The grant is a discretionary special grant aimed at activities that promote the wellbeing and functional capacity of elderly people in Helsinki. Associations and foundations can apply for the grant. The application period is from January 13 to February 7, 2025, until 16.00. The Sports Sub-committee will decide on the projects to be funded at its meeting on April 10, 2025.
The goal of the grant is to improve the opportunities of elderly persons living at home to be active and lead a good life rich in experiences. Preventive measures that enhance wellbeing address the challenges posed by the ageing population.
The grant has been prepared in cooperation with Cultural Services in the Culture and Leisure Division. In 2025, the appropriation for grants for the promotion of sport and physical activity for the elderly is EUR 700,000. The grants are funded from escheats managed by the City of Helsinki.
Applicants must comply with the general grant allocation guidelines of the City of Helsinki when applying for, using and reporting on grants.
Legally authorised registered associations and foundations can apply for the grant. Project partners may include unregistered organisations, action groups and groups not based in Helsinki, as well as companies. The forms and roles of the cooperation must be described in the application. The applying organisation is responsible for the use and reporting on the use of the grant.
The grant is a discretionary grant for projects that promote physical activities supporting the wellbeing and functional capacity of the elderly. The goal of the grant is to improve the opportunities of elderly persons living at home to be active and lead a good life rich in experiences, where they are active participants. The activities must be open to everyone and cannot be targeted to a limited group such as the association’s existing members. The primary target group should be elderly persons living at home in Helsinki.
Eligible projects must contribute to one or several of the following goals:
- Development of the opportunities for physical activity in the near environment and region
- Development of digital and remote activities that promote physical activity
- Development of voluntary activities and peer support
Other themes that are assessed when comparing and evaluating projects:
- Accessibility of the activities
- Boosting participation and empowerment of the elderly
- Better integration of diversity, multiculturalism in particular, into exercising opportunities for the elderly
- Joint projects with other organisations
- Exploitation of new partnerships and operating models to increase physical activity of the elderly
- Realising the project in a “shadow area” in terms of excerise opportunities provided by the city for the elderly in Helsinki or in suburban regeneration areas. To support project planning, the applicants can use information produced by the city’s Physical Activity Programme in 2018–2021 on the matching of the elderly and targeted sport and excerise services in the districts and major districts of Helsinki.
Projects that received funding in 2024 can apply for continued funding for their activities if the need for further funding is clearly justified in the grant application.
The grant may be used to cover project-related expenses that are not directly related to the basic activities of the operator. The projects must have a self-financing share, but no required amount of self-financing has been specified. The grants are discretionary.
In addition, the following guidelines apply to the awarding of grants:
The application period for the grant is from 13 January to 7 February 2025 until 16:00. Application form and any additional attachments must be submitted by the deadline. Late applications will be rejected. We recommend that you submit your application before the last day of the application period, at which point the service may experience high traffic volumes.
To apply for the grant, the applicant must fill out an electronic application form, which can be accessed from the "Apply for a grant" section on the left side of this page when logged into the service. You can find the login link in the top right corner of the site. On the form, select "Special grant for sports 1" as the type of grant and "year 2025" as the grant year.
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.
Projects that have been conditionally granted funding for two years in 2024 are required to submit a progress report when applying for funding for 2025 along with a cost center report for the period from June 1 to December 31, 2024, as part of the application form.
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 be submitted via the e-services:
- Statutes of the organisation
- 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/Foundations
- Financial statements and annual report for 2023
- Action plan and budget for 2025
The Sports Sub-committee of the City of Helsinki Culture and Leisure Committee will decide on the projects to be funded at its meeting on April. The grant decisions, including the instructions for appeal, will be sent for information to all applicants.
The Sports Sub-committee's meeting transscripts can be found on the Sports Sub-Committee's website(Link leads to external service).
After the deadline for applications, the applications will be processed in close cooperation by assessment teams consisting of representatives of Sports Services and Culture Services. The processing of applications is based on an overall assessment and the extent to which the applicant meets the eligibility criteria for the grant. All grants are discretionary.
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 must be used between 1 June 2025 and 31 May 2026. For two-year projects that started in 2024, the grant usage period is from 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2026.
The grant may be used to cover project-related expenses that are not directly related to the core activities of the organisation. The projects must have a self-financing share, but no required amount of self-financing has been specified.
The use of all sports grants is governed by the general grant allocation guidelines of the City of Helsinki 28 October 2019(Link leads to external service) (pdf).
The grant can only be used for the purpose stated in the grant decision. If the grant decision does not specify the purpose, the grant must be used for the purpose stated in the application. The city has the right to recover the grant in part or in full if the recipient does not comply with the terms of use.
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 recipient must notify the City of Helsinki without delay of any significant change affecting the use of the grant.
Recipients are required to submit a report on the use of the grant, including an impact assessment. The aim is to link the projects more strongly to the urban strategy of Helsinki and other development related to the promotion of the health and wellbeing of the elderly. The report must be submitted to the granting authority no later than three months after the end of the project’s usage period.
Additional materials to support the preparation of grant applications
- Background material(Link leads to external service) (pdf, in Finnish): studies, links and other background materials to support project planning.
- Studies and data analyses on the physical activity of the elderly in Helsinki(Link leads to external service) (in Finnish)
- Number of the elderly and provision of guided physical activities for the elderly in the districts and majordistricts of Helsinki (pdf, in Finnish). From: Ikäihmisten määrä, terveys, liikkuminen ja ohjatun liikunnan tarjonta alueellisesti Helsingissä – Datapohjaisen, ikäihmisten liikkumista koskevan analyysin jatko-osa
- Information about suburban regeneration areas: Suburban regeneration | City of Helsinki
- The content of the application form(Link leads to external service) (pdf, in Finnish)
General guidance and support
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).