about Children in Need (and big charities in general)

[divineinterruption]

What percentage of the donations actually go to help people in need? Big charities must have huge staffing costs, admin, offices, infrastructure etc and I just think it must be only a very a small percentage that actually goes to the target organisations.

They are all different. With children in need all the donation goes to helping people and the gift aid part pays for the staffing costs and admin.

It's all available on the charity commissions website - you can read their accounts.

Of course there is staffing and overheads for any charity like any business. Without the correct infrastructure the charity couldn't survive.