Your Cambridge experience isn’t just about lectures and supervisions—it’s also about the friends you can make and the experiences you can share along the way. Societies are at the heart of that, bringing students together to share hobbies, learn new things, and make lasting memories. That’s where the Society Grants come in. In Michaelmas 2024 these grants helped make some incredible events and projects happen. Let’s dive in!
What are Society Grants, anyway?
- Every term, the SU dishes out funds to societies to help them pull off cool events, buy equipment, or make other awesome things happen. This time around, 58 societies applied for grants, split into three categories:
- Community Building (57.6%) – Helping people come together and bond.
- Education (28.8%) – Supporting learning experiences.
- Liberation & Social Causes (6.8%) – Promoting inclusivity and social change.
- No Category Given (6.8%)
Who got what?
25 grants were allocated in Michaelmas, totalling £2804.79, with an average grant of £112.19. The grants that weren’t approved usually needed to provide more detail on how the money would be spent, and many societies reapplied after feedback and received funding. The smallest grant we gave was £50 to 180 Degrees Consulting, and the largest was £237.60 to Bird Soc to visit the London Natural History Museum for the “Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre” exhibit.
Other grants included £134 for the Scout and Guide Club to purchase a 6-person tent for their exciting expeditions and £167.57 for the First Aid Society to purchase an automated external defibrillator for first aid scenarios and explanations, so members can become more confident using an AED. Turkish Society was given £210 to hire a room for a Memorial Day event, commemorating it with a documentary screening and storytelling. Student Minds hosted a cosy mug-painting welfare event to help everyone relax and recharge, buying mugs and paintbrushes with their £80.46 community-building grant.
Looking ahead...
We’re already making moves to improve the grant process by updating the finance guide, setting clearer deadlines, and revamping the website to make everything easier to understand. For example, we now have examples of applications from societies who have been successful. We hope that these changes will make it even easier for societies to claim money to put towards their brilliant activities and events.
Thanks to the governance review, next term there will be significantly more money available for liberation and social causes grant applications as we redirect the money which was previously allocated to campaigns. This was one of my manifesto promises, and I’m so proud to have delivered it! If you want money for a banner-making event, to cover the travel of a brilliant speaker event on a liberation cause, or for ingredients for a charity bake sale, then this enhanced pot might provide the financial support you need!
Why Society Grants matter:
At the end of the day, these grants aren’t just about money—they’re about making uni life more fun, engaging, and meaningful. Whether it’s a museum trip, a camping adventure, or a welfare event, this funding helps societies turn their ideas into reality. Here’s to bigger and better projects in the future!
Grant Information & Society Support