To hate Children in Need?

I'd love to know the fees the celebrities get, how much is spent on admin and how much the charities actually get at the end.

I give my money directly to two local hospices which I think is a much better way of donating.

Chocness have you missed the point that it's possible to not only donate directly to said charities, but also possible for people who find CIN grotesque to work directly for/with the charities

It's not a binary choice: CIN or no charity donations

Anyone see the news about Buck House today.

I recckon their PR dept must have been asleep.

How very sad that so many posters on here have missed the point. It's a damn good reason to raise some cash for very worthy children's charities. Would you rather nothIng is done to help these charities? I'm quite embarrassed by some of the views on here, so very cynical and self centredness at its best.

I have found my people!

I have hated these kinds of things ever since BandAid and thought it was only me!

Anyone else do the BandAid 24hr sponsored starvation thing?

I remember handing over my sheet and money and getting a "Oh, you didn't raise very much for those poor people did you?" from one teacher (we were very poor growing up so every penny counted and most of my lovely neighbours who sponsored me were pensioners). Queue major guilt trip and me crying. Luckily another teacher (Mr C) hugged me and said out loud "Well if Bob and Midge gave up their cheques for a couple of months or sold a holiday home we wouldn't have to ask the kids to beg for money would we?".

That stuck with me ever since. God bless you Mr C, wherever you may be!

I'm as poor as crap but I will give spare change if I see someone with a collection tin for a charity close to my heart but all those gurning twuntfunsters celebs on the telly who do these charity events and plead with people to "just donate a pound" just make my palms itch.

Well done for "giving your time" and promoting yourself. Now how about you all, live on air, donate a months salary or sell off one of those classic cars in your lovely posh heat controlled garage instead of making me feel crap because I can't "just donate a pound..."

I have kitties to feed! A pound coin can go a long for kitty noms! sets up Kitty Aid with just videos of kitties to watch

it's just such a circus. It's not interesting, the pieces about the causes are all gratuitous rather than insightful. It's poverty/illness porn!

I don't give to children in need. I don't like the celebrity connections. Bob Gedolf being a non dom for tax avoidance totally sickened me. So I don't give to celebrity promoted charities now.

Nicked this from twitter cos it sums up my thoughts exactly:

Let's spend the £205billion on making sure there are no more Children In Need, and let the slebs raise funds for 'Trident In Need' instead.

I don't like these sort of programmes. They're there to guilt tripping us unto donating, and whilst some of the money goes to very good causes, their overheads must be huge! I'd much rather give to smaller charities that are mostly lead by volunteers and are much more personal (my DD is a member of one due to a condition she has, and they really do change lives thanks go wonderful volunteers). I think that CIN do have a place, but something about it leaves me cold.

It's such a shouty programme, too noisy for my old ears.

I cannot watch any of the "telethons" like CIN, Comic Relief, Sport Relief etc. Celebs urging us to donate, sad stories (which usually make me cry) and cringy "skits" are not my idea of entertainment. I'll happily donate though and I did the £1 No. 7 Lucky Dip in our local Boots yesterday, and got a mini mascara which I was quite chuffed about. We had a Dress Down day in work today - all donations were going to various charities, including a proportion going to CIN I believe.

YANBU OP! Though actually it's only this thread that's made me finally clarify in my head that Children in Need and Comic Relief are actually two different things.

They roll around, I try to remember to do whatever nursery/school suddenly expect us to do at the last minute, and donate some money myself instead of trawling a sponsorship form around friends (I hate doing that). I never watch, I can't bear that kind of endless rolling celebathon/sad-face-athon/cringeworthy dance-athon.

I'm happy the money is raised, but you can feel that way and still hate the event.

rosie I thought that was explained because CiN award 5 year grants. So the money kept in the bank was earmarked for giving annual grants for 5 years to charities. it alllows them to plan long term. I've worked for charities. Every year, some projects would close and some would be on hold due to uncertainty over funding. A 5 year grant would allow longer term planning of projects.

Saw this today.

I hate it. Children in need should be getting support from the state - not having to rely on donations from people watching celebs sitting in tubs of baked beans.

And we shouldn't have food banks, or PTAs raising money for underfunded schools, or NHS volunteers etc.

It's a conflict, I know. I'm sure that no charity really wants to exist.

So to all those who don't like watching, what WOULD you like to see? What WOULD make you want to tune in?

Genuine question

Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.

Not anti-charity, far from it, have fundraised & volunteered for other organisations on occasion, however I loathe smug self promotion of the "celebrities".

Most of all I dislike that a percentage of the license fee goes towards the broadcasting & production costs of holding it. There should be an option when paying the license fee to exclude paying whatever that percentage is - even if it's only 2p per license - it's the principal.

The celebs do not get paid for appearing on CIN! ( the presenters might, but why shouldn't they?).

I really struggle to see why people are so keen to knock the charity itself? The programme is clearly a model that works given the huge amount raised annually so someone must like it.

In the absence of government money, charity has no choice right now but to exist. Though many people prefer to give directly to smaller charities, some small voluntary organisations and self help groups would have to spend huge amounts of time and money themselves to raise the amount they can otherwise get in one successful CiN grant application. It's not a bad thing.

I don't watch it and don't donate either.
When my kids were at school and a donation for a CIN non-uniform day were requested I used to donate to a charity of my choice and inform the school of that.

The point about celebs is that they get vast amounts of dosh but are doing sad faces to get the very families they want to help, to cough up.

Exactly! it's not so much the rich giving to the poor, a lot of it is targetted at getting the poor to give to the poor, it's gross

The point about celebs is that they get vast amounts of dosh but are doing sad faces to get the very families they want to help, to cough up.

I know exactly how much Tess Dailys other half gets for one nights DJing and being an MC . A years salary for a rural head teacher.
So no I don't watch or give money because why should I. However I do help children in need. Directly. And love my job.

It's very a "hands off" / don't get my hands dirty version of caring/giving

he people I know who are into it are stocked up on telly snacks and will be posting later on social media about how many feelingz they have for the sad people - it's grotesque, that's the only word for it

I am always glad of a non school uniform day. One last thing I had to do last night was to iron the school uniform.

I don't want to watch it, but I'm sitting in a call centre taking donation calls

It's amazing how much people do donate