BBC Children in Need‘s annual TV telephon fundraising event takes place this evening from 7pm on BBC1.
BBC Children in Need (also promoted as Plant Mewn Angen in Wales) is the BBC’s UK charity. Since 1980, it has raised over £1.5 billion for disadvantaged children and young people in the UK. When adding up the money raised, it totals £1,569,978,236 from 1980 to 2022.
When the telephon started on 21st November 2020, presented by Esher Rantzen and Sue Lawley, it raised £1,200,000. Over the last few years, the amount raised has been around £60 million per year.
There’s lots of useful resources on the BBC Children in Need website (“10 Easy Ways to Boost Your Fundraising”) for local people and groups that want to contribute to the appeal. Some of these resources can be adapted for other appeals.
An award called the Sir Terry Wogan Fundraiser of the Year has been presented since 2016 to someone who has gone above and beyond to help raise money for Children in Need. The award was set up by Wogan’s family and was presented by his son, Mark, at the 2016 telethon to Ellie and Abbie Holloway during the 2017 telethon. In 2021, Michael Ball presented the award to Amy Wright.
Children in Need have recently relaunched its grant programmes, and now offers Core Grants, Project Grants and Grants for Emergency Essentials.
Its grant programmes operate across the UK, with grant-making teams based locally and informed by sector discussion and research relevant to the local area. Children in Need is a broad-based funder and wants to support projects that are reaching disadvantaged children and young people not strongly represented through its funding.
Further information about tonight’s telephon fundraising event is available on the BBC website, while information about Children in Need’s grant programmes can be found on the Children in Need website.
