HYY’s grants for organisations

1. Grants and services in general

The purpose of HYY’s organisational services is to support the activity of the Student Union’s members and to create as good conditions as possible for organisations so that they can focus on their operations and on developing the operations. In addition to providing them with premises, HYY supports the activities of organisations operating under it by providing them with diverse services and direct financial support.

Organisations can apply for the following grants:

• Operating grant
• Organisation paper grant
• Project grant
• Furniture grant
• Grant for innovative learning methods

Organisations may also use the Student Union’s equipment rental services.

2. Operating grant

HYY allocates grants to the organisations operating under it to enable their operation. The operating grants are awarded to those organisations operating under HYY that fulfil the criteria for awarding the grant. The Financial Committee is in charge of allocating the operating grants. Organisations apply for the grants through the Tahlo system, with the application period taking place in February every year. The exact dates for the application period are announced on the ‘hyy-jarjestot’ email list and on HYY’s website. As a rule of thumb, though, February is the time for applying for an operating grant.

You can read the instructions on using Tahlo in the section ‘Instructions on using Tahlo’.

It is possible to receive an advance payment of the operating grant before the final decision is made. Advance payments are given to organisations that have received a grant in the previous year as well as submitted their action plan and budget for the present year and the annual report of the previous year. The amount of advance payment given to the organisation will be subtracted from the final amount of grant awarded to it by the Board, and the remaining sum will be paid to the organisation once it has delivered all the required attachments to the Student Union.

The decision on allocating the operating grants is made by HYY’s Board and prepared by the Financial Committee. The Financial Committee decides on the principles and criteria for the allocation of operating grants annually.

The Financial Committee’s currently valid decisions concerning the operating grants can be found on HYY’s website.

The following documents are required as attachments to applications for an operating grant:

• Budget for the present year/period
• Action plan for the present year/period
• Income statement from the previous year/period
• Balance sheet from the previous year/period
• Signed auditor’s report or performance audit report from the previous year/period
• Annual report from the previous year/period
• Activity calendar from the previous year/period

Other attachments may also be added to the application under the section ‘Other attachments’. You could include the organisation’s equality or environmental plan here, for instance. If there are several other attachments, however, they should be uploaded as one PDF file.

At least preliminary versions of all required documents must be submitted by the deadline of the application period for operating grants for the Financial Committee to be able to assess the operations at all. After the deadline, we can no longer promise that there will be time to assess the attachments when scoring the organisation.

In the case of performance audit reports, it may be impossible to provide even a preliminary version. If this is the case, you may add a short explanation on why the performance audit report could not be submitted into the place reserved for the report, such as: ‘the performance audit has not been completed yet, the finalised attachments will be submitted by [date].’

You can supplement the application for an operating grant with the final attachments until the end of September. However, the final sum of the operating grant will not be paid to organisations that have not submitted the final versions of all required documents. In the case of performance audit reports, this refers to the signed version.

2.1. Instructions on using Tahlo

TAHLO, or Tahlo, is an abbreviation of the words ‘toiminta-avustuksen hakulomake’ (‘application form for the operating grants’ in English). Tahlo is opened at the beginning of the year and closed on a date that is announced separately in the newsletter for organisations and is usually in late February or early March. While the form is open, organisations may use it to update their contact details and submit attachments to their application for an operating grant into the system. Filling in Tahlo is an absolute prerequisite for receiving an operating grant from HYY.

You can log in to Tahlo at tahlo.hyy.fi using the organisation’s own login details. If you lose the organisation’s username or password, you can ask for a new password from HYY’s specialist in organisations.

Below, we have compiled page-by-page instructions on how to fill in Tahlo. If these instructions do not answer your questions, please contact the specialist in organisations, the chair of HYY’s Board’s Financial Committee or the person in charge of organisations on HYY’s Board.

Basic information

Fill in the empty fields on the page or check that the information already in the system is correct. The page automatically shows you the details submitted the previous year.

