Community Chest Grants

The Community Chest is made up of 4 streams of funding. These are stated below:

Community Chest funding: Community Chest £58,000

Who can apply?

Community Group (including CIC): Yes

Parish council or parish meeting with fewer than 200 registered electors: Yes

Parish council of any size: No

Community Chest funding: Biodiversity Grants £10,000

Who can apply?

Community Group (including CIC): Yes

Parish council or parish meeting with fewer than 200 registered electors: Yes

Parish council of any size: Yes

Community Chest funding: Community-Led Plans £45,780

Who can apply?

Community group (including CIC): Yes

Parish council or parish meeting with fewer than 200 registered electors: Yes

Parish council of any size: Yes

Community Chest funding: Cost-of-Living £18,468.08

Who can apply?

Community group (including CIC): Yes

Parish council or parish meeting with fewer than 200 registered electors: Yes

Parish council of any size: Yes

Applicants must:

• be a non-profit group or organisation (including Community Interest Companies, CIC) based in or benefiting South Cambridgeshire, or a public sector body with a community focus (individuals and businesses are not eligible)
• be a parish council or parish meeting with fewer than 200 registered electors (exemption applies to parish councils of any size that can apply for funding for costs involved in creating a Community-Led Plan ( or Parish Plan). This doesn’t cover the costs of delivering projects that come from a Community-led Plan (further details below).
  • parish councils of any size can also apply for biodiversity grants through this fund provided that they are not already in receipt of a grant from the Council’s Zero Carbon Communities grant fund.
  • parish councils of any size can apply for grants that give a benefit to those affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
• have a written constitution or mission statement
• have an elected committee or representative steering group
• be able to give an up to date copy of their accounts and any relevant protection policies

If you have questions about the criteria, reach us using the details below. 

If your organisation doesn't have a written constitution, mission statement, or protection policies, you can get help meeting these requirements by contacting:

Cambridge Council for Voluntary Service

Telephone: 01223 464 696 

Email: enquiries@cambridgecvs.org.uk

*Note

The Committee reserves the right to supersede this clause should the parish council or parish meeting show good cause, for example:

• the parish council or parish meeting covers many towns. The application applies to any of these towns if they have at least 200 electors

or

• registered electors are within 10% of the threshold

The community activity or project must:

• meet local needs and leave a legacy for the community
• ensure equality of access

Help us deliver 1 or more of the following aims:

• promote healthy and active communities
• enable inclusive communities
• develop skills
• enhance the natural environment or create a sustainable increase in local biodiversity
• deliver community engagement through the creation or refreshing of a Community-led Plan
• provide a benefit to those affected by the cost-of-living crisis.

The activity or project should be one of the following:

• improvements to community buildings and spaces for example village halls/pavilions/play areas, and so forth
• repairs to historic buildings/monuments/memorials
• equipment/capital purchase
• materials
• ‘start-up’ costs. This may include training of staff/volunteers, hall hire and other revenue costs
• costs involved with undertaking, creating or refreshing a Community-Led Plan (resulting projects will only receive funding if eligible for the Community Chest)
• about cost-of-living projects, examples could include:
  • repair cafés where the local community can help in getting household items fixed for free
  • timebanking projects (systems where people trade work using hours as currency instead of money)
  • lunch clubs for those in need (excludes the cost of food)
  • community support initiatives that provide food/ activities/ support services/ educate individuals on reducing food waste
  • setting up/running a group or charity where people can get free furniture, clothing, food, and toys. Free, impartial legal guidance can be found on the Business Companion website
  • setting up or building the capacity of food hubs, food banks, or community fridges
  • capital costs needed to set up a warm hub. This doesn’t include warm hubs run by Cambridgeshire ACRE and any ongoing revenue costs, for example heating costs
• for biodiversity projects:
  • the buying and planting of native trees
  • hedgerows, wildflower meadows or other plants in suitable locations that need regular maintenance
  • the construction and erection of bird and bat boxes in suitable locations
  • creation or improvement of wildlife habitats (terrestrial or aquatic)
  • improvement of existing habitat.

