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The journey of your donation

BBC Children in Need is a fundraiser and grant giver. That means that we ask the public to raise and donate lots of money so that we can make a difference to disadvantaged children and young people in communities right across the UK.

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    Setting our grant budget

    We set out our ‘grant budget’ at the beginning of our grant making year in November, but organisations can apply to us for funding at any time, throughout the year.

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    Your donations

    The public generously raises and donates money for our annual Appeal.

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    Application reviews

    Although the money takes a while to come in, our trustees, volunteer committees and staff start saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to projects’ funding applications, based on our strict criteria. It takes less than a year to allocate money raised to projects.

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    Paying out the money

    Once allocated, we don’t give out the money to projects all at once. We pay out the money in instalments over the lifetime of the grant so that we can do some checks and balances and make sure the cash is really doing what it’s supposed to, making a difference to young lives. It’s the really responsible way of doing things.

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    Keeping us running

    Whilst the money is waiting to go to projects, we keep it in the bank and low risk investments which earn a return which is used to help run BBC Children in Need.

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    Helping children and young people across the UK be the best they can be.

    That way, your donations help us be there for children and young people who need us most. Then we start all over again!

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