired professional tennis player and sports executive, including the International Tennis Federation
- Ruth Shaw: Former sports executive, including the Sports Stadium Safety Authority, and current independent consultant
- Sir Nick Young: A retired lawyer, he was knighted for services to cancer care
- Sam Oslin: Public sector executive
In June 2025, British tennis players Katie Boulter and Jack Draper were named the first Wimbledon Foundation Champions, official ambassadors tasked with raising awareness of the Foundation’s work.
What the Wimbledon Foundation supports
The Foundation distributes its funding through four major grant programs, primarily benefiting the communities surrounding the tournament.
Its largest initiative, the Homelessness Fund, provides multi-year support to organizations that address housing insecurity. Launched in 2019 to mark the completion of the roof of Court No. 1, the fund has made seven major grants totaling £740,000 ($988,700) in 2025, to support groups such as Faith in Action Merton Homelessness Project and the Glass Door Homeless Charity.
Additional programs include the Community Fund, which supports local social initiatives; the Get Set, Get Active Fund, which focuses on increasing sports participation; and the Health and Wellbeing Fund, which supports mental and physical health projects. Beneficiaries included Informal Youth Counselling, Wast Not Want Not Battersea, Youth Sport Trust and the Metropolitan and City Police Orphans’ Fund. In 2025, the Foundation supported 102 organizations through these grants.
Beyond grantmaking, the Foundation runs partnerships and initiatives, including an international clean water program providing water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in eight countries, a national crisis housing collaboration, and annual contributions to the British Red Cross Disaster Response Fund.
Its programs also include Group for Success, a national youth sports initiative delivered in collaboration with Barclays Bank and the Youth Sports Fund; the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative, which works to bring All England Club coaches into local public schools; And working at Wimbledon, which provides job opportunities at the tournaments for people who face barriers to work.
