Is the charity holding back funds?
No. Every penny the public donates goes to projects working with disadvantaged children and young people; Children in Need does not hold large sums of uncommitted funds.
BBC Children in Need provides grants to organisations over a three year period. Like most responsible charities, we do not hand over these multi-year grants in one lump sum at the beginning of their funding period. Instead, the money is released to the organisation over time so that we can monitor the work being done and feel confident that every penny the public has donated is being spent wisely, with the greatest possible impact on the lives of young people.
This is a responsible, prudent way of managing charitable donations and explains why BBC Children in Need holds the cash it has. It has been allocated to projects - it just gets released over a period of time. This money is needed to fund the commitments we have made to thousands of organisations throughout the UK working with children and young people.
How does the Charity cover its costs?
It takes just over a year to allocate all the money we raise during an Appeal, and once the funds are allocated to projects, the money isn’t released to projects in one go. This is because our grants can stretch between one and three years, and releasing the money in instalments allows us to make sure it’s being spent wisely, benefiting the lives of children and young people as agreed. We are in regular contact with our projects, and will only release an instalment of their funding once we’re satisfied the money is put to good use.
While we wait to release the funds, we invest them in low-risk investments to generate more money, which goes towards the running of the Charity. This income, along with Gift Aid and our trading income (from our sales of official merchandise and events) go towards the Charity’s running costs.
We are an efficient organisation with a low administrative cost base. However, to administer the Charity properly, fundraise creatively, manage the funds raised professionally and operate as an effective grant maker we inevitably incur some direct running costs. By covering our running costs this way it means we are able to keep our promise that for every penny we receive in donations, a penny will go to a project benefiting young lives in the UK.
It's alluding to money once held, having passed through the hands of the BBC with all the overheads, expenses,taxes and add-ons deducted. So you're wrong. 
