Föreningen får bidrag genom att värva sponsorer.

Because föreningen is the definite singular form of förening.

• förening = association / club / society
• föreningen = the association

In Swedish, the definite article is often added as an ending, so instead of a separate word like the, you get -en attached to the noun.

In Swedish, definiteness is often built into the noun itself.

So:

• en förening = an association
• föreningen = the association

Unlike English, Swedish usually does not use a separate the in simple cases like this. The ending already does that job.

Here, får means gets or receives.

It is the present tense of få.

• att få = to get / to receive
• får = gets / receives

So Föreningen får bidrag means The association receives funding/contributions.

A learner may also know får as may / is allowed to, and that is also possible in other contexts. Here, though, the meaning is clearly receives.

This is a very common question, because bidrag has the same form in the indefinite singular and indefinite plural.

Forms of the noun are:

• ett bidrag = a contribution / a grant
• bidrag = contributions / grants
• bidraget = the contribution / the grant
• bidragen = the contributions / the grants

In this sentence, bidrag is most naturally understood as funding, support, or contributions/grants in a general sense. The exact English wording depends on context.

Genom att means by when you explain how something happens.

So:

• genom att värva sponsorer = by recruiting sponsors

Literally, genom means through, and att introduces the infinitive verb. But in natural English, the whole phrase is usually translated as by + -ing.

Because after genom att, Swedish uses the infinitive.

• värva = to recruit
• genom att värva = by recruiting

This is similar to how English uses by recruiting, although Swedish keeps the infinitive form after att.

Värva means to recruit, to enlist, or to bring in people or support.

With sponsorer, it means something like:

• recruit sponsors
• sign up sponsors
• bring in sponsors

So the idea is that the association gets money/support by actively finding sponsors.

Because sponsorer is the indefinite plural: sponsors in general.

• en sponsor = a sponsor
• sponsorer = sponsors
• sponsorerna = the sponsors

Here the sentence is not talking about specific known sponsors, but sponsors in general, so sponsorer is the right form.

The sentence follows normal Swedish main-clause word order:

Föreningen | får | bidrag | genom att värva sponsorer
subject | verb | object | adverbial phrase

So:

• Föreningen = the subject
• får = the verb
• bidrag = what the association receives
• genom att värva sponsorer = how it receives it

This is a very standard Swedish sentence pattern.

Yes. Swedish allows that.

You could say:

Genom att värva sponsorer får föreningen bidrag.

That still means the same thing: By recruiting sponsors, the association receives funding/contributions.

Notice that when the sentence begins with the adverbial phrase, the verb får still stays in the second position. That is an important Swedish word-order rule.