Sports: grant for promoting safer club activities

Grants for promoting safer club activities are awarded for development work to promote safer physical activity for children and young people. The projects to be supported must be mainly aimed at children and young people in Helsinki.

In a safe club, children and young people are able to be physically active in safe company without bullying, harassment, racism or other inappropriate behaviour. Inappropriate behaviour is intervened in quickly and proactively, and it is prevented through many means. A safe club environment offers positive experiences in an encouraging and respectful atmosphere, which promotes social safety and community spirit.

Projects to be supported must include at least two sets of measures. One of these must be the development of safer club practices. Examples of how safer practices can be developed are described below. The measures must be based on the examples or similar actions.

For example:

• Appointment and training of harassment contact persons
• Development and implementation of anonymous wellbeing surveys
• Updating the association’s statutes to take into account harassment, bullying, racism and other inappropriate behaviour and disciplinary measures that follow
• Developing principles for a safer club
• Instructions on how to deal with situations involving inappropriate behaviour
• Making recruitment practices safer by checking the criminal records of volunteers and employed workers
• Communicating about measures for a safer club and making the measures visible.

In addition, one or more of the following sets of measures must be implemented:

• Increasing the safety and participation of children and young people in the club’s activities
• Developing the know-how of coaches, instructors and other club staff from the perspective of safer club activities
• Developing anti-racism measures
• Drawing up an equality, non-discrimination or responsibility plan and implementing the measures.

When assessing applications and awarding grants, the emphasis is on projects that develop and test new approaches to find sustainable practices for the club’s activities. Priority is given to operators who do not yet have ready-made or developed practices for promoting safer club activities.

Applications are also assessed on the following factors: the scale, effectiveness and appropriateness of the project in relation to the objectives of the grant, the accuracy and realism of the financial and operational plan, the self-financing share or other funding of the project, the cost-effectiveness of the project, cooperation with partners outside the club and the continuity of the activities after the project period. The systematicity and concreteness of the project documentation and impact assessment are taken into account when comparing applications.

The project must have a person in charge, a clear action plan and realistic and measurable objectives. The grant can be used for a period of one year.

The grants awarded range from EUR 2,500 to EUR 25,000.

Grants may be awarded to applicants who meet the grant criteria and who have applied for the grant by the deadline set. The amount of the grant cannot exceed the amount of the grant applied for.

The application period for grants for promoting safer club activities is from March 9 to April 5, 2026, at 23:59.

The grant is applied for by logging into the grants service and completing the form 'Sports, general grant application' (select 'Targeted Grant' as the grant type). The form link will appear on the left side of this page for users logged in as a registered community once the application period begins.

The form must be submitted by the application deadline. Late applications will be rejected.

Click here 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 ( instructions(Link leads to external service) ).

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

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:

• Statutes of the association
• The bank’s notice of the account holder or a copy of a bank statement (the applicant must have their own Finnish bank account to which the grant will be paid)
• An extract from the Register of Associations
• The latest confirmed (signed) financial statements, annual report and financial or operational audit report
• A budget and an action plan for the year of application

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

Decisions by the Sports Sub-committee of the Culture and Leisure Committee can be viewed  here(Link leads to external service) .

The grant will be paid in accordance with the grant decision in one installment 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. The period of use is specified in the grant decision as well.

Grants may only be used for project-related expenses. 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 may not be used to fund the purchase of fixed assets. 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.

After the end of the project, the candidate must report on the completed activities and the results achieved during the project. The applicant is required to provide financial reporting per cost centre, specifying the costs allocated to the project. If the project is carried out as part of the basic activities of the club, for example, with the help of permanent staff, the usage report must specify how many hours each person spent working on the project.

The deadline of submitting the usage report and the method of submission is specified in the grant decision.

The usage of the targeted grant 2025 must be reported using a separate form by September 30, 2026. Link to the form(Link leads to external service) (opens in a new tab).

The usage of grants for promoting safer club activities in 2026 must be reported using a separate form by September 30, 2027. The link to the form will be updated later.

Read more about the other documents governing the award, use and reporting of grants for sports on the Guidance and support page.

The contact details of personnel providing personalized guidance on sports grants are available on the Contact details page.