Cambridge City Council

Sustainable City Grants 2025-26 Application Form

 
Before starting your application
Please read the Application Guide and Privacy Notice carefully to ensure:
•	your organisation is eligible to apply
•	your activity meets our grant outcomes and priorities
•	you send in all of the required documents with your application
•	you know how we will process your data
    Important note
•	Awards are based on the information contained in this application form
•	Awards must be spent only on the purpose detailed in grant agreements and in accordance with information and budgets contained in this document  
•	Awards that are not spent for the purpose allocated will need to be repaid 
•	The grant cannot fund capital costs or research and feasibility studies

We need information about the applicant, activities and how you intend to deliver and monitor them so that we can assess your grant application.

Should you need this form in an alternative format please contact grants@cambridge.gov.uk 

Full name of organisation
(as on your governing document)		

Application Information Summary

Complete the Application Form in full before entering the information into the summary table below from the corresponding sections in the form 

Total funding requested 	Q11 Box B	£  	
Full cost of activity/service	Q11 Box A	£	
% of total funding requested	Q11 Box C	        %	

Closing date: midday on Wednesday 18 September 2024

Project 

1.	What specific project/activity do you want funding for? 
It is important you include the detail as specified in the Application Guide. 
(what, how many, when, where, who, how etc)

	

2.	What partners are involved in helping you deliver this activity? 

Organisation or individual	How are they involved?	

3.	How and where will you promote and publicise your activity?

	

Priorities
4.	Which one of the funding priorities does your application meet?   Please mark X against one only.

A	Reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions from homes and businesses in Cambridge 		
B	Reducing consumption of resources, waste and increasing recycling by residents and businesses in Cambridge		
C	Reducing emissions from transport in Cambridge by promoting sustainable transport and encouraging behaviour change 		
D	Increasing the provision of sustainable food in Cambridge 		
E	Supporting residents and businesses of Cambridge to adapt to the impacts of climate change		

5.	How will your project address the priority selected above?

6.	How will you enable city residents with the most need (including those on low incomes) or small and medium sized enterprises (SME) to participate in the project’s activities? 

	

7.	If the project, or a similar project, has been delivered previously how does this proposal build on previous experience to increase the impact (for example, additional/different events, more beneficiaries supported) or address the funding priorities in an alternative or innovative way in order to achieve the required outcomes?

	
Outcomes

8.	Your activity must achieve one or more of our strategic outcomes. 
Please complete the following Strategic Outcomes chart.  It is important to include:
1.	Outcomes with quantifiable measures: amount of reduction or increase, numbers of beneficiaries, businesses, what the difference will be, what changes will have happened
2.	Monitoring – how you will measure, record, and monitor the project activities, participants, and outcomes quantified in 1. above

Strategic Outcomes
Only complete the strategic outcomes that are directly relevant to your activity  	

Reduction of carbon emissions from homes and businesses	
Your activity outcome(s):	
	
Monitoring - how will you evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above?		

Increased reuse, recycling and reduction of general waste produced by residents and/or businesses	
Your activity outcome(s):	
	
Monitoring - how will you evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above?		

Increased use of sustainable transport modes 	
Your activity outcome(s):	
	
Monitoring - how will you evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above?		

Increased access to sustainably produced food	
Your activity outcome(s):	
	
Monitoring - how will you evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above?		

Supported residents and business, better able to prepare and respond to the impacts of climate change such as heatwaves, flooding or water shortages.	
Your activity outcome(s):	
	
Monitoring - how will you evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above?		

Finances – Your budget for this activity

This section is to give a broad picture of the finances for the activity you are applying for. 
It is not a substitute for the more detailed whole organisation 2025-26 budget, which you need to submit as a supporting document with your application. 
As part of our monitoring, we may ask for copies of receipts as evidence of expenditure of the activity applied for.  We will expect them to relate to the information detailed below.

9.	Expenditure - outline the main costs of this activity, making sure they match the figures in your whole organisation 2025-26 budget which needs to be submitted with your application.  Insert extra rows as required. We want to understand actual costs so please do not include ’in kind’ support/contributions. 

Expense or cost   e.g. hall hire for 3 days @ £70 a day, the hourly rate of paid staff	2025-26 Amount   £	

		

		

		
		
Total expenditure for the activity (full cost)	BOX 9A	£	

10.	Income - list all sources of income for this activity, with amounts.   Insert extra rows as required.                 
       Do not include ‘in kind’ support/contributions. 

Funding Source	Decision Date	Confirmed Yes/No	2025-26 Amount £	
Eligible reserves carried forward from your organisation				
User contributions/session fees specific to this activity				
Donations specific to this activity				
Ticket sales specific for this activity				
Business sponsorship for this activity				
Other funders (insert a row for each)				

				

Cambridge City Council - Sustainable City Grant (this bid)	February 2025	No	BOX 10B	£	
Total income for the activity (anticipated)	£	

11.	 How much are you requesting from Cambridge City Council and what percentage is this of the total cost of the activity?  

