More than £300,000 raised for charities from ticket resales
London, UK: The Wimbledon Foundation, the All England Club’s charitable arm, announced today that the total proceeds of £152,115 from The Championships’ Ticket Resale Scheme will be donated to charities, including local charities in the Wimbledon area, the UK Armed Forces Benevolent Funds, the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust and Smile Train.
HSBC, Official Banking Partner of The Championships, has generously matched the funds raised by the Ticket Resale Scheme taking the total amount donated in 2013 to £304,230.
The Ticket Resale Scheme is the best way of making sure that the Centre and No.1 Courts remain as full as possible by re-selling seats which are no longer required to someone else already in the Grounds. The proceeds are donated to charity.
Ian Hewitt, Chairman of the Wimbledon Foundation, said: “The Ticket Resale Scheme has been very successful in both ensuring that seats are filled and raising funds for charity. I’d like to thank all those fans who have contributed this year and in the past. With the fantastic support of HSBC, we have some meaningful sums to donate.”
Alan Keir, Global Head of Commercial Banking at HSBC, said: “We’re delighted once again to match the funds raised by The Ticket Resale Scheme. This is our sixth year as the official banking partner of The Championships and this contribution demonstrates our commitment to the partnership. Over the past six years we have matched a total in excess of £780,000 and are delighted that it has risen from £111,000 in 2008 to over £150,000 this year.”
Notes to Editors:
The Wimbledon Foundation, a non-profit organisation, has been established by the All England Club to co-ordinate and enhance the extensive programme of community, development and charitable activities undertaken by the All England Club and The Championships.
The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust, set up in 1997 and named after the late Dan Maskell who was known affectionately as the “voice of Wimbledon” during his time as the BBC’s top tennis commentator, grants aid to individuals, disability groups and programmes, clubs, schools and associations to help with the purchase of wheelchairs, tennis equipment and grants for coaching.
Smile Train is the world’s leading cleft charity supporting free surgery for thousands of children in the world’s poorest countries. Pinki Sonkar, from India, represented the charity at the coin-tossing ceremony this year prior to the Gentlemen’s Singles final.
About HBSC
The HSBC Group, headquartered in London, serves customers worldwide from around 6,600 offices in over 80 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, North and Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. With assets of US$2,681bn at 31 March 2013, the HSBC Group is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.
