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 financial year in July, and then hold ‘grant rounds’ where projects can apply to us for funding.
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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 disadvantaged children & young people across the UK
That way, your donations help us to support children and young people experiencing disadvantage throughout the UK. Then we start all over again!