• • The Core Costs funding stream has no application deadline – you can apply at any time
  • We will not fund any work that has already taken place, or any costs incurred, before the date we give you a decision
  • The first step in applying for Core Costs is to fill in a short Expression of Interest (EOI) form online
  • Use the EOI form to tell us a bit more about your organisation, and the work you want us to fund
  • You’ll be able to access the EOI form in your online account when the funding stream is open
  • If we would like to support the work outlined in your EOI form, we’ll send you a full application form to complete
  • Our National and Regional Plans will help you understand how we prioritise decisions

We receive three times more ‘Expression of Interest’ requests than we are able to invite to submit a full application. Of those invited to submit a full application 1 in 2 get funding.

BBC Children in Need commits to fairness and making a positive difference for children and young people. It is our responsibility to embrace a diverse, equitable, and inclusive approach to everything we do. Children and young people are great at this and we need to be too.

We encourage you to contact us with any feedback about our grant-making. We want to be as accessible and supportive as possible for your organisation. This could mean translating our application into another language. We will also speak to you to help clarify any questions.  If you need help to apply, please phone us on 0345 609 0015, or email [email protected]

As we get further on this journey together we will develop to ensure we are an equitable, diverse, and inclusive grant-maker.

We want our application process to work well for you. It’s new to us too, so we’ll be learning and improving as we go. Please let us know if you have any thoughts or suggestions for improving it.

Core Costs support essential organisational and administrative spending. These are the key expenses required to keep your organisation running.

Our Core Costs funding can be spent on your organisation’s central day-to-day operations. These might include, for example:

• • Management and administration
  • HR and payroll
  • General office expenses
  • Accountancy and audit
  • Communications and outreach
  • Monitoring, evaluation, and learning
  • Governance, regulatory, and compliance costs

Our Core Costs Funding Stream is for charities and not-for-profit organisations. Applicants to this programme can apply for grants for up to three years. We aim to give quicker decisions for grants of £15,000 or less per year.

The information below will help you decide whether to apply for Core Costs. If you want to apply for Project Costs instead, please visit our Project Costs Funding Stream page.

• Not-for-profit organisations working with children and young people aged 18 or under
• Organisations that work with children and young people who live in the UK, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands
• We will only consider applications for over £15,000 per year from organisations who have registered with the appropriate regulatory body
  • • These include the Charity Commission for England and Wales, Charity Commission for Northern Ireland and the Scottish Charity Register
    • If you are a Company limited by Guarantee, you must have registered with Companies House
• You can only apply for and hold one grant at any time.
• If you have a current BBC Children in Need grant that is due to end within 12 months, you can usually re-apply. If successful with your new application, funds will not be released until your current grant has ended.  For full information, please see ‘We already have a grant from BBC Children in Need. When can we apply for another?‘ in our FAQ.
• If we do not fund your application we will advise you when you are next able to apply to us.
• If you have a current BBC Children in Need Small or Main grant that is due to end within 12 months, you can re-apply. If successful with your new application, funds will not be released until your current grant has ended. If you hold any other grant with BBC Children in Need (e.g. We Move, YSA, Curiosity, Inspiring Futures etc), you can re-apply at any time.
• You won’t be eligible for our Project/Core Costs stream if you have a current Small or Main grant with more than 12 months left to deliver
• We seek to prioritise smaller, local organisations
  • • As a result, we will rarely fund Core Costs for organisations with an annual turnover of more than £1 million in the most recent, complete financial year
    • We understand that some organisations with higher income deliver vital work for children and young people. We will accept applications from the following organisations regardless of turnover:
      • Hospices (including children’s hospices)
      • Housing Associations
      • Applications delivering work nationwide (across a whole nation) or UK-wide (across multiple nations within the UK)
  • We understand that, in some circumstances, larger and/or national organisations may be best-placed to deliver work to communities who need it most

• Organisations may only hold one Core Costs grant at any time, regardless of where in the UK they deliver work
• If you apply to us for UK-wide delivery, a centrally based decision panel will consider your application. Please see our A to Z page for more information on UK Wide Delivery.

The people and organisations that BBC Children in Need fund will be:

• Working with children and young people aged 18 years and under
• Working in the heart of their communities, particularly in times of crisis
• Putting children and young people at the centre of everything they do, from design to delivery
• Addressing challenges faced by children and young people, building their skills and resilience
• Empowering children and young people, and extending their choices in life
• Keen to keep learning about and developing their work with children and young people
• Committed to making a difference in children and young people’s lives

BBC Children in Need doesn’t fund:

• Work that statutory bodies (such as schools or local authorities) have a duty to fund
• Educational institutions, including schools, universities, and pupil referral units. Special schools are the only exception; please see our A–Z Guidance for more detail
• Local government, prisons, or NHS bodies
• Capital or building projects
• Work that promotes religion
• Trips abroad, or other activity taking place outside the UK
• Medical treatment or research
• Pregnancy testing or advice, information, or counselling on pregnancy choices
• Awareness-raising work, except where targeted at children or young people most at risk
• Bursaries, sponsored places, fees, or similar costs
• Holidays where there is little or no project involvement
• Political activity, including party political organisations or direct lobbying
• Individuals
• Costs passed on to other organisations
• General appeals or endowment funds
• Help with budget shortfalls or debt repayments
• Work that has already taken place – or any costs incurred – before the date we give you a decision (retrospective funding)
• Expenditure unable to start within 12 months of the grant award date
• Unspecified expenditure
• Any activity that is already being funded through another grant. We cannot fund the same activity twice. All applications should clearly demonstrate that they are either for different work, or for work with a different cohort of children and young people.

