Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

a (Finnish for registered association) or (Swedish) is a registered,

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

. The abbreviations (also ) (Finnish), (Swedish) or (Northern Sámi) are used as a

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

ending of the association's name, added when the association is officially registered. Registration is not mandatory, but is required in order for the association to become a juridical person, which confers various benefits. Registration requires the association to create a legally sound constitution, which must be approved by the . Said constitution must contain provisions outlining the association's policies regarding language, its home address, its intended purpose and forms of activity, membership fees, its government board, accounting and bookkeeping, revision of the constitution, assembly meetings and how the association's property is to be utilised in the event of its dissolution. Registered associations can have both individual persons and legal persons as its members. The association must have a government board consisting of at least three members, out of whom the speaker must be at the

age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when a person ceases to be considered a minor (law), minor, and assumes legal control over their person, actions, and decisions, thus te ...

(18 years), the rest at least 15 years old. In principle, if the constitution provides for it, every member who is at least 15 years of age has one vote during board meetings, board elections and other votes. When an association is officially registered, it becomes a

juridical person A juridical person is a legal person that is not a natural person but an organization recognized by law as a fictitious person such as a corporation, government agency, non-governmental organisation, or international organization (such as the ...

with

legal person In law, a legal person is any person or legal entity that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, lawsuit, sue and be sued, ownership, own property, and so on. The reason for the term "''le ...

ality separate from those of its individual members and gains the right to own property and make

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

s on its own behalf independently of its members, and it ensures the legal enforceability of its constitution. At the same time, the individual members no longer personally hold responsibility for the association's liabilities. In 2021, Finland had around 108,000 registered associations, down from 130,000 in 2011.

Related types of Finnish companies

* , abbreviated , general partnership * , abbreviated ,

limited partnership A limited partnership (LP) is a type of partnership with general partners, who have a right to manage the business, and limited partners, who have no right to manage the business but have only limited liability for its debts. Limited partnership ...

* , abbreviated ,

limited company In a limited company, the Legal liability, liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a c ...

(in , abbreviated )

References

External links

Finnish Register of Associations

at the Finnish Patent and Registration Office Non-profit organisations based in Finland {{Nonprofit-org-stub

Related types of Finnish companies

See also

References

External links