Community Grants


Our Community Grant fund supports activities that will help to reduce social or economic inequality in Cambridge.

The grant is available to community and voluntary organisations whose activities will help residents with the greatest need.

Your activity must take place between 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027.

Two levels of grant are available:

  • up to £5,000
  • £5,000 and above

You can only apply to one of them in each grant period. The smaller fund is better suited to smaller or newer organisations.

The grant fund is intended for the benefit of Cambridge residents. Activities can be open to people who live elsewhere, but funding will be proportionate to the number of beneficiaries who live in the city.

Contact us if you want to discuss whether your activity and group are eligible for a grant, or if you have any questions about your application.

Eligibility

We will only fund voluntary and community groups that comply with the following eligibility criteria. Contact us if you have any questions about whether your group is eligible or about the required documents.

You must be able to show a need for the project, both financially but also in terms of the beneficiaries and the issue it is trying to address.

Governance

Your group must:

  • be independently set up for charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purposes and not make private, commercial or personal profit or gain
  • not be a statutory organisation, or not be set up or managed wholly or partly by one
  • not promote or appear to support a political party or ideology
  • have a legal structure appropriate to the size and nature of the organisation with a governing document defining your aims and procedures
  • have at least three unrelated, elected volunteers who decide policy and overall management. These must not be family members, married couples or civil partners, or people living at the same address
  • not have a ‘person with significant control’ listed on the Companies House register with:
    • the right to appoint and remove the majority of the company’s directors
    • more than 50% of the company's shares
    • more than 50% of the voting rights
    • the right or power to exercise (whether directly or indirectly) a considerable degree of influence or control over the company or its activities
  • meet the legal responsibilities of an employer and adopt, implement, and monitor good employment practices and procedures, if relevant
  • comply with all statutory and legal responsibilities applicable to the organisation and its regulatory body
  • have up-to-date, appropriate and adequate insurance cover

Finance

Your group must:

  • keep proper, adequate financial records appropriate to legal requirements and complying with any legal or organisational governing document requirements
  • have a dual-controlled group bank account
  • have a reserves policy that is updated annually and that explains position, calculations and why they are held
  • be able to demonstrate that you need financial support for the activity

Required documents

Your group must be able to provide:

  • a bank statement from within the last three months
  • your latest set of accounts
  • an organisational budget or up-to-date management accounts
  • a governing document
  • insurance certificates
  • a risk assessment for your projects
  • policies for:

If you are applying for a grant of £5,000 or less and are a newly formed group, you may not have these in place yet but it would be expected that you work towards them as a condition of any grant awarded. Insurance costs can be applied for as part of a grant if essential to the activity you are running, therefore documentation may constitute a condition of award.

Funding exclusions

We won’t fund:

  • personal care or funding for individuals
  • activities that will make a direct private, personal or commercial gain/profit
  • activities that are more suited to other Cambridge City Council grant schemes such as homelessness prevention
  • activities that are for religious instruction or worship or involve proselytizing
  • trips to religious places of worship, however funded activities can happen in places of worship, for example in your local mosque. Religious groups can apply for non-religious activities but will need to demonstrate that the activity is inclusive to all faiths and religions when appropriate
  • activities that promote or appear to support a political party or ideology
  • activities that have already happened or happen before funding awards have been released, or are outside the grant award year
  • food and refreshments that are not integral to the activity’s outcome, up to a value of £7 per head
  • equipment that is not integral to the activity’s outcome, reasonable equipment costs will only be considered as part of a fully costed activity
  • gifts and prizes 
  • activities that include hiring a bar or buying alcohol
  • fundraising activities, including for charity shops
  • competitive activities
  • activities that will be held outside Cambridge unless there is no other suitable location (such as day trips to the seaside)
  • entrance fees and the use of cars will only be considered in exceptional circumstances
  • activities where groups do not hold appropriate qualifications and accreditations to deliver them
  • redistribution of grant funding to another group or individuals (such as running a microgrant scheme for individuals in need)
  • activities for those that could afford to pay
  • running costs that are not realistic and proportionate in relation to the activity delivered
  • publicity that is not related to an eligible activity and is not reasonably costed
  • website development or updates unless it is directly providing, and integral to, the funded activity
  • apprenticeship schemes
  • language and cultural classes
  • staff, self-employed, or contracted costs which exceed those agreed for Cambridge City Council workers. However, we actively encourage organisations that employ people to pay or to work towards paying, the Real Living Wage

Groups we cannot fund

We cannot award funding to:

  • groups based outside the UK
  • uniformed groups
  • groups that have not complied with the monitoring requirements for any grant previously received from us

Activities that we cannot fund

We cannot fund activities and support that are the remit of another statutory organisation. This includes:

  • Cambridgeshire County Council, including:
    • children’s centres, childcare, school curriculum activities
    • breakfast and afterschool clubs
    • education for young people aged 18 and under,
    • activities that take place in schools as part of the school day.
    • young offenders,
    • personal care, carer’s groups, day centres, older people’s lunch clubs
    • literacy and library, community education
  • health authorities or services, including:
    • clinical health or issues groups and projects
    • medical support groups, counselling or therapy
    • activities for people in recovery from alcohol or drug addiction
  • other authorities and partnerships, including:
    • homelessness
    • community safety (victims of domestic violence, reducing crime and anti-social behaviour)
    • immigration advice
    • uniformed groups
    • toddler and playgroups

Activities on council-owned land

You must have permission from the landowner if your activity will take place on land that you do not own.