It’s very important that you refer to our online A–Z Guidance before you apply for funding. It may also save you the time and effort of applying for costs we don’t fund. You should also check that you meet our Minimum Standards for Grantmaking.

Our A-Z Guidance includes details of our grantmaking policies. Some will be relevant to every application, such as our Safeguarding Children policy. Others are important for certain types of applications, such as work involving counselling, or organisations seeking funding for equipment.

How much should you apply for?

• Applications for grants of £15,000 or less per year will receive a quicker decision from us, and so will be able to start sooner if successful
• Our Core Grants stream supports organisations for up to three years
• We will only consider applications for over £15,000 per year from organisations who have registered with the appropriate regulatory body
  • • These include the Charity Commission for England and Wales, Charity Commission for Northern Ireland and the Scottish Charity Register
    • If you are a Company limited by Guarantee, you must have registered with Companies House
• We do not make grants of over £120,000 (or £40,000 per year), and most grants we make are for much less than this. Each year we receive far a higher number of funding requests than we are able to support. Applications for larger amounts are always more difficult for us to fund
• If your work directly supports certain groups of especially vulnerable children and young people, you’ll be unable to apply for less than £15,001 per year
  • • In particular, this means work with children affected by child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, or serious youth violence
    • Our approach to funding work in these areas involves making larger grants, and building deeper relationships with delivery organisations

1. Plan your application in detail. Poor planning is a common cause of unsuccessful applications.
2. Read our A-Z Guidance to help ensure you’re only applying for things that we can fund.
3. Read our Minimum Standards for Grantmaking to check that your organisation is eligible. If these standards are not met, we will be unable to support your work.
4. Submit your EOI form for us to consider against our national and regional priorities. We aim to give you a decision regarding your Expression of Interest Form within six weeks of receiving it.
5. If we decide to progress your EOI to the next stage, we will send you a link to a full application form. You will then gain access this form through your online account.

You can see copies of our EOI/Application Forms below:

• Expression of Interest Form
• Core Costs (£15,000 and under per year)
• Core Costs (Over £15,000 per year)

The Core Costs stream has no application deadlines, so you can apply at any time. We will not any fund work that has already taken place, or any costs incurred, before the date we give you a decision. If your request is successful, you must start spending your grant within 12 months

Plan your application date so that you will receive a decision in plenty of time before your spending begins. We receive a very high number of applications between October and January. If you submit a form during these months, it make take longer to get a decision.

After you submit your EOI form, we’ll send you an email to confirm we’ve received it. This email will also give you more information about what happens next.

• If your EOI is not progressed to the next stage, we’ll email you to explain our decision. Due to the high volume of organisations registering through this process, we cannot give you any further feedback at this stage.
• If we do decide to progress your EOI, we’ll send you a link to a full online application form
• Once we’ve sent you this link, you’ll be able to access the full application form in your online account
• You’ll have 60 days to submit your full application, from the day we send you the link

We may decide that your EOI would be a better fit for one of our other funding streams, and not the one you’ve applied to. In that case, we’ll send you a link to apply for the BBC Children in Need fund that best supports your planned work.

After you submit the full application form, we’ll send you an email to confirm we’ve received it. This email will also give you more information about what happens next.

1. First, your local team will check that the Core Costs you applied for are eligible for our funding.
2. We will then use a standardised process to help us decide which applications to take further. Among other things, this process will consider:

• • The current volume of applications
  • The current budget available
  • Our national and regional priorities

3. We may ask you to book a time slot with us for a brief phone call about your safeguarding procedures.
4. We may also ask for more information about your application or your work.
5. Applications are sent to a decision-making meeting in your region or nation, where a funding recommendation is made.
6. Recommendations are passed to our trustees, and a final decision made about whether to offer you a grant. Once this decision is made, we’ll email you to confirm the outcome.

We’ll soon be publishing more information about how long it will take to get a decision from us.

What happens when you get a decision?

If your application is successful, we’ll send you an email to confirm this. The email will explain more about what happens next. You can also find more information in the ‘I have a grant’ section.

• There may be some further conditions on your grant. These are changes you’ll need to make, or things you’ll need to tell us, before we can award you the agreed funding
• You must start spending the grant within 12 months of the date that we email you our decision

If your application is unsuccessful, we’ll send you an email to confirm this. The email will give you a brief reason for our decision, and include details about when you can apply again.

You can also contact us if would like further feedback.

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