• on-going revenue costs or overheads (for example, salaries, rent, advertising or promotional materials). There are 2 exceptions to this:
  • the creation of Community-Led Plans - revenue costs related to the resulting projects will not be funded
  • cost-of-living projects - revenue costs cannot be used to cover the cost of food or the ongoing costs needed to run a warm hub, like heating costs
• projects that replace funding by other public sector bodies. This includes parish councils (for example: youth services, highways)
• projects that have not received the support of all local district councillor(s) for the ward/s concerned. Ensure when contacting your local district councillor(s) that they are all provided with full details of your project, or a copy of your application form
• projects that need support from all local district councillor(s) for the concerned ward/s. When you contact your local district councillor(s), ensure they all have all of the details of your project or a copy of your application form
• Neighbourhood Watch schemes' costs
• Community Speedwatch schemes or other traffic initiatives costs
• items benefiting ‘individuals’ but not a group (for example sports kits)
• non-native flower tubs

The highest award is £2,000 in any single financial year (April to March). It can cover all your project costs. But if the project is on parish council land, the parish council should contribute 50% of the costs.

If a group gets less than £2,000 in funding in any single financial year, they can apply again for more money in the same year. But the total they get for that year can't go over £2,000.

If a group gets funding (up to and including £2,000) for any Community Chest theme in a single financial year, they can apply again in the same year for up to and including £2,000 for other funding of other themes. The Community Chest themes are shown in the table below.

If a group gets funding (up to and including £2,000) for any Community Chest theme in a single financial year, they can also apply for other council grants in the same year, and vice versa.

If there is a high demand for funding, the district council might only give some money to your project. The council reserves the right to prioritise based on:

• funding available
• size of the electorate
• parish precept
• indices of deprivation
• number and type of applications received at any given time
• priorities for the financial year
• value for money

Eligibility does not guarantee grant funding.

If there's enough funds avaliable, successful applicants will be funded after each Grant's Advisory Committee (GAC) meeting. Applications must be received by the 7th day of any given month if they want to be considered by the Grant’s Advisory Committee meeting within the same month. This also applies at the end of each financial year - applications received after 7 March will be held over and considered within the new financial year (at April’s GAC meeting), along with any held over from the March meeting itself.

We always ask applicants to choose eco-friendly options when buying items for their projects. They need to show evidence of this in their application.

For example, a group may want to buy a new minibus for their community. We would expect to see evidence and market research included in their application showing that a electrically powered minibus has been considered. If the electric one is too expensive or isn’t fit for purpose, this must be explained before we would consider contributing towards an alternative.

For biodiversity projects: planting of trees, hedgerows, wildflower meadows or other vegetation must be native. The construction and erection of bird and bat boxes must be in suitable places.

For guidance for communities wanting to create nature recovery plans, check out Natural Cambridgeshire’s Local Nature Recovery Toolkit.

• a copy of your organisation’s constitution or mission statement
• a copy of your latest accounts (audited if available)
• a quote for the community activity or project
• a copy of your safeguarding policy
• a copy of any correspondence from your local district councillor(s). It should show they support your project
• a bank statement for the account you wish the funds to be paid into - the statement should be dated within the last month
• applications to fund the creation of Community-Led Plans that are not made by the parish council itself should show the parish council's support of the application.

If successful, the applicant will receive the grant payment once we have received acknowledgement of the grant offer and acceptance of the terms and conditions.

Groups that are awarded a grant will be expected to meet the following conditions as a minimum:

• if the funding is successful the applicant will receive the grant payment once we have received acknowledgement of the grant offer and acceptance of the terms and conditions.
• any publicity must acknowledge the provided award
• unused grants must be returned to South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC)
• an end-of-project evaluation must be submitted within 3 months of project completion. Details about this are available on our website
• defibrillators: The Community Chest Grant scheme will fund only the cost of defibrillators. But the applicant must cover the expenses for associated accessories, ongoing maintenance, and training (the provision of which the Committee will want assurance). Defibrillators must be located where they can be accessed by the public at all times. You can find defibrillator locations across the UK using Defib Finder. It gets data from The Circuit, the national defibrillator network
• when infrastructure improvements are funded through the Scheme, applicants must prove that the same organisation will buy, own, and take care of the equipment/items

For biodiversity projects:

• the project needs to deliver a sustainable increase in local biodiversity, called Biodiversity Net Gain. To achieve this, you must prove there has been a positive change in biodiversity compared to before the project. This could mean an increase in the number of trees or number of square meters of land - either created or improved
• sustainability means that it should last over time and not be a temporary change

Any award will not be means tested, but applicants will be expected to have sought other means of local funding, especially from the parish council who may have funds available through planning developments (S106) or through its precept (S137).