• Name: The name the organisation uses of itself. E.g. Academic Tuba Club
• Official name: The name used of the organisation in the Register of Associations. E.g. The Academic Tuba Club of the University of Helsinki ry.
• Abbreviation: An abbreviation (possibly) made of the organisation’s name. E.g. Tuba Club.
• Postal address: The organisation’s postal address. If the organisation has a PO box at the New Student House or the department, for instance, use that address here. If the organisation’s mail is received by a member of its board, the chair, for instance, fill in the chair’s home address instead.
• Email of the chair/board: Address to which all HYY’s newsletters for organisations are sent, for instance. We recommend using a permanent email address here (e.g. the board’s permanent email list whose recipients the organisation changes itself). This way, we will reach as many active people from the organisation as possible and information will flow faster. If the organisation has a separate email list for the board, use that address here. Please note that this is also the email address to which we will send a new password to replace a lost one.
• Phone number: The phone number of the chair or some other person in charge of contacts.
• Bank account: The account to which you want us to pay the operating grant awarded to the organisation. Enter the number of the bank account in IBAN format.
• Organisation is registered: Is the association in the Register of Associations of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office? You can check the registration date from the website of the office.
• Registration date: The date on which the association was registered to the Register of Associations of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. Leave the field empty if the association has not been registered.
• Organisation's date of establishment: The date on which the association was founded. If the organisation is not a registered association, use the organisation’s founding date.
• Does the association operate under the auspices of another organisation: Does the organisation operate under some kind of an umbrella organisation? For instance, subject organisations could operate under a faculty organisation, whereas hobby organisations may possibly have national or international umbrella organisations.
• Sub-organisations: If the organisation acts as an umbrella organisation to other organisations itself, fill in the names of its member organisations here.
• Organisation board: Enter the information about the members of the board here. Add one office / area of responsibility per row and one name per row. Please note that ‘chair’, ‘treasurer’ and ‘secretary’ are mandatory fields. The officials will be added to HYY’s email lists – study advisors onto the email list for study advisors, for instance. Add more rows by clicking the button.

Annual information

• Our organisation applies for the operating grant for the year of: Check this box if your organisation is applying for HYY’s operating grant for the present year.
• Number of organisation members on 31 December 20XX: Check how many members your organisation had at the end of the year in question from your list of members. The year should always be the previous year.
• of which HYY’s members: How many of the organisation’s members are also members of HYY.
• Basis for calculating for the number of members: The dropdown menu provides three options: ‘List of members’, ‘Those who have paid the membership fee’ and ‘Other’. Choose the option based on which the number of members you previously entered has been calculated.
• Other grounds, please specify: If you selected ‘Other’ in the previous question, please explain how the number of members has been calculated here.
• Number of members who have paid the membership fee in 20XX: How many members of the organisation paid the membership fee during the year in question, which should always be the previous year.
• Amount of the membership fee in 20XX: What is the size of the organisation’s membership fee in 20XX. The year in question should always be the previous year.

Based on your annual report, evaluate how many member events (parties, excursions, lectures, club nights, etc.) you had in the year of 20XX: In this section, enter the number of events of each size (based on the number of participants) that the organisation organised for its members the previous year. If your organisation participated in a festival, for instance, use the number of the organisation’s members taking part in the festival, not the total number of participants for the entire event.

Calendar text
If you wish, you can submit a description of your organisation to be printed in the student calendar published by HYY. You can only get your text included in the calendar by filling in this form. There will only be one version of the student calendar, and Finnish, Swedish and English will be used in it side by side. You can thus use the languages you desire in your organisation’s calendar text. The maximum length of the texts is 400 characters. HYY retains the right to edit and shorten the texts.

Facilities
If your organisation has its own club room, click the ‘Add row’ button or check the details of the premises from ‘Edit information’. On the page that opens, enter the details of the premises: Choose a suitable option from the ‘Premises owned by’ dropdown menu. For the other fields, just enter the required information.

Organisation’s grant
This page is filled in by HYY’s Financial Committee. At the end of the allocation of operating grants, the Financial Committee will fill in the amount of grant awarded to the organisation as well as the individual awarding criteria based on the attachments of the application on this page.

Papers
If your organisation publishes its own paper, select its name from the list and check the details from the page that opens. Please note that the information from the previous year appear on this page automatically. If your organisation establishes a new paper, click the ‘Add a paper’ button. On the page that opens, enter the required information about the paper. The information submitted here is used for the allocation of the organisation paper grant awarded by HYY.

Attachments

Upload the attachments to your application for an operating grant on this page. All attachments must be in PDF format. After you have uploaded an attachment to the system, there should be one of two texts next to it: either ‘Attachment accepted’ and a time stamp or ‘Attachment received’ and a time stamp with ‘Attachment accepted’ and a time stamp below it. The former means that the attachment has not been authenticated as a final version (you can submit attachments to Tahlo as preliminary versions), that the attachment could not be opened for some reason or something similar.

