The Northern Beaches Council Discretionary Fund Policy (the Policy) provides the opportunity for the Mayor and Councillors to respond to requests for financial assistance from individuals and community groups, community organisations and small local businesses involved in individual and community projects.

In recent years there has been an increase in the funding allocated to private individual sporting endeavours at events outside the Northern Beaches. This funding is not means-tested, and applicants are not required to demonstrate the public benefit of the funding.

We have prepared a new draft Policy which proposes the following amendments to the eligibility criteria:

1. Emphasise funding opportunities for applications that focus on activities that promote the physical, intellectual, creative, safety and/or social welfare of residents of the Northern Beaches and take place in the Northern Beaches
2. Discontinue funding for individuals and teams pursuing private sporting or social endeavours at events outside the Northern Beaches.

Your feedback is important to us - we invite you to tell us your thoughts on the proposed amendments to the draft Northern Beaches Discretionary Fund Policy by using the online submission form below.

You can also:

• email us at council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au OR

• write to us marked ‘Northern Beaches Discretionary Fund Policy (draft) - 2025 Review’ to Northern Beaches Council, PO Box 82 Manly NSW 1655.

Submissions close Sunday 1 February 2026.

*The submissions count is manually updated and only indicative until the final report is published. It reflects the total online contributions received only. Duplicate submissions will be counted as one unique submission.

**All submissions in their entirety are made publicly available in the Community Engagement Report. Personal identifying information, and content which is discriminatory, hateful or which may defame, offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate will be redacted.