Children in Need is a BBC charity which presents itself as an organisation which raises money to support children, especially children with disabilities or other disadvantages. Its main fundraising vehicle is an annual telethon held in November - this year, the show will take place on Friday 13th November 2015.
While BBC Children in Need is itself a registered charity, its function is to give grants to a large number of smaller charities across the country. It has previously given grants to charities who fund abortion, family planning services and who use research methods that involve the destruction of embryos.
This year (2015) there is a list of approximately 2,500 charities which can expect to receive funding from Children in Need.
Previous grants
The BBC Children In Need website reveals that in 2012 and 2013 it made grants to numerous sexual health centres and projects supporting young people with same-sex attraction.Such centres and projects often support and/or facilitate legal abortion, abortifacient birth control and/or damaging forms of sex education.
Children in Need has also funded many rape crisis centres, including Rape Crisis Centre Glasgow, to which it awarded £135,222. This particular centre offers women the abortifacient morning-after pill, and will refer mothers to abortion services.
The grants section of the charity’s website indicates that the group has made several contributions to projects promoting LGBTQ lifestyles, with a grant of £75,000 awarded this year (2015) to Antrim Youth Information and Counselling Centre.
SPUC Comment
Rather than engaging directly in charitable work, Children in Need distributes the money it raises across a range of smaller organisations, whose activities will often not be known or advertised to those donating to the Children in Need fundraising campaign.
As the entry above shows, money has, in the very recent past, been donated to organisations engaged in anti-life practices.
Please send any information you may have about this charity to SPUC, either by email to rhoslynthomas@spuc.org.uk or by post to SPUC HQ.