Innovate & Cultivate Fund

Innovate & Cultivate Fund - Up to £15,000 for projects that meet fund criteria and help people remain independent and active in their communities, encourage vounteering and complement costly Council Services.

Cambridgeshire County Council is working hard to make Cambridgeshire a great place to call home, where people live independently and safely in strong communities that help and support each other. To realise the vision, the Council’s Corporate Strategy for 2019-21 prioritises three broad outcomes for the period:

1. A good quality of life for everyone
2. Thriving places for people to live
3. The best start for Cambridgeshire’s children

The Innovate & Cultivate Fund helps voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations to deliver projects that help to achieve these broad outcomes by addressing the needs of local residents.

The Innovate & Cultivate Fund aims to redirect Council funding from high cost front-line services, towards support and services that are delivered within, and by, local communities. The priority areas of service where funding applications are most welcome are Adult Social Care and Children & Families services (see Funding Priorities section for further details).

The Innovate and Cultivate Fund has two funding streams: -Cultivate - grants of £2,000-£15,000 aimed at encouraging local networks where people help themselves and each other. -Innovate - SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE - larger grants of up to £50,000 for big projects with big ideas that demonstrate an innovative approach.

The Innovate & Cultivate Fund is for:

• voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations, based in and outside of Cambridgeshire
• public sector bodies in Cambridgeshire, including District, Town and Parish Councils (excluding Cambridgeshire County Council)

All projects have to benefit the residents of Cambridgeshire.

The fund is not open to individuals, or for profit businesses. Project beneficiaries must be residents of Cambridgeshire and projects serving the residents of the Peterborough City Council local authority area are not eligible for funding.

Please note that unincorporated associations must be legally registered to apply for a grant if their income is above £5,000 or if the grant applied for will take their income over £5,000.