Written by Sarah Carroll, Communications Executive
As a local charity dedicated to Connecting People, Places and Passions across the borough, we recently entered the Merton Chamber of Commerce Best Business Awards 2025 (MBBA). These awards recognise and promote excellence, innovation and best practice in Merton, and have been rewarding innovators, success stories and entrepreneurs of the borough since 2013. https://mertonchamber.co.uk/awards/
CONGRATULATIONS! to all the local businesses who’ve now been announced as Finalists, including our very own WCA members Love Wimbledon, Polka Theatre, Sustainable Merton, and Wimbledon Guild, following a record-breaking 295 entries! The awards continue to champion and celebrate the businesses that make Merton such a vibrant and resilient borough.
As a charity helping to support and amplify the reach of other businesses and charities in the Merton community, through our online directory Wimblecomm and our community outreach and social media activity, we entered into the category of Best Community Impact https://mertonbestbusiness.co.uk/best-community-impact-award-2025/ and have featured the entry here as a News item to help share our story. We’re sure you’ll find it an interesting read, and we’d love to hear from the other 294 entrants for more about their stories! We know we’re in great company, and we’re rooting for the ongoing success of every single business and charity that took the time to enter, not least the Finalists themselves who will find out who amongst them takes home an award on September 25th. Look out for more details at: https://mertonbestbusiness.co.uk/
Our entry: Our story
Provide a brief overview of your organisation
Wimblecomm is the online presence of Wimbledon Community Association (WCA), established in 2016 with the purpose of ‘Connecting People with Places and Passions’ across Wimbledon and the surrounding areas – spanning throughout the Borough of Merton.
It is an online platform rooted in social purpose, helping local people to engage with Community Spaces (Venues), Community Groups, and Events across the borough. Whether someone is looking to connect, contribute, learn or belong, Wimblecomm is here to make that process easier.
The WCA has a rich history, founded in 1946 as a local charity ‘to promote the wellbeing of the broad community based around Wimbledon, to further cultural, social and physical welfare and to foster a spirit of mutual service and friendship’. With the closure of the St George’s Rd Community Centre in 2012, it evolved from ‘a place to be’ into an online hub in 2016, connecting people with ‘places to go’.
With extensive technical, functional, and editorial developments, Wimblecomm has become a thriving online community hub for the whole of Merton, and features a searchable, illustrated space directory and useful content for Merton’s organisations, establishments and communities to freely access.
The Board is operated by a small group of deeply committed volunteer Trustees and a Chair, whose many years of volunteering stretch well beyond WCA. In addition, there are two part-time employees being a Communications Executive and a Website Developer who run and maintain day to day operations.
How does your organisation create a positive social impact?
Creating a positive social impact is at the heart of everything the WCA stands for, with its purpose of ‘Connecting People, Places and Passions’. The WCA makes a tangible, inclusive impact, achieved in three distinct ways:
1) The Wimblecomm website is free for anyone to access. Community Event spaces and Groups are encouraged to register free of charge as Members and upload their listings directly onto the site for visibility amongst all visitors. The site currently features over 190 Event Spaces and Groups combined, spanning all areas of the borough, exactly as the entry form states – “from Morden to Mitcham to Wimbledon, uplifting every part of our borough” – covering health & wellbeing, arts & crafts, music & theatre, sports & leisure, education & learning, environment & social purpose, and more! Content is constantly evolving, with 25 new Events uploaded in the last month alone, and by promoting free and fairly priced events that are open to all, it helps to champion equality, support underrepresented groups, and helps to support grassroots projects.
2) Visitors to the Wimblecomm can find inspiration across the website’s pages, go directly to the ‘What’s On’ page to view the Events Calendar, or use the Search function to browse Venues for Hire and Community Groups filtered by category and based on activity, location, and date preference. Visitors can also browse other informative content such as latest News from organisations across the borough, and the Wimblecomm Blog covering a range of topical subjects. The team behind WCA ensures that it regularly attends community briefings and events and proactively uploads content in addition to the user-generated content, to ensure the site remains up-to-date and relevant to people of all ages, backgrounds, and lived experiences.
