Partners and the Community

London Marathon Charitable Trust
The London Marathon Ltd is the operating subsidiary of the London Marathon Charitable Trust. A registered charity (number 283813), its objectives are to provide or assist in the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupations for the people of London.

Every year the surplus from the company is gift aided to the Trust, and the trustees award grants to sport and recreation facilities and projects. In January 2007 it allocated record grants totalling £3 million from the record surplus made by the London Marathon Ltd in 2006. That brings the total grants made by the Trust to date to £21,953,784, aiding more than 600 projects.

This year the London Marathon Charitable Trust bought a set of playing fields in Greenford from the Berkbeck Playing Fields Association. The fields will be owned and managed by the National Playing Fields Foundation (NPFF) and made available for public use into the future.

This is the fifth time the London Marathon has saved fields for public use. The London Marathon believes recreational space is a vital part of every community, but there is no statutory protection for playing fields in the UK, and on average one playing field every day comes under threat from building development.

This year 37 projects across the London boroughs have been allocated grants of between £3,500 and £150,000. The largest grant of £150,000 was donated to develop an indoor athletics centre next to the Terence McMillan Athletics Stadium in Newham. The trustees also made grants of £100,000 to the Corporation of London for new changing rooms at Wanstead Flats; £100,000 to the London Community Cricket Association to instal indoor training facilities at Plough Lane Cricket Centre in Sutton; £92, 053 to the Metropolitan Housing Trust for a new sports hall at Corry Drive; and £135,000 to the Royal Parks to refurbish the sports pavilion and six tennis courts in Greenwich Park.

The London Marathon Charitable Trust was created in 1981, the inaugural year of the London Marathon, to meet one of the six objectives detailed by the race founders: ‘To raise money for the provision of recreational facilities to London’.

Pubs + Bars / Entertainment on Course
Every year, The Flora London Marathon links up with over 65 bars on the course for spectators to watch the marathon, and the pubs / bars put on special events, entertainment and many of these are linked to charities.
Mark Griffith
markg@london-marathon.co.uk
0207 902 0188