We award Sustainable City Grants to help local groups to deliver activities or events in Cambridge.

The activities must contribute to our Climate Change Strategy objectives.

Voluntary and community organisations can apply for up to £10,000. You can apply for funding for multiple projects, but the total must not exceed £10,000.

Eligibility

Your organisation must:

• be a voluntary or community organisation
• have a bank account
• have a governing document, such as a constitution

Your project must:

• take place inside the city boundary
• take place between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026
• benefit residents or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Cambridge

Your application must address one or more of our funding priorities. These are:

• reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions from homes and businesses in Cambridge
• reduce consumption of resources and waste, and increase recycling by residents and business in Cambridge
• reduce emissions from transport in Cambridge by promoting sustainable transport and encouraging behaviour change
• increase the provision of sustainable food in Cambridge
• support residents and businesses of Cambridge to adapt to the impacts of climate change

Your project must achieve one or more of the following outcomes:

• a reduction of carbon emissions from homes and businesses
• an increase in reuse and recycling and reduction of general waste produced by residents or businesses
• increased use of sustainable transport modes
• increased access to sustainably produced food
• residents and business are supported and better able to prepare and respond to the impacts of climate change, such as heatwaves, flooding or water shortages

You must show how your project will enable the following groups to take part in or benefit from the activities and support you will provide:

• residents with the most need, including those on low incomes
• small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 250 employees and less than £43m turnover or £37m balance sheet total

The grant:

• cannot fund capital costs such as fixed, one-time expenses for assets including buildings and their fixtures, vehicles or equipment
• cannot fund research and feasibility studies
• can be spent on venue hire to host activities and costs to run activities

Apply

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

You must upload copies of all relevant documents with your application, so we can review them as part of the assessment process. You will need:

• 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:
  • complaints
  • data protection
  • environmental impact
  • equality and diversity
  • health and safety
  • reserves – read the government’s guidance on charity reserves
  • safeguarding

We will acknowledge receipt of your application with an automated email after you submit it. Contact us if you have not received this after 24 hours.

Next steps

We will assess applications and recommend which projects to fund by mid-December.

We will present our recommendations to councillors in January, ahead of them approving our budget for 2026/27 in February. We will confirm at this point whether we have approved your grant request.

If we have approved your application, you will receive the grant funding or first instalment in April.

Application support

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
• Date in the autumn to be confirmed