3) In addition to the website, the WCA operates a multi-channel proactive communications strategy, with an active presence on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky, with over 1,000 followers on FB and IG, attracting over 4,000 and 2,000 views per month respectively. There’s also a Member database of over 600 registered users, and the monthly e-newsletter is sent to this audience, achieving an average 60% open rate. These channels enable WCA to extend the reach of Events and Groups published on Wimblecomm to promote ‘What’s On’, ‘This Week, This Month, and Next Month’ to further amplify the impact within the community – all for free!
Below is a selection of activities and events promoted through Wimblecomm’s ‘What’s On’ pages in the month of June ’25, to show the breadth of opportunities available to the public – amplifying the reach of local Groups and encouraging attendance at Events for the benefit of social wellbeing and inclusion:
• Free entry to the Windmill Museum for an opportunity to watch the sails go round – a family-friendly day out.
• Chess Club at William Morris House – quiet, thoughtful connection for people of all ages and experience levels.
• Music and theatre groups – for participating or watching – across multiple venues from church & school halls to studio & stage – uniting people through arts and culture.
• Merton Art Society’s Summer Exhibition on display at the Stable Yard Gallery, Morden Hall Park.
• Mitcham Drum Ensemble and Freeform Drum Circle – a fun and social group where no experience is necessary.
To further demonstrate social impact, monthly reports are created for Trustee meetings and annual results are generated using Google Analytics. December 2024 results showed that Wimblecomm reached c.22,000 total annual visitors to the site and generated 555 unique enquiries to Venue managers through the site for use of external facilities.
What steps has your business taken to promote diversity and inclusion?
The WCA is an independent, inclusive, registered charity that is non-party political, non-sectarian and non-discriminatory on any social grounds. There’s a genuine sense of social impact and inclusion behind everything we do. We believe that access to opportunity and community should never be limited by background, budget, or circumstance, and for that reason the online hub Wimblecomm is free to interact with, enables free uploads, and free membership (including a free monthly e-newsletter packed with the latest news and events). The wide range of listings and content featured on the site demonstrates the WCA’s commitment to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) while recognising the intersectionality of people’s identities and interests.
The Board has purposely refrained from monetising the site, in favour of keeping it ad-free for a better user experience and choosing not to charge for Membership to maintain free access for all and maximise social impact without barriers.
The team behind WCA attends community events and briefings, to demonstrate their personal commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion through networking, knowledge building and information sharing.
Assistance is given to members of Community Event spaces and Groups that are less tech-savvy or have specific needs that require support with the website upload process – the Communications Executive is always on hand to help. Both the website and monthly newsletter are desktop and mobile enabled to ensure ease of access, featuring a balance of illustrated and written content.
Here are some specific and recent examples of how Wimblecomm has actively promoted diversity and inclusion:
The WCA recently welcomed Merton Faith in Action as a new Group Member and quickly added its Interfaith Walk to the website – an event to promote D&I and raise funds for Merton Homelessness. After the event, a News item was published on Wimblecomm accompanied by a wonderful image of attendees – a group comprising over 100 people of diverse cultures and beliefs – to spread the good news and generate future interest.
The WCA recently shared on its website and social media channels information from Merton Council’s free activities in support of Dementia Action Week, with the aim to help raise awareness of the condition and to improve the lives of those affected by it.
The WCA is also passionate about supporting events that spread joy within the community and create a sense of togetherness, a recent example being its coverage of AFC Wimbledon’s return to Wembley and subsequent victory – shared across Wimblecomm’s social channels and featured in the May/June Members newsletter.
Like what you’ve read here? Want to know more?
For details of current events, head to https://wimbledoncommunity.org/events-24/
To join as a Group or Venue, sign up to our Newsletter, or add a Listing, head to https://wimbledoncommunity.org/add-a-new-listing/events/
There’s even an area dedicated to Job Vacancies, featuring full-time, part-time, voluntary and paid work: https://wimbledoncommunity.org/job-vacancies/
So, for the latest on What’s On, and so much more, head to Wimblecomm!