The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation brings its Wildlife Ball to The Dorchester on Friday 27 November 2026, black tie, with an art exhibition, an auction and speakers from the field.
The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, which sells wildlife art to fund conservation in Africa and Asia, holds its Wildlife Ball at The Dorchester in Mayfair on Friday 27 November 2026.
David Shepherd built a career painting African wildlife, then found he could not keep painting animals he was watching disappear. He established the foundation in 1984, in response to what he had seen of the trade, and stayed its president until his death in 2017.
The foundation has put more than £14 million into frontline work since. It funds other organisations’ field operations, so the money reaches ranger units, undercover investigations into the illegal trade, and coexistence programmes where people and wildlife share ground.
Eight species carry the work: elephants, tigers, lions, snow leopards, chimpanzees, painted dogs, rhinos and pangolins. The foundation treats wildlife crime as a problem of the consumer countries as much as one of poaching.
The evening has a champagne reception, a three-course dinner, an auction and dancing. Conservationists working in the field speak, and an exhibition of wildlife art hangs in the room beside the lots.