Grant for other associations promoting sport and physical activity

In awarding the grants, there is an emphasis on physical activity for those under the age of 20 or over the age of 64 and special groups, as well as the volume of activity. The grants are discretionary.

The grants may be awarded upon application to clubs and associations that meet the following criteria:

1. The association's declared residence is in Helsinki, and the activities are open to all residents. The subject activities must be primarily targeted at Helsinki residents. 
2. The association must be registered with the Finnish Patent and Registration Office in accordance with the Associations Act, and it must have been active for one whole calendar year before applying for the grant. The activities of the association must be well established. This does not apply to associations that have changed their name, divisions of associations that have been registered as independent associations or a full or partial merger of the activities of two or more associations that have previously received grants. 
3. The association must organize regular guided physical activities for the same group at least 10 times during a continuous period of 3 months, taking into account the nature of the activity.  Associations for special groups must arrange regular physical activities for the same group.

4. At least 50 of the association’s active members, or alternatively 20 active members under the age of 20 or over the age of 64, whose residence is in Helsinki, must participate in the association’s guided physical activities.  Regular physical activities of associations for special groups must be attended by an appropriate amount of participants with the expected functional capacity.

   In the application, active members are considered those that participate in regular, directed physical activities intended for a fixed group at least 10 times during a contiguous 3-month period. Associations for special groups may report as active members those who regularly participate in the activity, taking into account functional capacity.

   A person may be reported as an active member only once, even if the same person participates in multiple groups over the course of the year.

   The regular activities must be the club’s own non-profit activities and do not include sports activities that are procured from the club by the city or implemented in cooperation with the city.

The applicant must comply with the principles of good governance, the ethical principles for sports communities and  principles of the UN convention on the rights of the child in all its operations. 

• Read the ethical principles for sports communities(Link leads to external service) (pdf, in Finnish).
• Read the principles of good governance for associations(Link leads to external service) (pdf, in Finnish).
• Read the principles of the UN convention on the rights of the child (in Finnish)(Link leads to external service)

A grant may be awarded to eligible applicants who have applied for the grant by the given deadline. The amount of the grant cannot exceed the amount applied for. If an applicant receives a grant for its sports activities from some other City of Helsinki grant form, the Sport Service will not approve a second grant.

The grant cannot exceed 80 % of the eligible expenditure. ‘Eligible expenditure’ refers to costs incurred for the sports activities of the association. Loan repayments, interest and write-offs, depreciation, provisions or any other calculated items that are not based on actual costs are not taken into account as expenditure incurred for the activities.

The application for other associations promoting sport and physical activity grant opens at the beginning of the year and ends on February 15. Grants must be applied for within the application period specified. If an application is not submitted by the deadline, it will be regarded as late and rejected.

The grant is primarily applied for through the operating and facility usage grant application form. A link to the application form will appear on the left side of this page for logged-in users during the application period.

Click here(Link leads to external service) for instructions on how to use the e-services to apply for a grant and how to log in.

In exceptional cases, the grant application may be submitted to the City Register Office at City of Helsinki Register Office, Culture and Leisure Division/Sports, PO Box 10, FI-00099 City of Helsinki, Finland (street address: City Hall, Pohjoisesplanadi 11–13). Applications submitted to the City Register Office must arrive by 15.00 on the last day of the application period.

The application must be accompanied with the mandatory attachments specified for each grant, a list of which is available below.

For the application to be processed, applicants must attach the mandatory documents to the application form. The mandatory attachments to an application for a grant for other association promoting physical activity are:

• Action plan for the application year
• Budget for the application year
• Financial statements (most recently confirmed (signed), the previous year or the year before)
• Audit or operations report (most recently confirmed (signed), the previous year or the year before)
• Annual report (most recently confirmed, the previous year or the year before)

If the applicant has not previously applied for any grants from the City of Helsinki or if any of the relevant information has changed, the following documents must also be attached to the application:

• Rules of the association
• A notice from the bank on the account holder or a copy of a bank statement (the applicant must have its own Finnish bank account into which the grant will be paid)
• An extract from the Register of Associations

If the applicant wishes that the facility use costs of regular guided sessions organised by the applicant in facilities owned and/or managed by other organisations or in school gyms are taken into account in the processing of the application, a facility use appendix must be attached to the application as well.

Facility use appendix(Link leads to external service) (excel, 2024 version, in Finnish, the new one will be updated here before the application period starts on 13th of January 2025)

If the applicant organizes activities in different sectors, the applicant must submit the budget, operating plan, financial statements and annual report concerning the sports activities as appendices. The sports activity budget must be a separately downloadable document. Other appendices may be provided as an itemized part of the supporting documents for the entire association’s activities.

Decisions on the grants are made by the Sports Sub-committee. Decisions are expected to be made in April. The grant decisions, including the instructions for appeal, will be sent for information to all applicants.

See previous decisions of the Sport Sub-committee on the page of the Sports Sub-committee(Link leads to external service).

The grant will be paid in accordance with the grant decision in one instalment into a bank account specified by the recipient. If the recipient does not have a bank account, they must open one. The City of Helsinki will only pay a grant into a bank account in the name of the recipient. 

A prerequisite for the granting and payment of the grant is that there have been no discrepancies regarding any grants awarded by the city to the recipient in previous years. The city has the right to suspend the payment of a grant until the matter has been resolved if there is reason to suspect that the prerequisites for the recovery of a grant specified in Section 10 of the general grant criteria of the City of Helsinki are met.

The city has the right to set off the grant in whole or in part against a recoverable claim from the recipient.

The grant for other associations promoting physical activity must be used for the association’s non-profit sporting activities. 

The grant must be used during the year in which it was awarded, unless otherwise specified in the decision. The grant cannot exceed 80 % of the eligible expenditure. ‘Eligible expenditure’ refers to costs incurred for the sports activities of the association. Loan repayments, interest and write-offs, depreciation, provisions or any other calculated items that are not based on actual costs are not taken into account as expenditure incurred for the activities.

The grant cannot be used for fundraising or for business and investment expenditure, or to increase the association’s financial assets or any other long-term investments. The grant cannot be forwarded to other associations or distributed as individual grants to members. The funds must be used for the operations of the association in general.

The recipient must notify the City of Helsinki without delay of any significant change affecting the use of the grant.

The use of the grant will be investigated in connection with the application for the following year’s grant. The application form includes a separate section for this, and the mandatory attachments submitted with the application form are a part of reporting the last year's grant as well.

If the applicant has received a grant for other associations promoting physical activity in previous year but is not applying for a grant in current year, the applicant must submit a separate report on the use of the previous year grant to liikunta.avustukset@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program). The report must be submitted by the the deadline specified in the grant decision. The report must indicate the use and allocation of the grant. Furthermore, approved financial statements, an annual report and an audit report for previous year must be attached to the email.

Instructions on completing the application form 2024(Link leads to external service) (pdf, in Finnish)

A new version will be updated before the start of the 2025 application period!

Read more about the other documents governing the award, use and reporting of grants for sports on the Guidance and support page(Link leads to external service).

The contact details of personnel providing personalised guidance on sports grants are available on the Contact details page(Link leads to external service).