2026 NSW Rural Women's Gathering EOI

Examples of eligible organisations are Local Councils or organisations with strong experience running large events. You will be asked to provide a Certificate of Currency and ABN or ACN.  

Women living and working in communities from rural, regional and remote NSW.

This grant is specific to delivering the Rural Women's Gathering. Applications will be assessed against the published criteria.

Gatherings are organised by local communities with support from the NSW Rural Women’s Network (RWN) and in collaboration with their local groups and businesses. 

Applicants will provide an overview of their proposed gathering, including:

• Theme
• The host location and venue
• Activities, speakers and workshops
• How they will ensure diversity in the speakers and program and attract a diverse group of women to attend, with particular focus on the target communities identified in the NSW Women's Strategy 2023-2026.
• How they will engage the Youth Advisory Group and RWN Advisory Group.
• Logistics, such as accommodation, transport, childcare and a marketplace
• Outline events and budgeting experience
• Promotion activities

The NSW Rural Women’s Gathering is an annual event that takes place in a different NSW rural location each year. The Gathering has been running since 1993 and seeks to provide rural women with support, information and skills to enable them to address the myriad of challenges they face as a result of living in a rural location in Australia. It's an opportunity for women to network, meet like-minded people, try out new experiences and create awareness of NSW Government initiatives and local services.

Funding must only be used for expenses directly related to the development, promotion and delivery of the Gathering, including, but not limited to:

• Resource materials and publication costs including art supplies, workbooks
• Equipment, transport and venue hire
• Publicity, communications and marketing activities and materials
• Catering costs, food and beverages for community engagement activities
• Staff, contractors and consultants, where the costs are for direct event delivery only
• Speaker and workshop fees
• Marketplace fees
• Travel costs within NSW exclusively for the purpose of the event
• Evaluation activities

• Business capital or start-up funding  
• Purchase of, or cost of infrastructure, assets and/or capital equipment and works 
• Permanent equipment purchases (e.g. computers, phones or iPads or other items not specific to the event) 
• Operating costs of the organisation or recurrent expenses (e.g. insurance, leases, bills, general office consumables and disposables)  
• Permanent wages, salaries and on-costs for ongoing staff 
• Organisational development costs for internal staff (e.g. staff training, conferences, workshops, planning days) 
• Interstate and/or overseas travel allowances or costs associated with membership of boards/councils  
• Retrospective costs (any money spent before a grant is approved) 
• Fundraising events that are for the purposes of fundraising for charities or for the organisation’s personal use  
• Any project run solely for commercial purposes to the benefit of the delivery partner but not the program participants 
• Projects and activities coordinated by NSW Government Departments and Statutory Authorities  
• Research projects, including those which are co-funded by State or Federal Governments and/or other organisations  
• Purchase of promotional/awareness raising merchandise that will be sold or profited on  
• Acquittal, auditing or reporting costs 
• Fees associated with an auspice agreement  
• Existing debt or loan repayments
• Events that encourage gambling (e.g. raffles, bingo)

Lismore City Council are the hosts of the 2025 Rural Women's Gathering. Information about their event can be found at this link Rural Women's Gathering 2025 | NSW Government.

The Host town is expected to seek in-kind and financial sponsorship to support the event.