Cambridge City Council

Community Grants 2025-26 Application Form 
Requests over £5,000 and Discretionary Rate Relief

 

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

Before starting your application
Please read the Application Guide and Application Form Help Notes documents carefully to ensure:
•	Your organisation is eligible to apply
•	Your activity meets our funding outcomes and priorities
•	You understand what is required from each question
•	You send in all 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 

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

Full name of lead 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 - see p1 of Help Notes

Total funding requested 	Q18 Box B	£  	
Full cost of activity/service	Q18 Box A	£	
% of total funding requested	Q18 Box C	        %	
Number of City Resident beneficiaries 	Q8 Table 1 Total A		
Total number of beneficiaries	Q8 Table 1 Total B		
% of City resident beneficiaries	Q8 Table 1 shaded box	       %	

Closing date: midday on Wednesday 18 September 2024

 Please do not apply if you are unable to fulfil the Community Grants primary outcome that:

All applications MUST clearly demonstrate how the funding will provide an activity that reduces social and/or economic inequality for City residents with the greatest need.

Priorities
1.	Which of the funding priorities does your application meet?   Please mark X against one or more.  
See Help Notes Q1

A	Promoting active lifestyles		
B	Arts and cultural activities		
C	Community development activities		
D	Reducing poverty activities		
E	Employment support		

Activity 

2.	What specific activity do you want funding for? See Help Notes Q2
It is important you include the detail as specified in the Help Notes and read the important note on page one of this application form.  (Please ensure you have permission from the landowner if your activity is taking place on land you do not own. For City Council owned land you will need to complete a ‘Notice of Intent’ and should allow 4 weeks for a decision to be made. https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/hire-a-park-or-open-space-for-your-event)

Type your answer here (maximum 300 words): 

3.	How have you, or will you consult with or involve your beneficiaries in planning the activity? 

See Help Notes Q3

4.	Please list all the organisations involved in delivering this activity. If this is a partnership application please list the key partners first and provide details about their roles. See Help Notes Q4

Organisation or individual	How are they involved?	

5.	How will you ensure that you will provide a high-quality activity?  
Please list any quality accreditations held by the organisation for example: Advice Quality Standard, Trusted Standard, Matrix Standard, Museum Accreditation.   Also list any governance toolkits the organisation uses such as the Club Matters Health Check.

See Help Notes Q5

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

See Help Notes Q6

7.	Tell us how you will reduce the environmental impact of this activity? For example, will you encourage the use of sustainable transport modes such as walking, cycling or public transport; minimise waste, energy use or water consumption, provide sustainable food or enhance biodiversity?

See Help Notes Q7

Beneficiaries 

8.	Beneficiaries - who is the activity for?   
Activities for individual beneficiaries
We want to know who will benefit from your activity – where they live (Table 1) and their age range (Table 2).  We want to know the direct beneficiaries, those actively participating in your activity and not indirect beneficiaries such as audiences.  See Help Notes Q8 
Table 2 - Age range of direct beneficiaries detailed in Table 1	
	Estimated  number	
	All beneficiaries	City only beneficiaries	
Under 5s			
5-17			
18-59			
60 and over			
Total B			
Total A			

Total A should be the same figure in each table
Total B should be the same figure in each table	
   
Table 1 - Geographical area – where do the direct beneficiaries live?	
	Estimated number	% of total	
Cambridge City 
(the 14 City wards within the City boundary) 			
Total A			
South Cambs 
(e.g. Girton, Milton, Histon, Waterbeach, Orchard Park, Cambourne, Haslingfield)			
Other parts of Cambridgeshire			
Other parts of the UK			
Total B – Total number of beneficiaries (including Total A)		100%	

Is your activity targeted at any specific communities for example: covering protected characteristics such as people from minority ethnic communities, disabled people, children and young people, older people, LGBTQ+ people, low-income families and individuals, people with low skills levels/long term unemployed?  

Yes / No     See Help Notes Q8   If yes, please state who:

	

9.   If you are holding sessions, what do you expect the average attendance to be? 
Help Notes Q9

10.   How have you arrived at all the estimated beneficiary figures stated above?

See Help Notes Q10

11.  You will need to monitor actual direct beneficiary numbers, and evidence how many are city residents
       as part of any award.  How will you monitor the actual direct beneficiaries of your activity (number, 
       age range and where they live)?  

See Help Notes Q11

Outcomes 

All applications MUST clearly demonstrate how the funding will provide an activity that reduces social and/or economic inequality for City residents with the greatest need. 

12.  Describe why this activity is needed and provide evidence that demonstrates this need.

See Help Notes Q12 – maximum 500 words

13. How does your activity enable disadvantaged people to overcome barriers such as poverty, low income, or other equality issues or address a gap in local provision?  Reminder:  please read the Help Notes for all questions and for this question check the definition of barriers. 

See Help Notes Q13 – maximum 300 words

14.  How will you be able to evidence that your activity has reduced social and/or economic inequality outlined in Q13 above?