For activities on Cambridge City Council owned land, you must complete a ‘statement of intent’. Please allow four weeks for us to decide whether to allow it to take place.

Community Grants of £5,000 and under

You can apply for £5,000 or less – this can be for a single activity or split between multiple activities with a combined maximum total of £5,000.

Your activity must meet one or more of our funding priorities, which are:

  • helping people be more active
  • improving access to arts and culture
  • bringing communities together
  • reducing poverty
  • reducing loneliness and social isolation

There are two funding rounds each year. Round one launches in November and round 2 launches in April. You can only apply to one funding round each year. Contact us if you were unsuccessful in the first round and would like to apply to the second round. All funds must be spent by end of March of the funding year.

Apply

You can apply for this grant on our grants portal in November.

Next steps

You will receive an automated email acknowledging receipt of your application after you submit it through the grants portal.

We will tell round-one applicants whether their application has been successful by the end of February and round two applicants by the beginning of July of the funding year. You will have no right to appeal against the decision if you are not awarded a grant. All awards will be subject to the approval of the overall council budget in February.

We will pay round one awards from 1 April and round two awards from mid-July of the funding year, after grant agreements are signed and any other conditions are met, such as returning monitoring reports from previous grants.

Reporting back on your activity

You are required to complete a monitoring report as a condition of grant. A report will be generated for you on the grants portal for you to tell us what you did with the grant and what difference it made to the participants. You must submit the report one month after the completion of your activity and by 30 April at the very latest.

Monitoring reports should be accompanied by supporting evidence such as publicity material and photographs. We may request further information.

Please keep all receipts and invoices related to the activity as we may ask to see these.

Any award that is not spent or evidenced for the purpose allocated will have to be repaid in full.

Community Grants over £5,000

You can apply for more than one activity to the over £5,000 Community Grant fund providing you are requesting more than £5,000 for each activity.

Your application must demonstrate how the funding will reduce social or economic inequality for city residents with the greatest need.

Your activity must seek to achieve one or more of the following outcomes: 

  • improved social or economic equality
  • improved general health and wellbeing
  • an improved sense of belonging, where diversity is valued
  • a stronger voluntary sector in the city

You will be asked how you intend to meet this outcome(s) by selecting one of the following:

  • helping people be more active
  • improving access to arts and culture
  • bringing communities together
  • reducing poverty
  • providing employment and skills support

Apply

You can apply for this grant on our grants portal between 4 August and midday on 22 September 2025.

Next steps

You will receive an automated email acknowledging receipt of your application after you submit it through the grants portal. You may be contacted for further information or clarifications.

Date

Next steps

October to mid-December 2025

Council officers assess your application and prepare a report for Cabinet. These recommendations are based on the information provided in your application and monitoring of previous awards.

January 2026

 

Cabinet papers containing recommendations for funding levels are published on the Cambridge City Council’s website five working days before the Cabinet meeting.

This is your opportunity to see what funding recommendations are being presented to Cabinet.

Groups that have applied for funding will be notified of decisions by email within 7 working days of the meeting.

February 2026

 

The Council approves its overall budget for the following financial year.

Groups will only be contacted if there are any changes to the provisional January decision on their grant level.

March 2026

 

Grant Agreements will be sent to groups detailing awards and conditions.

Once the Grant Agreement is accepted and any mandatory pre-payment conditions are met, initial payments will be made, as per the payment schedule from 1 April 2026.

April 2026

 

Full grants or first instalments will be processed. Groups will receive notification of the grant transfer direct into the group’s bank account. Awards will be paid by BACS.

Reporting back on your activity

You are required to complete a monitoring report as a condition of the grant. A report will be generated for you on the grants portal for you to tell us what you did with the grant and what difference it made to the participants. You must submit the report one month after the completion of your activity and by 30 April following the funded year.

Monitoring reports should be accompanied by supporting evidence such as publicity material and photographs. We may request further information.

Please keep all receipts and invoices related to the activity as we may ask to see these.

Any award that is not spent or evidenced for the purpose allocated will have to be repaid in full.

Application support

Cambridge Council for Voluntary Service (CCVS) can help you complete your application form or develop policies. They can provide template policies if your group does not have them yet. CCVS can also advise how to gather and present financial information and share examples of good practice and procedures.

You can also contact the Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum, who work with minoritised ethnic communities including migrants and refugees, for advice or support with helping you complete your application.

Webinars

We will be holding webinars about our grant funds and our new grants portal in the summer and autumn. We will share the recordings here after the event.

  • Thursday 7 August 2025 - grants over £5,000
  • Tuesday 2 December 2025 - grants up to £5,000

Face-to-face sessions

We will also hold face-to-face sessions where we will provide guidance about the grant. Contact us to make an appointment.

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