Play Her Way Innovation Program 2025/26
The Play Her Way Innovation Program (the Program) provides support to eligible State Sporting Organisations and State Sporting Organisations for People with Disability to develop and deliver bold new initiatives to enhance career pathways, build cultures of diversity and inclusion and increase participation of women and girls in sport, both on and off the field.
Important dates
- Applications open – Thursday 9 April 2026
- Applications closed – 1 pm, Thursday 30 April 2026
- Application outcome date – June 2026
- Grants must be accepted: Within 2 weeks of notification of outcome via acceptance of Terms and Conditions via SmartyGrants portal.
Evaluation timeframe (for successful applications)
- Evaluation workshops: Online, July 2026
- Evaluation to be completed by February 2028 Evaluation workshops
The Office of Sport reserves the right to amend any of these dates during the Program, at its absolute discretion.
Purpose and key objectives
Purpose
The Play Her Way Innovation Program (the Program) provides support to eligible State Sporting Organisations and State Sporting Organisations for People with Disability to develop and deliver bold new initiatives to enhance career pathways, build cultures of diversity and inclusion and increase participation of women and girls in sport, both on and off the field.
Eligible Organisations are encouraged to partner with other organisations, including those with specific experience working with women and girls and under-represented communities.
Key objectives
The Program aims to increase opportunities for women and girls, both on and off the field, throughout NSW.
The key objectives of the Program are to:
- Increase the number of women and girls participating in sport
- Improve the retention of adolescent girls
- Increase the number of women working in the sport sector
- Improve gender inclusive sporting cultures and environments
- Increase the capability of the sector to respond to emerging trends and challenges.
Play Her Way Innovation Think Tank Session - Thursday 16 April
Presentation - Phil Morgan (University of Newcastle) - Keeping Teenage Girls in Sport
Funding availability
The NSW Government has allocated up to $500,000 across two tiers for the Program in 2025/26.
Tier 1 - Grants between $3,000 and $5,000
- Career Activations
- Projects that promote information on range of roles and career pathways in sport.
Tier 2 - Grants between $10,000 and $45,000
- Career Pathway Support
- Projects that aim to support young women to advance on their sport career pathway.
- Participation
- Projects that aim to reduce barriers to participation for women and girls and create innovative, inclusive sport experiences that reflect what women and girls want.
- Capability
- Projects that aim to build the capability of Organisations to increase the participation of women and girls both on and off the field, and projects that build gender inclusive sporting cultures and environments.
There is no reserved allocation for each funding tier.
Organisations applying for multiple grants
An applicant may make multiple applications; however, the maximum amount of funding that can be awarded to any one organisation is $50,000.
Eligible applicants
Eligible applicants are:
To be eligible for funding you must:
- be an NSW Office of Sport recognised State Sporting Organisations (SSOs) or State Sporting Organisations for People with Disability (SSODs). The current list of recognised SSOs/SSODs are shown at Appendix A of the guidelines.
- include a declaration by the applicant organisation that if successful they will provide Public Liability Insurance with a minimum $5 million cover.
Eligible Organisations are encouraged to partner with other organisations, including those with specific experience working with women and girls and under-represented communities.
Ineligible applicants
Ineligible Applicants are:
Ineligible applicants are any organisation types not listed in the ‘Eligible Applicants’ section, and include (but are not limited to):
- any organisation not recognised as an SSO/SSOD by the Office of Sport
- sporting clubs and associations
- individuals and groups of individuals
- schools, universities and TAFE’s
- parents and Citizens (P&C) Associations
- NSW Institute of Sport, Australian Sports Commission (incorporating the Australian Institute of Sport) and Regional Academies of Sport
- State and Federal Government departments and agencies
- an organisation named: (i) by the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse on its list of institutions that have not joined or signified their intent not to join the Scheme; or (ii) in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that has not yet joined the National Redress Scheme
Eligible projects
Eligible projects include but are not limited to:
Project stream and description | Eligible project examples |
Career Activations Projects that aim to promote information on range of roles and career pathways in sport.
|
|
Career Pathway Support Projects that aim to support young women to advance on their sport career pathway. |
|
Participation Projects that aim to reduce barriers to participation for women and girls and create innovative, inclusive sport experiences that reflect what women and girls want. |
|
Capability Projects that aim to build the capability of Organisations to increase the participation of women and girls both on and off the field, and projects that build gender inclusive sporting cultures and environments. |
|
Intersectionality Lens
Applicants are encouraged to apply an intersectional lens, to recognise that some women and girls are affected by more than one form of discrimination and disadvantage, and that these groups may require targeted support to address the barriers and disadvantage they face.
