Company Profile
Plan International USA
Company Overview
OUR VISION
We don’t just hope to make a difference, we plan to.
Plan’s vision is of a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies that respect people's rights and dignity.
Our mission is to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of vulnerable children in developing countries by:
Enabling children, their families, and their communities to meet basic needs and to increase their ability to participate in and benefit from their societies;
Fostering relationships to increase understanding and unity among peoples of different cultures and countries; and
Promoting the rights and interests of the world's children.
We invite you to join us in this important cause to make the world a better place.
You can hope to make a difference.
You can want to make a difference.
Or you can plan to make a difference.
Our name is not an accident. Because while our hearts may have led us to this work, our minds are why we are good at it.
Every day, in more than 50 countries, Plan takes on some of humankind’s most heartbreaking and intractable issues in deliberate, relentless, and bold fashion. We focus those efforts on children because it is right. But also because it is smart. Because when we strengthen the health, knowledge, and resilience of a child, it doesn’t just transform her life, it has ripple effects that carry through her family, her community, and ultimately, her nation.
No, this is not easy work. Progress is rarely measured in days or weeks but rather years and generations. But there is no work we’d rather be doing. Because we don’t just want to change the world.
We plan to.
Company History
Plan was founded in 1937, when a journalist and a refugee worker decided they wanted to assist children affected by the Spanish Civil War. With the help of our supporters and partners, we have grown into one of the oldest, widest-reaching, and most effective international development organizations in the world.
1937
During the Spanish Civil War, John Langdon-Davies, a British journalist, and Eric Muggeridge, an English relief volunteer, begin moving truckloads of orphaned and displaced children to safe camps in France, where they are provided medical care, food, and shelter.
1938
Plan, with 500 Spanish sponsored children, holds its first public meeting in New York City.
Appeal letter by American sponsor Thornton Wilder recounting the story of 4-year-old Manuel Garoia.
Thornton Wilder Letter
1940
With the world at war, Plan, with 1,200 children, flees bombardments in Spain, through France, to England. Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud, opens Hampstead Nurseries for Plan children. Enrollment is open to children living with families at home.
1942
Eleanor Roosevelt with her three foster children.
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1945
Ingrid Bergman is one of the celebrities involved in Plan's post-war shoe drive. Shoes are collected to be sent to people in European countries badly affected by war.
1949
At the end of the decade, sponsors in the United States and Canada are helping 5,706 sponsored children.
1959
Plan now has programs in Belgium, England, France, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, China, Korea, Greece, Italy, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Total enrolled children and their families: 15,004.
1960
A decade of expansion begins in the developing world as Plan modifies its program objectives and methods.
1964
Pat Boone with his foster child in Hong Kong.
1970
Australia joins the United States and Canada as a Plan donor country. Sponsorship grows. By 1969, the number of sponsored children is more than 53,000.
A dam in Bolivia is constructed with the support of Senator Edward Kennedy.
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1980
Plan United Kingdom opens. Plan program countries are now all outside of Europe.
1987
Plan celebrates its 50th anniversary. There are now more than 300,000 sponsored children.
1997
Plan ends its 60th year, supporting 1.1 million sponsored children in 42 developing countries.
2004
Actress Marcia Cross becomes a Plan sponsor.
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2012
Plan commemorates 75 years of commitment to children, thanks to generous sponsors and donors. Through programs focused on various technical areas, Plan reaches 56.5 million children in 50 developing countries.
TIMELINE
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