You can check out model documents of the attachments on the page ‘Model documents related to grants’.

3. Organisation paper grant

HYY awards grants for the print magazines of organisations operating under it. The organisation paper grant has been awarded since 2006 in more or less its current form. Originally, the grant was meant for the printing costs of the paper, which is why it was not awarded to online magazines, but today, the grant is awarded to online magazines too. Further information on the grant is available on HYY’s website.

How to apply

You can apply for the organisation paper grant when applying for the operating grant. In practice, it is done on the ‘Papers’ tab in the Tahlo system. The application period for the organisation paper grant is the same as for the operating grant: until the end of February.

Awarding the grant

The size of the organisation paper grant is based on the criteria of the grant. You can read more about the annually decided model for the organisation paper grants on HYY’s website. To receive the grant, we require you to deliver the paper for which the grant is awarded to HYY’s Central Office. This way, we can ensure that the paper is actually published. In addition to this, the paper must include a mention that it has received HYY’s organisation paper grant.

In the case of online publications, a link to the online paper sent to jarjesto@hyy.fi (or otherwise delivered directly to the specialist in organisations) is considered as delivered to the office.

4. Project grant

HYY awards project grants to both organisations operating under it and groups of its members. The aim of the project grant is to make it possible for parties organising projects to realise them as bigger, better-quality versions than they could otherwise afford. Project grants are awarded for a specific purpose and will be collected back if the party to which a grant was awarded cannot demonstrate that the funds were used for the project they were awarded for.

How to apply

The opening of the project grant application period is announced in the newsletter for organisations and in other channels for organisational communications.

Project grant applications can be free form, but they must include the following information:

• Name of the project
• Organising party (organisation/other)
• How much is applied
• Contact details of the person in charge: name, phone number, email
• Account number of the organising party

The following information on the project itself must also be included:

• Idea of the project: What are you planning to do in it?
• Goal: What do you aim to achieve with the project?
• Reason: Why do you want to realise the project?
• Time frame: When do you intend to realise the project? Does it last a day / a week / some other duration?
• Division of responsibility: Who is in charge of each part of the project?
• Target: Who is the project aimed at?
• Possible cooperation: Is the project realised in cooperation with another party?

The application must also feature the project’s budget, that is, a description of its income and expenses.

The applications are submitted according to the instructions set in the call for applications. Usually, they are sent either to jarjesto@hyy.fi, by email to the chair of the Financial Committee or as a paper version to the Services Office.

The grants are generally awarded in the spring.

Awarding the grant
The Financial Committee of HYY’s Board decides on awarding the grants. The grants are awarded based on the quality of the proposed projects. When making the decision, the projects are often also considered in terms of how well they promote the Student Union’s values and goals. On some years, the Financial Committee can further decide that a specific theme is favoured when awarding the project grants. If such a decision is made, the possible theme or focus is announced in the call for applications.

5. Furniture grant

HYY awards money to organisations operating under it for their furniture acquisitions. The aim of this grant is to help and encourage organisations to develop the organisational premises in their use and make them cosier. The furniture grant is meant for organisations operating in HYY’s premises.

Funds allocated for the grant amount to around 3,000 euros per year. You can apply for the grant all year round, but the grant is usually divided in such a way that around half of the sum is awarded in the spring and the other half in the autumn. However, each application is processed on its own merits. The specialist in organisations is in charge of awarding the grants.

The grant application must include the following information: the organisation applying for the grant, the target of the grant, the budget and the significance of the target. The signed application must be sent either by mail to the specialist in organisations or as an email attachment to jarjesto@hyy.fi.

6. Grant for innovative learning methods

HYY annually awards grants for innovative learning methods for student projects. The aim of the grant is to encourage students to use their initiative to develop studying and study methods. The grants are awarded for study projects organised by students, such as various courses or new study methods. Both individual students and organisations may apply for the grant, and coordinating a project to apply for it could be a suitable task for a subject organisation’s study advisor, for instance. The application period for the grant takes place annually, usually in the spring.

More detailed information and instructions on applying for the grant are usually published in the spring on HYY’s website and various newsletters. The Financial Committee is formally in charge of awarding the grants, but the educational policy sector deals with the preparatory work, which means that we recommend sending any questions you have to them. The contact details are usually found in the call for applications.