The targeted grant is a discretionary grant for sports and exercise activities. Sports clubs and other associations organising sports activities are eligible.
In 2023, targeted grants will be awarded for activities that enable children and young people (aged 10–15) to remain engaged in the activities of a sports club/association, and for activities that enable taking up a sports hobby during upper comprehensive school.
The grant can be applied for all year round. Applicants must comply with the application guide for grants for sports and the general grant allocation guidelines of the City of Helsinki when applying for, using and reporting on grants.
In 2023, targeted grants will be awarded for activities that enable children and young people (aged 10–15) to remain engaged in the activities of a sports club/association, and/or for activities that enable taking up a sports hobby during upper comprehensive school. The activities to be supported must mainly be directed at Helsinki residents.
The following criteria regarding the activities will be weighted when evaluating the applications and awarding the grants:
- Prevents dropping out
- Increases the accessibility of sports activities and lowers the threshold of getting involved
- Increases the number of new members/groups in the club
- Enables individuals at risk of social marginalisation to engage in sports club activities
In addition to the criteria above, attention will also be paid to the following when assessing the applications:
- Continuity of the activities
- New innovations and experiments
- Cooperation with other parties
- The activities cannot be supported with any other form of support provided by the City of Helsinki
The grant is meant to support activities organised by the association itself. The targeted grant cannot be used to support any for-profit activities, any activities organised in cooperation with the City of Helsinki or any short-term activities such as camps, events or tournaments.
Alongside the activities organised, the granting and amount of the targeted grant depends on the applicant’s own assets, income received from the supported activities and other external funding opportunities (e.g. public support).
The grant cannot exceed 80 percent of the eligible expenditure. ‘Eligible expenditure’ refers to expenses directly related to the activities being supported. Acquisition of equipment directly related to or enabling the implementation of the activities may account for up to 20 percent of the total budget of the project.
A grant may only be awarded once a year for the same activities or a single project. The awarded grants vary between EUR 1,000 and EUR 20,000.
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 entity receives a grant for its sports activities from other branches of the city administration, Sports Services will not provide another grant for the same activities.
The targeted grant can be applied for all year round but in such a manner, however, that the application must be submitted by 10 December 2023.
The grant is primarily applied for through the City of Helsinki e-services.
In addition to the application form, the applicant must complete a separate mandatory Webropol appendix. Go to the Webropol form (in Finnish).
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 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 16.00 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.
In addition to the application form, the applicant must complete a mandatory Webropol appendix for the application to be processed (link above).
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
The decisions on targeted grants are made by the Sports Services Director. Applications are processed regularly throughout the year. 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.
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. Targeted grants awarded in 2023 may be used until May 2024, unless otherwise specified in the decision.
Acquisition of equipment directly related to or enabling the implementation of the activities may account for up to 20% of the total budget of the project.
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 use of the targeted grant must be reported via a separate form. The grant decision indicates when the report must be submitted. Go to the Webropol reporting form for targeted grants (in Finnish).
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 personalised guidance on sports grants are available on the Contact details page.