Box 11A. Full cost of activity 

	Box 11B. Amount requested from Cambridge City Council   

	Box 11C. % of the full cost requested from Cambridge City Council	
Enter figure from Q9 Box 9A      £	Enter figure from Q10 Box 10B 
£	Box 11B divided by Box 11A x 100 %	

12.	 Please provide any comments and/or calculations to evidence that your activity is good value for money. For example, it is an effective and efficient use of the grant funding.

	

Impact

13.  We may only be able to make a contribution towards the amount you have applied for.  Please indicate:

The minimum contribution to enable a revised activity to happen	£
	
What is the revised activity – include what would be reduced/deleted/changed for the contribution above:

14.  How will you sustain your organisation and this activity into the future?  

Your organisation	Activity you are applying for	

Your Organisation

15.  If you have not applied for a Sustainable City Grant before then briefly describe what your organisation does.  This is in general and not just the activities you want funding for (max 100 words)

	

16.  It is essential that financial need for this grant can be evidenced clearly. Please insert the amounts from your latest annual accounts. 

What was the year end date of your organisation’s most recent annual accounts? 	Please enter: DD/MM/YY
	
Income: 
£ 	Expenditure: 
£	Balance carried forward:
£	
Restricted Reserves: 
£	Unrestricted Designated Reserves:
£	Unrestricted General Reserves:
£	

17.  You are required to send us a copy of your reserves policy with your application. If your reserves are more than your reserves policy state you need, what are they for?

	

18.  Please complete the following information relating to your organisation. 

Organisation name       
(as on your constitution / governing document)		
Is there any other working name of your organisation?		
Organisation address  
(office or main venue for your activities, if none leave blank)	 	
Organisation telephone number		
Organisation email address		
Organisation website address		
Contact name
(for all correspondence relating to this grant)		
Position in the organisation		
Contact address		
Contact telephone number		
Contact email address		
Name of Trustee/Board member		
Contact email address of Trustee/board member		
Geographical area covered by your organisation (according to your constitution)		
Number of paid staff employed
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employment-status/index.htm 	Full time:		Part time:		
Number of self-employed staff	Full time: 		Part time:
		
If you have paid staff, do you pay the Real Living Wage?  https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/living-wage
	Yes:		No:		
Number of volunteers	Trustees/
Board:		All others:		
Number of members of your organisation if you are a membership organisation		
How often does your board of trustees/directors/management committee meet?		

Organisation Eligibility Check 

Complete every box next to each statement in the chart below with one of the following: 

Y	put Y if the statement is true	
N	put N if the statement is not true – this could mean your organisation is not eligible to apply	
NA	put NA if not applicable to your organisation	

Y
N
NA	The organisation applying for this funding acknowledges the information in the application documents and confirms the organisation:	
GOVERNANCE	
	is independently set up for charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purposes and does not operate for private, commercial or personal profit/gain	
	is not a statutory organisation or was not set up by a statutory organisation, or is not managed wholly or partly by a statutory organisation	
	has a legal structure that is appropriate to the size and nature of the organisation, with a governing document, for example: constitution, memorandum of association or set of rules, which sets out the aims and rules governing the organisation  	
	decides policy and overall management practice through a committee of a minimum of 3 unrelated, elected, unpaid volunteers (by unrelated we mean people who aren’t family members, such as siblings, parents and children; married couples or civil partners; or people living at the same address)	
	has systems and structures in place to manage the affairs of the organisation efficiently and effectively for example: holds regular, quorate meetings, plans and monitors activities, keeps minutes and circulates information to group members	
	involves members and users in policymaking, service planning and in management, where appropriate	
	researches and meets the needs of local people and is able to demonstrate or evidence why this activity or service is required	
	complies with all statutory and legal responsibilities applicable to our organisation and its regulatory body 	
	meets the legal responsibilities of an employer and adopts, implements, and monitors good employment practices and procedures 	
	recruits and supports volunteers	
	has up to date, appropriate and adequate insurance cover 	
	demonstrates good governance and management by having policies and procedures for the following which are adopted, implemented, monitored and reviewed and comply with legislation	
	a)	Health and Safety - covering staff, volunteers and users, and includes risk assessments appropriate to activities	
	b)	Safeguarding - child and/or adult protection	
	c)	Equality & Diversity	
	d)	Environmental - reducing carbon footprint, energy efficiency, reducing waste, and increasing recycling	
	e)	Confidentiality / Data Protection (GDPR)	
	f)	Complaints	
	g)	Disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks for all paid and unpaid volunteer staff working with children and vulnerable adults	
FINANCES	
	demonstrates good financial management and sustainability by:	
	a)	keeping proper and adequate financial records to explain all transactions, the organisation’s financial position and audit trails of decisions made	
	b)	preparing statutory accounts meeting legal requirements and complying with any external scrutiny required by law or the organisation’s governing document	
	c)	preparing budgets and monitoring them at least quarterly and preparing revised financial forecasts based on actual spend	
	d)	presenting regular reports on the organisation’s financial position to the management committee	
	e)	preparing a reserves policy detailing the level of reserves held and an explanation and calculation of why they are held and updates this annually	
	f)	ensuring that effective financial systems and procedures have been established, are being consistently followed and are in line with best practice and legal requirements 	
	g)	reviewing internal financial controls to ensure they are adequate and being complied with to provide a robust system for managing financial risk and all expenditure has dual authorisation and is documented accordingly	
	h)	not being reliant on Cambridge City Council funding alone 	
	charges users at a reasonable level and offers concessionary rates to low-income residents	
	can demonstrate they need financial support for the activity and do not have free reserves that could be used for this purpose	
	applies to all relevant statutory agencies for funding and undertakes their own fundraising  	
	has used previous City Council grants for the purpose awarded and reported these as restricted funds in accounts	
GENERAL	
	does not promote any political parties, is not involved in party politics, or does not promote political views	
	will provide any information required to support their application	
	has returned satisfactory monitoring and evaluation, accounts or other information requested in connection with any previous funding from the Council on time	

