The Special Events Grant Program offers financial and technical assistance to support high profile special events in the City, with a focus on costs associated with public safety, environmental stewardship, and City services and permitting.
Donor Name: City of Alameda
State: California
City: Alameda
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/21/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
These events include festivals, parades, and community celebrations that require street closures and/or overtime or specialty staff support from the Police Department, Fire Department, Public Works Department or other City departments.
The program goals aim to foster successful high-impact community events that:
- Enhance economic development;
- Encourage inclusive community engagement; and
- Promote a diverse range of arts and cultural experiences.
Funding Information
The maximum grant amount per event is $20,000.
Grant Period
July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026.
Eligible Costs
The SEPGP provides funding to support high profile special events in the City, with a focus on costs associated with City requirements and the special event permit process, including public safety, environmental stewardship, and the use of City services. Eligible costs may include those which are internal to the City (i.e. City services for your event), or external (services or equipment which the City does not provide, such as traffic control planning or sign rental).
Grant funds must be used for permit and permit-required event expenses only and not for operations, operating deficit, administrative costs, or other organizational costs unrelated to permit and permit required event expenses.
Eligible costs include:
- Internal
- Staff time to process and review the permit
- Additional technical assistance on traffic control or security plan, if needed
- Police security, towing, standby paramedic presence, and other forms of Alameda Police Department (APD) or Alameda Fire Department (AFD) assistance, as needed
- Event inspection costs and standby fees
- Costs associated with meeting Zero Waste and Clean Water requirements
- Any other specialized technical assistance on the permitting process or actual event
- External
- Development of a traffic control plan
- Traffic control and no parking signs
- Private security
- Fiber-based compostable foodware
- Reusable foodware services
- Event “greening” services, such as bin monitoring, waste sorting, etc., to ensure that all materials are separated correctly
- Waste containers and removalservices
- Liquid waste disposal tank services
- Any necessary storm drain protection measures.
Event Organizer (Organization) Criteria
- Event organizer must be a legally registered 501c(3) non-profit organization or 501c(6) business entity;
- Event organizer must have a valid City of Alameda business license;
- At the discretion of City staff, organizers of previous events meeting any of the following factors may be disqualified from eligibility:
- Did not adhere to all special event permitting conditions, or
- Did not fulfill all event obligations, or
- Resulted in an adverse impact in the community, such as the receipt of significant complaints from residents or businesses.
For more information, visit City of Alameda.
