The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation’s Wildlife Ball honoured its founder at The Dorchester in November 2025 and raised more than £170,000 for wildlife in Africa and Asia.
The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation returned to The Dorchester on Friday 7 November 2025 for its annual Wildlife Ball, an evening built around the painter whose pictures founded the charity.
David Shepherd spent more than fifty years painting elephants, tigers and the world’s other endangered animals, and used the paintings to pay for their protection. Tiger Fire was one of his first major fund-raising successes, raising £127,000 for Indira Gandhi’s Operation Tiger in 1973. In 1984 he set up his own foundation to give something back to the animals that had made his name, and he remained its founder and president until his death in 2017.
The foundation funds conservation partners on the ground across Africa and Asia rather than running its own field teams. Its money reaches wildlife law enforcement, investigations into the illegal trade, rangers on the front line, and the communities who share their land with the animals.
The 2025 Ball honoured Shepherd’s life and opened with a message from Dame Judi Dench. The chief executive, Georgina Lamb, hosted with the singer Laura Wright. Emily Lamb, his granddaughter and the foundation’s art ambassador, painted elephants live in the ballroom, and the canvas went into the live auction Charlie Ross led that night. Wilton Nsimango of Painted Dog Conservation travelled from Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe to speak. The evening raised more than £170,000.