Application Documents

Your application cannot be considered for funding if any of the application documents are missing

The documents listed below must be submitted with this application form by email where possible. Put Y to indicate you have done this.

Documents to be submitted with your application	Year ended or 
date adopted	Attached
Y/N	
Latest set of annual accounts			
Updated full organisation budget for your current financial year 			
Full organisation budget for your next financial year 			
Copy of bank statement covering the period of your year end.  Please redact/block out transactions that contain personal information about an individual			
Latest Reserves Policy – see Application Guide Appendix 3			
Annual Report / latest report of activities			
Governing document / constitution or rules			
Appropriate insurance – copy of current policy			
Health & Safety Policy			
Safeguarding Children / Child Protection Policy if applicable 			
Safeguarding Adults / Adult Protection Policy if applicable			
Equality & Diversity Policy			
Environmental Policy			
Data Protection Policy (GDPR)			
Complaints Policy			
A list of your Committee / Board Members or Trustees 			

Declaration

I am the contact named in Question 18 above and I am authorised to sign this on behalf of the organisation.  I confirm on behalf of the organisation that we:
a.	state that all answers to the questions on this form are correct to the best of our knowledge
b.	have read and agree to be bound by the funding information provided by Cambridge City Council in the application documents and will ensure that all the organisation’s management committee and/or staff and relevant volunteers are aware of their contents
c.	undertake that any funding made available by the Council, or such part of it as the Council may determine, shall be repaid if the organisation:
i.	is found to be in breach of the conditions that apply to the funding 
ii.	does not spend the grant on the purpose allocated
iii.	if the organisation becomes insolvent or closes down
d.	understand that, as the grant comes from public funds, we must inform you of any surplus made from the activity and you reserve the right to require us to pay back all or part of the grant
e.	understand that this grant will not be used in any way to promote a political or religious organisation or to generate private gain. The organisation will also take care to avoid giving the impression that it supports any political party or candidate in an election and will not give publicity to political parties or to individual politicians or candidates in the six-week period leading to an election
f.	understand that special conditions may be attached to the award of any funding and that Cambridge City Council will require information for monitoring and evaluation purposes
g.	acknowledge that grants and discretionary rate relief are issued for a twelve-month period and there is no commitment by the Council to continue funding after that period is over or to sustain a grant at the same level as that of a previous year
h.	understand that Cambridge City Council will undertake due diligence checks for the prevention and detection of fraud

Full name of Group / Organisation 		
Signed for and on behalf of above Group / Organisation (please add your electronic signature or type your name)		
Name and position in Group / Organisation		
Date		

We cannot automatically contact your organisation about future funding opportunities unless you have given us permission to do so. Any consent given will only apply for one year. Please type ‘yes’ if you would like to:

	Remain on our contact list to receive information about the 2026/27 Sustainable City funding round	
	Receive information about other grant funding opportunities which may be external to the City Council	
	Receive general information relevant to my group (for example, legislation amendments, events and training opportunities)	

Submitting your application – important information

Please check that you have:
•	answered all of the questions on this form
•	completed the summary table on the front page
•	collected and attached all the supporting documents required including any additional activity forms
•	signed the form appropriately

Email the completed form along with all of the application documents specified to: grants@cambridge.gov.uk

The deadline for submitting applications is midday on Wednesday 18 September 2024

Please note:
•	Applications will not be accepted after this date
•	Incomplete applications will not be eligible

Acknowledgement of application
We do not take responsibility for having received applications until they are acknowledged

If you do not receive an acknowledgement email by Wednesday 2 October 2024, please contact us immediately as your application may not have been received. 
We will confirm in the acknowledgement how many application forms we have received and if this is different to what you intended, please contact us immediately.