Plan USA

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Plan International USA (Plan) is an international development and humanitarian nonprofit that partners with supporters, adolescent girls and children around the world to overcome oppression and gender inequality. It is part of Plan International, a global nonprofit federation that works to tackle the root causes of poverty by working with communities, organizations and governments.^[1][2]

History[]

, leaves a Nursery in Hampstead, London during 1941

Plan was founded in 1937 by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker .^[3] Originally named "Foster Parents Plan for Children in Spain", its aim was to provide food, accommodation, and education to children whose lives had been disrupted by the Spanish Civil War. During the Second World War, as "Foster Parents Plan for War Children", it worked with displaced children throughout war-torn Europe.^[4] By the 1970s, it had started working with children throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Plan International USA was originally incorporated as "Foster Parents Plan, Inc." in 1939 in New York to connect U.S. donors to sponsored children in developing countries.^[5] It was one of the first Plan International federation members.^[4] Its programs are implemented in more than 50 developing countries.^[6]

In 1974, the international parent organization Foster Parents Plan shortened its name to " Plan International." In the 1990s the U.S. organization followed suit, changing to "Childreach/Plan International" and eventually to "Plan International USA".

Finances and structure[]

Plan International USA is a publicly funded American non-profit charitable organization, deriving its income from a combination of individual contributions and private and federal grants. The total operating revenue in 2019 for the organization was approximately $68 million.^[7] Their headquarters is located in Warwick, Rhode Island.^[8]

After 11 years, Tessie San Martin stepped down as CEO & President in 2021, and Shanna Marzilli was named interim CEO & President.^[9][10][11] Other leadership positions include Constantin Abarbieritei, Chief Operating Officer;^[12][13] Dave Cannata, Chief Financial Officer;^[14] John Glover, Senior Vice President of Programs and Policy;^[15] Brit Rocourt, Vice President of Philanthropy; Jen Trainor, Vice President of Marketing; and Erin Mulanaphy, Interim Chief Human Resource Officer. The board has included at least one youth representative since 2015. ^[16] Its Youth Advisory Board is a youth-led group that advises the organization on projects and participates in events^[17] The Youth Advisory Board runs an annual Youth Leadership Academy, a summer program for high schoolers.^[18]

Campaigns and Reports[]

Because I Am a Girl was an international campaignal addressing gender discrimination.^[19] Its goal was to promote the rights of girls and bring millions of girls out of poverty around the world,^[20][21] promoting projects to improve opportunities for girls in education, health care, family planning, legal rights, and other areas.^[22]

In September 2018, the organization released "The State of Gender Equality for U.S. Adolescents".^[23] The report was covered by several media outlets including the New York Times,^[24][25][26] Washington Post,^[27][28] and Forbes.^[29][30] It reported how adolescents in the U.S. think about gender equality and what shapes those views. The report was named Media Relations campaign of the year by PR Daily.^[31]

In August 2019, the organization announced the largest individual gift in the organizations history.^[32] The gift will fund a program model called GirlEngage, which aims to challenge social and gender norms, send more girls to school and work to keep girls safe in their communities.^[33] This approach amplifies the voices of vulnerable and marginalized girls by including them in all stages of a project life-cycle – from defining the problem to program evaluation.^[34]

Programs[]

In coordination with Plan International and its other chapters, Plan International USA helped fund and organize the following in 2019:^[35]

• 40 million children benefited from Plan's work.
• 1.2 million children were sponsored.
• Partnered with 34,814 organizations.
• 2,000 take overs took place in 60 countries for International Day of the Girl where girls took over the roles of prime ministers, mayors, CEOs, and other leaders.
• Responded to disasters in 34 countries.

Child sponsorship[]

The child sponsorship program links each sponsor to an individual child in one of more than 50 developing countries where Plan International works. Sponsors contribute money and have an opportunity to correspond with the child and his or her family. Donations are not given directly to the child but are used to support projects for entire communities.^[8]

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof visited a child he sponsored in the Dominican Republic, a trip he wrote about in one of his columns, while pointing out the benefits of child sponsorship programs.^[36]

The effectiveness of the program was studied by RMIT University through an analysis "Changing Lives: An Analysis of Child Sponsorship Data".^[37] It looked at more than 12 million surveys from 2.7 million sponsored children over several years, finding that that more children attend school in sponsored communities than in non-sponsored communities, that school attendance rises every year the program works in a community and most children have greater access to improved water and sanitation.^[38]

In popular culture[]

The organization was featured in the 2002 film About Schmidt and Girl Rising in 2013. The organization is also featured in the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, published in 2009.

References[]