Holiday camp grants are awarded for organising camp activities during the school holidays for children and youth aged 7–16 who are Helsinki residents. There are specific eligibility criteria for the number and duration of camps, participants, and dates, which you should read carefully.
The holiday camp grant is awarded for the camp season, which is from 1 November to 31 October. You apply for the grant in advance for camps in the upcoming season. We will pay up to 80% of the awarded grant based on your plans, and the remainder based on the number of actual camp days at the end of the season.
The use of the grant will be reported during the ongoing camp period, by the end of October. A new decision regarding the grant will be made on the basis of the number of realised camp days. The remaining part of the grant will be paid on the basis of the new decision.
When considering applying for youth activity grants, please carefully review both the general grant allocation guidelines and conditions and the specific award criteria and application guidelines for each grant type.
Holiday camp grants can be awarded to Helsinki-based associations. Camp grants are also available to associations that are not youth associations, such as sports clubs and cultural associations.
We award holiday camp grants to Helsinki-based organisations that organise a camp during school holidays for at least ten children between the ages of 7 and 16 who live in Helsinki. Camps that are held entirely or partly when schools are in session are ineligible for grants. School holidays include the summer, autumn, Christmas, winter, Easter and other holidays.
Applicants must hold at least four overnight and/or day camps. The length of overnight camps must be at least three nights, and day camps must be at least four six-hour days. In special circumstances, we may award grants for camps that differ from these numbers.
We do not award these grants to national organisations or umbrella organisations.
All camps must be open to children and young people who live in Helsinki.
Grants for camping activities are awarded based on the number of camping days.
We calculate a camp day by multiplying the number of Helsinki residents aged 7–16 who participated by the camp’s length. Grants for overnight and day camps may differ. The number of days is the number of camp days from the beginning to the end of the camp, i.e. arrival and departure days are included.
For camps held between 1 November and 31 October, the deadline to apply for the holiday camp grant is the end of the last day of October. You can apply for the grant by submitting a holiday camp grant application.
The application is completed electronically through the city’s grant application e-service. The registered association must identify itself through its suomi.fi-authentication.
Attachments are submitted via the City of Helsinki e-services
Include the following attachments in the application for the holiday camp grant:
- The camp Excel file, download the file (xls)
- The association’s action plan
- The association’s budget
If the applicant has not previously submitted the following attachments with another application, they must also submit these:
- A copy of a bank statement or the bank’s confirmation of the account holder
- The association’s current rules
For a copy of a bank statement, it is sufficient to provide the page that shows the account number and the account holder. You may redact any other information on the statement, if you prefer.
You must carefully and completely fill in the mandatory camp Excel file attached to the application. Please submit the camp Excel file when you submit your application. If necessary, you may be granted additional time to submit other attachments by separate agreement. You must submit the missing attachments by the deadline.
Please also safely retain the camp Excel attachment. You will also use it during the camp season to fill in information about the camps you have held.
The Culture and Leisure Committee’s Youth Sub-committee decides on the holiday camp grant in two parts. The first decision is made early in the year, typically in January, based on the plans provided in the camp Excel file. The second decision is made towards the end of the year in November–December based on the actual camps held and reported in the Excel file.
In the early part of the year, we decide on grants based on the applicants’ plans, most of which are paid in advance, usually at 80 procent of the grant amount. After the camp season, applicants submit a report on the camps they have organised by the end of October. After this, the Youth Sub-committee decides on the final grants based on the actual number of camps organised.
In practice, an applicant may thus receive a higher grant in the end-of-year decision than in the beginning-of-year decision if they have organised more camps than initially planned. On the other hand, an applicant may also receive less funding than in the beginning-of-year decision if the applicant has organised fewer camps than originally planned. If you organise significantly fewer camps than initially planned, any excess amount in your grant advance per the beginning-of-year decision may also be recovered. It is worth noting that we never award grants in excess of the amounts applied for.
Decision
Both the beginning-of-year and end-of-year grant decisions will be sent to the applicant by post. The Youth Sub-committee’s meeting minutes, which include the decision, are also available on the City of Helsinki's website. The Youth Sub-committee’s meeting agendas are published approximately one week before the meeting, and both the agendas and minutes can also be found on the city’s website(Link leads to external service).
You cannot view the decisions on the grant application e-service where you completed the application.
You should read the decision carefully. The decision always begins with the decision section, which also includes obligations and instructions for the applicant, e.g., on how to report on using the grant. The decision section also tells you the period and purpose for which the grant has been awarded. The grant must be used for the purpose and during the period for which it was awarded.
Eligible expenses for holiday camp grants are:
- Transport; material; food; communication; insurance; and rental costs for camps.
- Payroll costs for camp staff
Reporting on use
You report your use of the holiday camp grant by 31.10.
The report is done with the holiday camp grant report, which is filled in electronically in the city’s grant application e-service. The same Excel annex, on the basis of which the grant was granted at the planning stage, is sent as an annex to the holiday camp grant report.
So please keep the camp Excel file with your plans from the initial application phase, as you will also need it during the reporting phase. For reporting, your camp Excel file is the key component, which you have filled in carefully with the details of the camps that have been organised.
Go to the holiday camp grant report.
Associations that receive a holiday camp grant must itemise the income and expenditure from camps in their accounts under their own cost centre. The grant recipient must submit an income statement showing the revenue and expenditure of the camps’ cost centre, or a cost centre report for the camp season.
Once the financial statements have been approved, the cost centre calculation is submitted to the Youth Services Partnership Unit by the end of March of the following year at the latest. Read more about the grant report.
Read more general guidance on grants for youth activities.
Read more about guidance and support for grants for youth activities.
Please contact the planners in the Youth Services Partnership Unit if you have any questions or concerns about youth activity grants.