Svenska folkskolans vänner

The association was founded in 1882 by Vilhelm Grefberg, a physician. In the 1880s, Finland's language policy became more Finnish-centered. This led to the founding of SFV in order to guard the interests of the Swedish-speaking minority. This manifested itself in the founding of Swedish-speaking schools throughout the country (until 1917 part of the Russian Empire). The association published magazines, organised events and raised funds as well as tried to show the Russian authorities that they did not want to lose their mother tongue and go to Finnish-speaking schools or become Russian-speakers. The first secretary of the association was Axel Lille.

According to its mission, SFV's activity consists of three main things:

Awarding grants and scholarships

Maintaining educational programs and publishing houses

Publishing its own works

SFV is the seventh largest owner (with 7.88% of the shares) of Veritas, a Finnish pension insurance company. The association also is the biggest owner of Axxell Utbildning Ab, a Swedish-language vocational school operating in nine municipalities.

Until 2012, the association owned Schildts publishing house, and after a publishing merger in 2012, it is the second-largest owner of the Finnish-Swedish publishing house Schildts & Söderströms, which it owns together with Finlands Svenska Lärarförbund. SFV also maintains Svenska studiecentralen ('the Swedish Study Centre'), which has its origins in the SFV Lecture Bureau, founded in 1919. From 1998 to 2015, SFV also ran Svenska produktionsskolan ('the Swedish Production School', Sveps) in Helsinki and Föregångarna in Vaasa, both of which were transferred to Folkhälsan Utbildning Ab on 1 August 2015.

The seat of SFV is located in Helsinki but it has side operations in both Vaasa and Turku. The association is a member of the European Foundation Centre. As of 2017 the association's chair is Wivan Nygård-Fagerudd.