Community Grants over £5,000


You can apply to the over £5,000 Community Grant fund to run an activity that will help to reduce social or economic inequality in Cambridge.

The activity can be open to city wide residents and those living in a particular area of the city.

Your activity must take place between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 and meet one of the following priorities:

  • promote active lifestyles
  • arts and culture
  • community development
  • reduce poverty
  • employment support

The fund has now launched and the application form [RTF, 8MB] is now available to complete. The deadline to apply is midday on 18 September 2024.

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.

If applying for more than one activity then you should complete the additional activity form [RTF, 8MB] for each additional activity.

Please also refer to the guidelines [PDF, 0.3MB] and help notes [PDF, 0.2MB] when completing the application forms.

We also have a £5,000 and under Community Grant fund. You can apply for £5,000 and less – this can be for a single activity or split between multiple activities with a combined maximum total of £5,000.

You can only apply to the over £5,000 Community Grants fund or the £5,000 and under Community Grant fund. Please refer to the Community Grants of £5,000 and under fund to make sure that you are know which fund to apply to and when you need to apply. The first funding round for grants of £5,000 and under opens on 26 November 2024.

The £5,000 and under Community Grant fund replaces Area Committee Grants and builds on the small grants programme introduced in 2023/24. See our summary [PDF, 0.1MB] of the main differences between the two funds.

We ran a webinar about the over £5,000 Community Grant fund on 6 August.

Video: Webinar about applying for grants

We are also holding bookable drop-in sessions from 10am to 4pm on Wednesday 14 August and Wednesday 4 September. The drop-in sessions will take place at the Cambridge Council for Voluntary Services office. Get in touch to register for the webinar or to book a face-to-face appointment.

You can apply for Discretionary Rate Relief if you provide activities at your premises that meet the above funding priorities and reduce social and economic inequality. The amount of relief awarded is proportionate to the number of beneficiaries using your premises that are city residents. You should complete the Discretionary Rate Relief (DRR) only form [RTF, 1.5MB] if you are just applying for DRR.

Groups wishing to apply for an activity and Discretionary Rate Relief should complete the form at the top of the page. Please refer to the help notes [RTF, 0.9MB] when completing the application form.

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