Targeted grant for sports 2025: promoting safer club activities

Targeted grants are awarded for development work to promote safer exercise for children and young people in sports clubs. The aim of the grant is to make the club activities safer and more responsible. The eligible projects must be targeted primarily at children and young people from Helsinki.

In a safe club, children and young people can exercise without bullying, harassment, racism or other inappropriate behaviour. Inappropriate behaviour is addressed quickly and proactively and prevented by a wide range of measures. A safe club environment provides positive experiences in a supportive and appreciative atmosphere, which promotes social safety and a sense of community.

The assisted projects must include at least two sets of measures. One of them must be the development of operating models for a safer club. Below are examples of how safer operating models can be developed. The measure should be based on these or similar actions:

For example:

• Appointing and training harassment contact persons
• Developing and deploying anonymous wellness surveys
• Updating the rules of the club to take into account harassment, bullying, racism and other inappropriate behavior and the resulting disciplinary measures
• Establishing principles for a safer club
• Instructions on how to deal with situations of inappropriate behavior
• Developing safer recruitment practices with criminal background checks on volunteers and employees
• Communicating the club’s safer measures and making them visible

In addition, one or more of the following measures shall be taken:

• Increasing the safety and inclusion of children and young people in the activities of the club
• Developing the skills of coaches, instructors and other staff of the club from the point of view of safer club activities
• Developing anti-racism measures
• Preparation of an equality or responsibility plan and implementation of measures

As the applications are evaluated and grants awarded, emphasis is placed on projects that develop and test new operating models with the aim of finding permanent practices for the operation of the club. Priority will be given to actors who have not yet completed or developed operating models for safer club activities.

An application assessment also focuses on the following factors: the project scope and appropriateness in respect to the goals of the grant, the feasibility of the project's financial and operating plan, the applicant’s existing funds and other possible external funding for the activities as well as the continuity of activities after the project period. The systematic nature 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 operating plan as well as realistic and measurable goals. The grant is awarded for a period of one year.

Grant sums range between EUR 2,500 and 25,000.

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.

The targeted grant application period is from  11 March to 4 April 2025.

The application form and the format of applying are defined closer to the application period. The grant is applied for logged in to the e-services for grants.

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.

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 most recently confirmed (signed) financial statements, annual report and audit report
• A budget and an action plan for the application year

The Sports Sub-committee decides on targeted 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.

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 personalized guidance on sports grants are available on the Contact details page(Link leads to external service).