Driven by an urge to alleviate family poverty during the years leading up to the Great Depression, in November 1927 Mercedes instructed solicitors to set up a trust fund with the Charity Commission, and in June 1928 The Mercedes Gleitze Homes for Destitute Men and Women was officially instituted. 

Over the next few years Mercedes gradually built up the fund with money earned from her swimming activities, and in 1933, just prior to her retirement, she purchased a large eight-bedroomed house in Leicester and had it converted into flats. A collaboration was established with the Leicester Rotary Club which was involved in a scheme to move families from distressed areas in the north of England and south Wales, to Leicester, where there were job vacancies.  

The Gleitze Homes provided temporary accommodation for these families (who were mainly from the gradually shrinking coal mining industry in Co Durham and south Wales) until employment and permanent housing could be found for them. The Homes were used for this purpose from 1934 until June 1939, after which time conscription into the armed forces took care of unemployment, and the accommodation was subsequently occupied by war refugees from Czechoslovakia. 

Although her Charitable Homes were destroyed in November 1940 by enemy action, Mercedes’ trust fund is still active today (re-named The Mercedes Gleitze Relief in Need Charity - Charity number 264713-44), under the trusteeship and administration of Family Action. In keeping with the spirit of the founder's intention, its funds are targeted towards grants for families to alleviate need arising from poverty.

Author’s royalties from the sales of Mercedes’ biography will be donated to her trust fund.