Estonian Institute

Estonian Institute

Founded	1989; 35 years ago (1989)
Founder	Government of Estonia
Type	Cultural institution
Location	Tallinn  Estonia
Area served	Worldwide
Product	Estonian cultural education
Owner	private
Website	[1]

The Estonian Institute (Estonian: Eesti Instituut) is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation based in Tallinn aiming to promote Estonian culture abroad. The institute was founded in 1988/1989^[1] as a shadow foreign office for the Estonian independence movement by Lennart Meri, later first foreign minister and first president of Estonia after their Soviet occupation. Current director of the institute is Katrin Maiste.^[2]

The Institute currently employs a dozen persons, who work either in the Tallinn main office or branches abroad in Finland (Helsinki, founded in 1995)^[3] and Hungary (Budapest, est. 1998);^[4] previously, the Institute had offices in Sweden (1999-2011) and France (2001-2009). Also 3 teachers of the Estonian language and culture work outside Estonia.^[5]

The contributors include several prominent people of their field as authors of the texts, editors, board members, designers and creators of information technology applications.

The basis of the activities of the Estonian Institute as a non-governmental institution is its constitution. The work is directed by the General Meeting and the Governing Board elected for three years. The Board elected in September 2017 includes Katrin Maiste (Chairman), Liina Luhats, and Mart Meri. As of September 2017 the non-profit organisation has 37 members.

The Estonian Institute is supported from state budget via the Ministry of Culture.^[6] This is supplemented by targeted financing from various sources for specific undertakings. The teaching of Estonian language and culture is organised in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Research.

The Estonian Institute is member of the European Union National Institutes for Culture EUNIC. The Institute’s activities rely on the principles of the code of ethics of Estonian non-governmental organisations.