Zero Carbon Cumbria Grassroots Community Fund

The Zero Carbon Cumbria Community Climate Grants are not the only source of funding which might be able to support your work.  There are many other trusts and grant making bodies that could contribute towards you achieving your goals, including Cumbria Community Foundation Cumbria Community Foundation – Connecting People Who Care With Causes That Matter (cumbriafoundation.org) The Lake District Foundation has a range of funds available including a Low Carbon Lake District fund which could be used as matched funding Apply for a Grant – Lake District Foundation Landfill tax is donated to Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust to support [...]

We have a strong focus on helping grassroots community groups and would like to fund projects which will increase the breadth and depth of activity around climate change in Cumbria. This means that we are particularly interested in supporting new groups – so if this is the first ever funding bid that you’ve made or you’re finding the process confusing, don’t worry as we’ll be able to help you through the application.  Just get in touch with [email protected] to find out more. The types of things that we will look at when we assess your application are: Does the project [...]

Keeping records of activities funded through the Zero Carbon Cumbria Community Climate Grant is essential to :  Keep track of your progress and make sure you are achieving what you set out to do  Be accountable to the National Lottery Climate Action Fund (which has provided the resources to CAfS / ZCC to deliver this funding programme)  Enable CAfS / ZCC to demonstrate the overall impact of the Zero Carbon Cumbria Community Climate Grant (by adding your contribution to that of others)  Build up a good record of delivery which will help you when applying for other grants (think of it like [...]

If your project involves working with children, young people or adults at risk, you must think through what additional safeguarding risks that this could create and must develop safeguarding policies and procedures appropriate for the type of project you plan to undertake. The National Lottery’s expectations for grant-holders are detailed here. More information on developing a Safeguarding policy and procedures can by obtained from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations: NCVO – Safeguarding Cumbria CVS regularly provide training on Safeguarding for voluntary organisations, and have a number of templates on their website including Child Protection  and Adult Safeguarding policies: Development | [...]

There are some things which we cannot fund with National Lottery money. Ineligible expenditure includes: payment that supports lobbying or activity intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, Government or political parties, or attempting to influence the awarding or renewal of contracts and grants, or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action (any lobbying activity); using grant funding to petition for additional funding; input VAT reclaimable by Grant Recipient from HMRC; payments for activities of a political or exclusively religious nature (we can fund religious organisations if your programme benefits the wider community and doesn’t include religious content); payments [...]

If you have an idea of what activities you want to deliver, please get in touch with Cumbria Sustainability Network Coordinator via [email protected] to look at how we might be able to support you to get started.  You will need to think through how to deliver your project, put together a project plan and budget, and will need to put processes in place to enable to report back on what you have achieved. There are a number of organisations based in Cumbria (and nationally) which provide information and support on how to set up a new group, as well as [...]

We would like to support very small groups to get set up and recognise that not everyone will have established a constitution or a bank account.  If you require a very small amount of money (i.e. less than £200) one option could be for CAfS to pay an invoice directly for you, please get in touch with [email protected] as CAfS or other members of the Cumbria Sustainability Network may be able to help in other ways. Another idea might be to link with a partner organisation in your community and work together on your project.  Please see guidance on developing [...]

You will receive the funding by BACS.  Alternatively, if you have agreed that CAfS will pay an invoice, send it directly to [email protected] We will send you the details of the National Lottery logo to put on your publicity/information about your project.  After you have completed your project we will require you to complete and send back a monitoring report. 

The Zero Carbon Cumbria Community Climate Grants can be used to fund project costs such as staffing costs, room hire, refreshments, promotion, publicity etc.  (these are known as revenue costs) or capital costs such as equipment, but excluding the purchase of vehicles, buildings, and land. If an organisation is starting up, or is very small, we recognise that it will be difficult to separate a specific project from the organisation as a whole and therefore core costs are eligible. For larger organisations, the fund will consider supporting indirect project costs e.g. an appropriate contribution towards the organisational overheads for an [...]