See Help Notes Q14 – maximum 300 words.  For small groups, if these are exactly the same as in Q15 below, please state “see below”  

15. How will your activity meet one or more of our grant funding outcomes? See Help Notes Q15  
Only complete the outcomes that are directly relevant to your activity 

Reduce poverty  	
Your activity outcome(s) – the difference the activity will make to your beneficiaries 	
	
Monitoring - how will you measure and evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above? (For example, by providing statistics, quotes from beneficiaries)		

Improve skills and confidence to gain employment    	
Your activity outcome(s) – the difference the activity will make to your beneficiaries	
	
Monitoring - how will you measure and evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above? (For example, by providing statistics, quotes from beneficiaries)		

Improve general health and wellbeing	
Your activity outcome(s) – the difference the activity will make to your beneficiaries	
	
Monitoring - how will you measure and evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above? (For example, by providing statistics, quotes from beneficiaries)		

Communities come together and bring about change	
Your activity outcome(s) – the difference the activity will make to your beneficiaries	
	
Monitoring - how will you measure and evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above? (For example, by providing statistics, quotes from beneficiaries)		

Stronger voluntary sector in the City	
Your activity outcome(s) – the difference the activity will make to your beneficiaries	
	
Monitoring - how will you measure and evidence you have achieved your activity outcomes above? (For example, by providing statistics, quotes from beneficiaries)		

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.

16.  Expenditure - outline the main costs of this activity, making sure they match the figures in your whole organisation 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 – these can be detailed in question 19. See Help Notes Q16

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 16A	£	

17.  Income - list all sources of income for this activity, with amounts.  Insert extra rows as required.  Do not include “in kind” support/contributions.   See Help Notes Q17

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 - Community Grant (this bid)	February 2025	No	BOX 17B	£	
Total income for the activity (anticipated)	£	

18.  How much are you requesting from Cambridge City Council and what percentage is this of the total cost of the activity?  See Help Notes Q18

Box 18A. Full cost of activity	Box 18B. Amount requested from Cambridge City Council 	Box 18C. % of the full cost requested from Cambridge City Council	
Enter figure from Q16 Box 16A 
£ 	Enter figure from Q17 Box 17B
£	Box 18B divided by Box 18A x 100
 %	

19.  Please provide any comments and/or calculations to evidence your activity is good value for money.

See Help Notes Q19

Impact

20.  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.  Please reference any relevant property relationship    
See Help Notes Q20 

21.  Does funding from Cambridge City Council help you to obtain funding from other sources?  If so, how much and where from?

See Help Notes Q21

22.  What are the main issues you anticipate having an effect on your organisation during 2025-26?

See Help Notes Q22

Discretionary Rate Relief (DRR)

We will only consider awarding DRR to organisations whose activities contribute to our grant priorities and outcomes.	

23. Only complete the following section if you would like to apply for Discretionary Rate Relief on premises within the city that your organisation pays rates on. See Help Notes Q23 & Q24
You can copy and complete the table below for any additional premises you wish to be considered.

Address of premises (1)		
Postcode		
Are these premises shared? (Yes or No)		
If yes, list the other organisations that occupy these premises. A separate valuation of the space you occupy may be needed. Please add rows if required.		

What was the exact date you took up occupation?		
Have you applied for Mandatory Rate Relief? (Yes or No)		
Has Mandatory Rate Relief been awarded? (Yes or No)		
If no, what reason was given?		

24. What are the premises used for? Please list the type of activities and the percentage use.   It is important we understand what happens at the premises and can identify which of your activities meet our primary outcome.

Activity           Add more lines as required	% Use	Reduces social/economic inequality?   Yes/No	

			
TOTAL	100%		

Any DRR awarded will be for a fixed 12-month period from 1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026.

Your Organisation

25.  If you have not applied for a Community Grant before then briefly describe what your organisation does.  This is in general and not just the activities you want funding for

See Help Notes Q25 – maximum 100 words

26.  It is essential that financial need for this grant can be evidenced clearly. Please insert the amounts from your latest annual accounts. See Help Notes Q26 + Appendix A for definitions

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:
£	

27.  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?  

See Help Notes Q27

28.  Please complete the following information relating to your organisation. See Help Notes Q28

Organisation name       
(as on your constitution / governing document)		
Is there any other working name of your organisation?		
Organisation address  
	 	
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		
Trustee/Board member contact name
(this should be different to the main contact)		
Trustee/Board member contact email address		
Legal structure of your organisation (unincorporated association, charity, company limited by guarantee,  Community Amateur Sport Club, CIC, CIO etc)		
Registered charity number		
Company registration number		
Date your organisation was established		
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?  See Help Note Q28	Yes:		No:		
Number of volunteers	Trustees/
Board:		All others:		
Number of members if you are a membership organisation		
How often does your board of trustees/directors/management committee meet?		

Organisation Eligibility Check See P5 of Help Notes

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

Y	put Yes if the statement is true	
N	put No 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
See Appendix A on Application Help Notes 
	
	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 update 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 see P5 of Help Notes

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. Put Y to indicate you have done this.

It is good practice to ensure that all policies are dated and are regularly reviewed. 

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 Help Note p8/9			
Annual Report / latest report of activities			
Governing document / constitution or rules			
Appropriate insurance – please send a 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			
Confidentiality / Data Protection (GDPR) Policy 			
Complaints Policy 			
A list of your Committee / Board Members or Trustees 			

Declaration

I am the contact named in question 28 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.	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 Community Grant funding	
	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 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 with all of the supporting 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.