Helsingin Sanomain Säätiö

Helps Helsingin Sanomain Saati by funding media innovation grants and fellowships for communication-focused public interest projects.

Helsingin Sanomain Säätiö, the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation, is a private Finnish foundation dedicated to promoting quality journalism and freedom of speech. It was established in December 2005 through a merger of the Helsingin Sanomat Centennial Foundation and the Päivälehti Archive Foundation, and it has since distributed about EUR 51 million across 424 grants and 187 journalist scholarships.

Its main instruments are research grants on media, communications, and freedom of speech, fellowships for Finnish mid-career journalists to study abroad, and directed calls on topics such as AI in journalism and media literacy. Recent application rounds show individual awards from EUR 17,500 to EUR 250,000, with total distributions typically ranging from EUR 400,000 to EUR 1,000,000+ per year.

The foundation operates a two-phase application system, reviews work twice yearly, and evaluates proposals on innovativeness, novelty, academic or field impact, and the clarity and feasibility of the plan. It is best suited to journalism and media projects that can show public value, strong methods, and a credible route to field-wide benefit rather than core operations.