Applying for an operating grant
Who can apply for a grant?
We welcome grant applications from Turku-based associations that organise regular physical activities for persons with disabilities or long-term illnesses, pensioners, immigrants, and those involved in public health work We define physical activity as exercise aimed at recreational or competitive sports. The association must be based in Turku and the activities must have started in the calendar year preceding the grant.
Parties conducting research and development to promote physical activity and health can also apply for grants. The activities must have objectives that support the city’s strategy.
- To qualify for a grant, the physical activities must be conducted regularly – at least once a week – for a minimum of three months. For regular sports activities, we take into account the time periods when municipal sports facilities are available and can be used for these activities.
- We do not support exercise activities that are instructed or coached remotely via streaming, email, or other communication media.
- The operating grant does not cover individual events, such as competitions, theme or event days, excursions or performances, fitness card activities or independent exercises.
Operating grants also include start-up grants. We provide start-up grants to sports clubs and associations when the general criteria for operating grants are not applicable. This includes, for example, clubs that started their activities in the same calendar year they apply for an operating grant or in the middle of the previous year.
At the discretion of the Sports Committee, we provide start-up grants of EUR 200 per association. To apply for a start-up grant, use the same form and submit it by the same deadline as the operating grant application. A Turku-based association may receive a start-up grant if it has been registered as an association through the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. You can receive a start-up grant only once.
In grant applications for research and development activities promoting physical activity and health, the goals of the funded activities are defined in a cooperation agreement between Sports Services and the applicant. An action plan is also created based the cooperation agreement. The cooperation agreement can be long-term, for example, lasting up to two years. If you are interested in applying for a grant for research and development, please contact the grant coordinator for more details.
Apply for the grant annually by the end of October. The grant is awarded at the discretion of the Sports Committee, in accordance with the grant principles.
When to apply for an operating grant?
The application period for operating grants is from 18 September to 31 October each year.
Apply for a grant for the following year based on data from the current year. When applying, include an estimate of the physical activity data for the remainder of the year (November and December).
How is the grant amount determined?
The grant amount is based on regular sports activity during the calendar year preceding the grant. Only the members’ physical activities are considered in the grant evaluation. The numerical value of physical activities is calculated by multiplying the number of exercise sessions by the average number of participants. Physical activity, regardless of age, is treated equally when determining the grant amount.
When two or more associations organise joint sports groups in cooperation, the group in question is assigned a coefficient of two (2); otherwise, the coefficient is one (1). However, each association only reports its own participants.
How to apply for an operating grant
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1Fill in the application form online
Fill in the electronic application form: Grant application service (in Finnish or Swedish)
We recommend using the Mozilla or Chrome browser. The form requires identification.
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2Submit the required attachments
Submit the following attachments for the upcoming period with your application:
- Budget
- Action plan
Submit the following attachments for the current period:
- Annual report or equivalent
- Financial statements (income statement and balance sheet) or equivalent
- Performance audit report/Auditor’s report
- Association’s rules and regulations (new applicants and clubs whose rules have been updated)
- A report on the measures taken to prevent the use of tobacco and nicotine products (new applicants who organise activities for children and young people)
- Attendance sheets for exercise groups
Submit the attendance sheets as an attachment by the end of the application period. You can add other attachments to the application after the application period has ended.
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3Wait for the grant decision
The Sports Committee aims to process the grant applications at its meeting in February.
To the grant recipient
Payment of the grant
We will pay the grant to the recipient’s bank account once the required attachments have been submitted to the electronic grant system and the grant decision is final.
Monitoring of grants
The Sports Committee supervises compliance with the grant guidelines. If the association violates the guidelines or deliberately provides incorrect information, it must reimburse the grant awarded by the city in full, including any amount that has already been used.
When applying for an operating grant, do not report services or events of groups organised by Sports Services or supported through purchased services that have already received funding or been paid once. Sports Services check the accuracy of the reported information by randomly selecting four associations for closer inspection.