Sports event grant

An event grant is a discretionary grant and is awarded to the organizer of the event. The event and the organizer must meet the following criteria: 

1. The event must create physical activity and be organized in Helsinki.
2. The event must engage Helsinki residents in physical activity and diversify the city’s range of events.
3. The organizer of the event must be a registered association, company or entity.
4. The grant must be applied for prior to the event.
5. A report on the event must be provided afterwards.

The awarding and amount of the event grant depends on the applicant’s own assets, income received from the supported activities and any other external funding opportunities (e.g. public support). 

Event grants are not awarded to support an applicant’s regular practice, competition and tournament activities, internal events, camps and courses or major international competitions. Eligible competition events may not be bigger than competitions at the national level (Finnish Championships). 

The following criteria are emphasized in the evaluation of applications and the awarding of grants: 

• Events that aim to inspire new target groups to engage in everyday activity as well as independent or guided physical activities
• Events targeted at children and/or young people
• Scope and visibility of the event
• The responsibility of the event from an ecological, economic and social perspective:
  • Environmental matters are considered in organizing the event
  • The pricing or lack of pricing of the event allows for the widest possible participation in the event
  • The impact on promoting non-discrimination and equality
  • The promotion of inclusion and communality

In 2025, there is an additional focus on events in Helsinki’s urban renewal areas. 

In addition, the aim is to award grants in as diverse a way as possible with regard to:

• Seasonal thinking, i.e. events organised in different seasons
• The location of the events to be assisted in different parts of Helsinki
• The diversity of the events in terms of the sports represented

Only one event grant may be awarded per event. However, on a discretionary basis, an event organizer may receive a grant for more than one event during a year.

A grant may be awarded to eligible applicants who have applied for the grant by the given deadline (before the event). The amount of the grant cannot exceed the amount applied for. If an applicant receives a grant for the event from some other City of Helsinki grant form, the Sport Service will not approve a second grant. Grants are neither awarded to support sports activities that are procured from the club by the city nor 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)

An event grant application may be submitted all year round, starting around mid-December of the previous year and before around mid-December of the grant year. The grant application must have been submitted to the application system before the start of the event. The grant application must be for the year in which the event takes place. 

The grant is primarily applied for through the event grant 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 event grant application are:

• Free-form event plan (a broader description of the event, its organization and the target group)
• Event budget (if it is not sufficiently indicated on 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 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 the relevant register for the organization type

The decisions on the grants are made by the Sports Services Director. Applications are processed and decisions are made approximately once a month. The grant decisions, including the instructions for appeal, will be sent for information to all applicants. 

Decisions by the Sports Services Director can be viewed here(Link leads to external service).

The event grant will be paid to the event organiser once the final report on the event has been submitted to Sports Services (see the section: using a grant and reporting on its use). 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 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. 

An event grant may only be used to cover expenses incurred from the event. Eligible expenditure includes actual costs from organizing the event such as facility rents, communications/marketing expenses and additional employee expenses related to the event. The event grant will be paid to the event organizer once the final report (link below) on the event has been submitted to Sports Services. The final report must be submitted at the latest two months after the event or two months after the date of the grant decision if the decision was made after the date of the event.

Go to the event grant report form here(Link leads to external service) (in Finnish).

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

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