In short
- The Appeal Show is on Friday 13 November 2026, but the charity’s pages set no fundraising deadline, so your event need not fall that night.
- No street or door-to-door collections without a licence, and no tins supplied. Hold an event instead.
- Pay in online, through JustGiving, at the Post Office or by cheque. Never post cash.
- Pudsey and the logo need a formal licence, and a business selling goods or running promotions needs a written agreement.
- Ticket sales do not qualify for Gift Aid. Sponsorship can.
Taking part in Children in Need properly means raising money for BBC Children in Need in line with the charity’s own fundraiser guidance. You pay the money in safely, stay inside the rules on collections, raffles and Pudsey, and tell supporters honestly where the money goes. Most groups get the fun part right and the admin wrong.
I am Kevin Durham, a professional charity auctioneer and event host, and I do not speak for the BBC. What I know is how an evening raises money, so this guide treats a quiz, an auction or a dinner as the vehicle and the charity’s rules as the road. Everything about the appeal comes from its own pages, read on 1 November 2026.
When is the Children in Need Appeal night in 2026?
The BBC Children in Need Appeal Show is on Friday 13 November 2026, according to the Appeal Show page, read on 1 November 2026. The show is held in November each year, so check that page for any later year.
The charity also lists a fundraising week, BBC Children in Need Week, as 9 to 13 November, and Run with Pudsey and Joe Wicks starts on 1 November. Challenge Yourself 2026 gives no end date.
Your own event can sit before or after the broadcast. My view, not the charity’s: a quiz or auction held on the night competes with the television, so a week either side often suits guests better.
What can you do for Children in Need properly, and what can’t you?
You can fundraise at any age and in almost any way, but BBC Children in Need’s fundraising FAQs draw firm lines around collections, raffles, business promotions and children. It does not authorise individual fundraisers or supply free prizes or merchandise.
| Activity | What the charity’s FAQs say |
|---|---|
| Street or door-to-door collection | Not encouraged. Public collections need a licence, and no tins or buckets are supplied. |
| Collection box | Collector must be 16 or over. |
| Collecting at a private venue | Suggested instead, with the owner’s permission. |
| Raffle | A lottery under the Gambling Act 2005, so it must follow the law. Under 16s cannot sell tickets for licensed lotteries. |
| Business sales or promotions | A written agreement with the charity is required. |
| Splitting with another charity | Allowed if supporters are told the split and which charities benefit. |
| Under 16s | Written consent from a parent or guardian, and no counting the final total. |
The Fundraising Regulator adds a risk assessment, which must be in writing by law for organisations with five or more employees, plus checking your insurance covers the event and the venue’s maximum attendance.
Telling the charity what you are doing is optional, but its tell us form may get you featured on BBC TV, radio or social media. It cannot promote individual events itself.
How do you pay the money in?
The charity says the safest route is its online pay-in system. Money can also go through a JustGiving page, at a Post Office as the charity’s official cash partner, or by cheque payable to BBC Children in Need. Its pay-in page is explicit: do not post cash.
Money donated through JustGiving or similar platforms is paid to the charity at regular intervals. The pages I read give no bank transfer details and no pay-in deadline, so bank cash the day you collect it and ask the charity if you need an exact date.
Can you use Pudsey or the logo?
Not without a formal licensing agreement. The FAQs say Pudsey is a trademark copyrighted by the BBC, so anyone using his logo needs a licence. The page I read gives no wording template for “in aid of”, so ask the fundraising team on pudsey@bbc.co.uk before printing anything.
This post carries no logo or Pudsey imagery for that reason. Posters can say what the money is for in plain words.
Choosing the vehicle: quiz, auction of promises or dinner
Pick the format by the size of the room and the lead time, not by what sounds fun.
- Lunchtime or evening quiz. Right for a workplace or club with a week to plan. Charge per team, find a proper host and keep one clear target. My quiz night guide covers pacing.
- Auction of promises. Colleagues donate a favour or a skill, never a person. It needs a host with some pace, and my auction of promises post explains the format.
- A dinner or ball. Only if you have weeks, because a venue, ticketing and lots cannot be built in a few days.
Whichever you choose, say plainly where the money goes. The Fundraising Regulator’s events guide says marketing should accurately explain how money raised will be used. Here is the arithmetic. Sixty guests at £25 is £1,500. If catering costs £900, then £600 reaches the charity, and “all proceeds go to Children in Need” would be wrong.
Either get the costs donated and say so, or print the split. The year before MS UK hired me, an external auction company grossed about £13,000 and the charity saw about £1,300. I told the room at the start where every pound was going, and the money followed the transparency.
Where do raffles and Gift Aid catch groups out?
A raffle at a charity evening needs no licence if it is an incidental lottery, but the rules are narrow. The Gambling Commission’s incidental lottery guidance says tickets are sold only at the event while it is happening, never online or beforehand.
The raffle cannot be the main reason for the event. Up to £500 of proceeds can buy prizes and up to £100 can cover running costs, while donated prizes have no value limit. My charity raffle rules post has the detail.
Gift Aid trips up more groups. HMRC says event tickets for a fundraising dinner do not qualify as donations, and an auction purchase does not qualify where the item’s retail value exceeds the benefit limits.
Sponsorship does qualify. BBC Children in Need must have each sponsor’s first name or initials, surname, full home address and postcode, and says £10 of sponsorship can add £2.50. Twenty sponsors at £10 is £200, which could become £250.
Is a charity auctioneer worth hiring to do Children in Need properly?
For a lunchtime quiz or an auction of promises, usually not: a confident colleague and a clear target will do. A professional earns the fee when you have a room of tables, one night to hit a number and a live auction or pledge that needs momentum.
A professional changes three things. The room is quiet before anyone is asked for money, the pace never drops, and a live pledge is built in, because that is where the real money lives. In my experience, most event planners do not realise how much a pledge can raise.
Naomi Chaning Pearce of the Jigsaw Trust put it more kindly than I would on the reviews page: “Kevin owned the room as he conducted the live auction, more than doubling our target. It was not just during the event where Kevin showed his skills, but also in guiding our planning.” The Trust built that room. My job was small next to theirs.
If you hire me for a Children in Need evening, the auction software is included. I build the platform around your event, in your branding, with your lots and tickets. It stays live for a month afterwards. See my charity auctioneer services for how it works.
If your night is in the next ten days
- Today. Choose one format and one target, and tell the charity what you are doing.
- Tomorrow. Set up a JustGiving page, so nobody holds a tin of cash.
- This week. Collect donated prizes, and print the plain-words poster showing what the money does.
- On the night. Sell raffle tickets only at the event, and collect sponsor details for Gift Aid.
- Next morning. Pay in, then send thanks with the total.
When you get in touch, have the date, number of guests, venue, running order and what went wrong last time to hand. Call me on 07596 851647.
Kevin Durham
Charity auctioneer & event host