Governance structures
Plan is an association of different legal entities operating in many different countries in the world. The global organisation of Plan comprises 17 National Organisations and their subsidiaries, Plan International, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary in the UK and some other affiliate organisations.
Various bodies perform different decision-making roles in the organisation:
Plan International, Inc. Members’ Assembly
Board of Directors
International Headquarters
National Organisations
Chief Executive Officer
International Management Team
Management Team
National Directors Team
Regional Offices
Country Offices
Country Management team
Programme Unit
The Members’ Assembly is Plan’s highest decision-making body and is made up of all the full member National Organisations. Delegates from the National Organisations comprise the Assembly which meets twice each year.
One of the main tasks of the Members’ Assembly is to elect the Board of Directors of Plan International, Inc. which reports to and is accountable to the Members’ Assembly. It also sets high-level strategy and direction for the global organisation, approves the financial budgets and receives the audited accounts. Read the Bylaws of Plan International, Inc. (119kb | 26 pages).
The International Board of Plan International, Inc. is nominated and elected by the Members’ Assembly. Board Directors are all non-executive volunteers.
Collectively, the Board is accountable to the Members’ Assembly for all its decisions. It approves policy and procedure in line with the strategy approved by the Members’ Assembly; Board approved policy and procedure is then implemented by executive management in the field.
The International Board is comprised of up to 11 people, the majority of whom must also sit on National Organisation boards. The Board is required to retire by rotation and is nominated by the Nominating Committee of the Members’ Assembly based on various skill-sets that are required of the Members’ Assembly. Read the Bylaws of Plan International, Inc. (119kb | 26 pages).
International Headquarters is a separate legal entity incorporated in the United Kingdom under the name Plan Ltd. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Plan international Incorporated (PII) to provide services to field operations. It is split into 6 departments with functional directors.
International Headquarters is the strategic centre and service provider to the field. Plan’s International Headquarters is managed by the Chief Executive Officer who is personally accountable to the International Board of Directors.
The National Organisations (NOs) are Plan’s main fundraising arm and the public face of the organisation in the industrialised world. They perform a vital role in development education by engaging with sponsors and governments in their respective countries. Increasingly they play an important role in advocacy, being the voice of Plan and holding duty-bearers to account.
NOs are constituted as separate legal entities with their own Board and governance mechanisms. They are accountable to their donors through their appropriate national authority regulators, which grant tax exempt status, and directly through their individual national complaints mechanisms.
All NOs are members of PII and through a system of weighted voting are entitled to nominate delegates to sit on the Members’ Assembly of PII.
A number of NOs run their own field programmes but remain bound by their obligations under the Members agreement to global standards and the Certificate of Incorporation (164kb | 7 pages).
NOs are managed by their own National Director (ND) who is accountable to their individual Board for their operations of their NO.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is personally accountable to the International Board of Directors for the management of day-to-day operations and decisions within the executive management of the organisation.
He has no line management responsibility over any of the National Organisations (NO) or National Directors (ND) but instead operates as a point of liaison and contact with NDs.
The International Management Team (IMT) is the senior management team for field operations i.e. PII. It meets at least twice a year and is comprised of the CEO, Chief Operation Officer (COO) who chairs the meetings, all 4 Regional Directors (RDs), all functional Departmental Directors.
The IMT is the decision-making forum by which management approves policy and practice relating to operational functioning of PII. It is responsible for implementing of policy in alignment with the strategic policies of the Board of Directors.
The CEO also has an informal Management Team (MT), comprised of CEO, COO, Director of Finance, 2 RDs (rotating) and NDs (also rotating). It is an advisory committee only, which the CEO uses as a sounding board for urgent operational decisions.
The National Directors Team (NDT) comprises of 17 NDs. It is an information forum only, and is designed to share best practices and learning between NDs. NDT decisions are not binding, as it has no decision-making powers over individual NDs.
Regional Offices (ROs) are branch offices of PII so do not have a separate constitution or governance model outside of PII. They are headed by a Regional Director (RD) who is line managed by the COO.
Plan has 4 ROs: Americas, Asia, East and Southern Africa and West Africa. They are responsible for managing Country Offices in their region.
With a few exceptions, Country Offices (COs) are usually set up as branches of PII and have no separate Board and have no separate governance structure from PII. They are line managed by the RD and Deputy RD of their appropriate region. COs are responsible for all operations within the CO and programme unit (PU).
The Country Management Team (CMT) is usually comprised of the CO senior managers: Country Director, Finance Manager, Programme Support Manager, Sponsorship and Grants Support Manager, and Human Resources Manager.
The CO is responsible for ensuring they have an updated Country Strategic Plan (CSP) that is approved through line management via the Chief Operating Officer (COO). All CSPs must be in line with the Plan Strategic Objectives approved by the Members’ Assembly and the vision and mission of Plan.
Programme Units (PUs) are the smallest organisational unit in Plan and are most often located within the communities where we work.
Programme Units are run by a PU manager who is personally responsible to the Country Director. PUs are the operational units which manage programmes on the ground or liaise with partner organisations in the field. They are an integral part of the CO structure.
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