Targeted or under-represented groups include women with disability, Aboriginal women and girls, women and girls from cultural and diverse backgrounds, women and girls in rural and regional communities, LGBTQI+ women and girls.
Universal Design is about creating an inclusive society. It helps everyone navigate their environment easily and makes them feel that they belong in that place.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply Universal Design Goals and Principles and Design for Dignity Guidelines to projects to ensure effective and equitable access to grant funded initiatives.
Ineligible projects
Projects or project components ineligible to receive funding include:
- Projects that are not aligned with or contribute to Play Her Way objectives.
- Project location is not in NSW.
- Retrospective funding, where projects have commenced or are completed prior to the execution of a funding agreement.
- Projects that have already been funded by the NSW Government unless significant new and additional project scope is identified.
- Any costs associated with preparing and submitting the application.
- Project administration costs and staff wages not directly related to the project.
- Appearance fees, prize money, trophies and presentation functions.
- Entertainment, hospitality and catering not directly related to the Project. The purchase of alcohol will not be funded in any circumstances.
- Events that are organised for the primary purpose of fundraising, including charity fundraising events.
- Purchase of land, rental of premises for the organisation’s administrative and operational requirements, or associated occupancy payments.
- General running costs, maintenance or replacement including capital equipment or office equipment.
- Insurance costs (public liability, general liability, etc.)
- Costs associated with feasibility, design, or development stages including feasibility studies, business cases and masterplans.
- Infrastructure projects (e.g. construction, upgrade, maintenance, and repairs).
Please Note: Project budgets should not include any ineligible costs, and these will be removed by assessors if included, at the absolute discretion of the Office of Sport.
Application process
See Eligible Applicants section of the Program Guidelines to see which organisations can apply for funding.
If you are not eligible, you may be able to partner with an eligible organisation, although they will need to be the applicant organisation and submit the application.
- Before you apply, please read the Program Guidelines and related materials including the application checklist to make sure you understand all relevant requirements, including whether you are eligible to apply.
Gather your evidence including letters of support, funding commitments, development approvals/exemptions, images/plans, quotes, participation data etc.
Consider using the SmartyGrants tool, SmartyFile. The tool allows organisations to collaborate with team members, pre-fill information into forms and manage, view, search and sort submissions across multiple funders in one spot. Applicants with an ABN can use this function.
Applying for a grant is a simple process using the SmartyGrants platform.
The Office of Sport recommends that applicants familiarise themselves with the online application form ahead of preparing the application and plan to submit ahead of the closing date to reduce the risk of missing the deadline.
Complete your application by filling in each of the sections. The SmartyGrants portal will not accept submission of an application unless all mandatory documents have been uploaded.
Submit your application as soon as possible and before the closing date and time.
You will be asked to declare that “The responses in this application and all supporting documents provided are to the best of my knowledge true and correct”. The application may be deemed ineligible if the application contains false or misleading statements.
Projects must be submitted through the SmartyGrants website to be considered eligible.
Successful submissions will be issued with a SmartyGrants system generated acknowledgement email containing a PDF copy of the application which will confirm the time the application was submitted.
Late applications can only be made where an applicant has started an application in SmartyGrants prior to the closing date/time.
If for any reason you are not able to lodge your application on time, you must contact the Office of Sport within 1 hour of the program closing time.
A late application will only be considered where its acceptance would not compromise the integrity and competitiveness of the process. The final determination on whether a late application will be accepted will be made by the Grant Assessment Panel supported by advice from an independent probity advisor.
- If any document is not available prior to the closing date/time and you would like to submit this for consideration you must contact grants@sport.nsw.gov.au within 1 hour of the program closing time.
- Any decision in relation to the acceptance of late supporting documentation will be at the absolute discretion of the Office of Sport.
- Late supporting documentation will only be accepted for applications already submitted in SmartyGrants before the closing date and time and will only be considered where its acceptance would not compromise the integrity and competitiveness of the process.
- The final determination on whether a late supporting documentation will be accepted will be made by the Grant Assessment Panel supported by advice from an independent probity advisor.
Supporting documents
- Program Guidelines (PDF, 637.35 KB)
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Funding Agreement Template (PDF, 519.95 KB)
Supporting resources
Contact us
Get in touch if you have any questions about the application process.