We’re delighted to be sharing the London Marathon Foundation’s (the Foundation’s) first-ever Group Impact Report, produced in collaboration with our events company, London Marathon Events (LME).
The 2025 TCS London Marathon raised a record-breaking total of £87.3 million for charity. It continues to be the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising event – and while the London Marathon takes place on one day, its impact is felt all-year round through the financial lifeline it offers to thousands of charities.
On its own, this is a powerful social and economic impact – and it’s only one part of the difference we’re making together.
We share a vision to inspire activity, using the power of sport and physical activity to change lives. As the parent charity of LME, the Foundation receives all the surplus profits, which we use to fund projects and initiatives that encourage children, young people and adults in London and across the UK to lead active and healthy lives. Through this model, we’ve become one of the UK’s major charitable funders of sport and physical activity – awarding more than £114 million to more than 1,750 projects since 1981, and helping hundreds of thousands of people to be active all-year round.
More than 550,000 children and young people active in the past year
We believe inspiring activity should start from an early age, and supporting children and young people to be active is vital to laying the foundations for a healthy and happy future – especially for those who have fewer opportunities to take part in physical activity.
Over the past three years, 90% of our funding has been awarded to projects with a focus on children and young people. Combined with LME’s events and initiatives – such as the TCS Mini London Marathon in schools – this commitment has helped us collectively engage more than 550,000 children and young people in physical activity in the past 12 months alone.
We’ve also formed groundbreaking partnerships to increase activity levels among children – including the biggest-ever investment in junior parkrun. In 2023, we awarded £1.19 million to expand the number of junior parkrun events across the UK, particularly in areas of high deprivation. In the first year of the partnership, children completed more than one million junior parkruns – and this is just the beginning.
With major new partnerships announced in September 2025 – including teaming up with the Youth Sport Trust to tackle the inactivity crisis in young Londoners, and our role as an Official Implementation Partner of The Daily Mile in England – we’ll be supporting even more children and young people to be active in the years ahead.
400,000 people engaged in physical activity thanks to our Strategic Partners
Partnerships are central to ensuring our funding delivers transformational impact across the UK. Through our Strategic Partnerships, we’re supporting a carefully selected group of charities and organisations – including junior parkrun, the Black Swimming Association and Cycle Sisters – to expand access to physical activity for children, young people and underserved communities. Together, our current Strategic Partners have already engaged more than 400,000 individuals in physical activity, fostering healthier, more inclusive communities nationwide.
The broader community benefits of these partnerships are showcased in our work with Access Sport. With £2.5 million in funding, Access Sport is revitalising basketball and cycling facilities to make them more inclusive – including the Hoblingwell Cycle Track in Bromley, where antisocial behaviour and crime have reduced since it opened.
We’re also exploring collaborative funding to amplify our impact. In 2023, we co-launched Go! London – the biggest community sport fund in the capital – alongside the Mayor of London, Sport England, LME, and London Sport. Since then, we’ve engaged more than 32,000 young Londoners aged five to 24 in physical activity, with a goal to reach more than 60,000 during this five-year partnership.
Our collaborations extend beyond London. In 2024, LME’s acquisition of Caledonian Concepts (a leading organiser of mass participation sporting events in Scotland) opened the door to new relationships and a deeper understanding of physical activity in Scotland. This led to the creation of Get Active Scotland – a new £1.1 million partnership fund launched in September 2025 with sportscotland, Glasgow Life and High Life Highland. It’s our first Fund solely to benefit Scottish communities, designed to make physical activity more accessible, inclusive, and part of daily life for everyone, with a focus on children and young people, no matter where they live.
50,000 people active in communities across London
While our geographical reach grows, we remain committed to funding in London. With adult activity levels in 15 of London’s 32 boroughs falling below the national average (London Sport, 2025), and 53% of children and young people in London not meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of 60 minutes of physical activity a day (London Sport, 2024), our Active Spaces Fund supports communities in London to lead active and healthy lives – providing groups with the funding they need to deliver activities today.
Since its launch in 2022, we’ve engaged more than 50,000 people in more than 100 different types of activities in London – from ballroom dancing in Greenwich to BMX in Lambeth – prioritising accessible and inclusive projects, and recognising that being active looks different for everyone.
Featured in our Group Impact Report is a video about Wheels for Wellbeing, a charity using £80,000 of Active Spaces funding to deliver inclusive cycling sessions for people with disabilities in Croydon.
As Isabelle Clement MBE, Director of Wheels for Wellbeing, explains: “This isn’t just cycling. It’s freedom, independence and community.”
That’s the power of physical activity – when more people are given the opportunity to be active, it can completely transform lives.
Looking ahead
From awarding £10,000 in 1981 to now having awarded £114 million 44 years on, we’re proud of how our funding has grown – and the role we’ve played in helping hundreds of thousands of people lead active and healthy lives all-year round.
But we know there’s still much more to do.
More than half of children in England aren’t meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Inequalities in activity levels between more and less affluent groups are widening. Disabled people remain almost twice as likely to be physically inactive.
These are just some of the troubling headlines from Sport England’s most recent Active Lives Surveys. So, while we take a moment to celebrate our impact so far, our focus remains firmly on the future and funding more projects and initiatives that bring the benefits of an active lifestyle to those who need them most.
The TCS London Marathon is known across the world for creating a sense of togetherness, happiness and achievement. When people are empowered to be active and nurture their physical, mental and social wellbeing, communities become healthier, happier and more connected – carrying the spirit of the London Marathon into everyday life – and that’s something truly worth striving for.
