The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 80 countries.

The Opportunity

Revitalising sponsorship, developing effective alternative regular giving products and ensuring financial sustainability are top priorities in Plan International’s global strategy. Leaders across Plan International have agreed on the need for a concerted, all of Plan International, strategic initiative to move this work forward with urgency.

Sponsorship is a vital way of enabling impact in the lives of sponsored children and their communities, as well as in the lives of sponsors. It is the most sustainable and flexible source of revenue for Plan International. In a time of rapid change, Plan International’s sponsorship approach is currently facing a range of significant challenges and opportunities across the full continuum from sponsors to sponsored children and communities. Plan International is also working to develop alternative regular giving products that appeal to demographic groups not drawn to child sponsorship (e.g., Millennials) and ensuring these are aligned to Plan’s strategic priorities, including empowering girls as leaders and activists and supporting girls and communities in conflict and fragile contexts.

At the same time, Plan International has seen significant growth in its grant portfolio over the years. Whilst this is to be celebrated, it also puts pressure on our sponsorship funds due to co-financing and match requirements, subsidisation of underfunded grant related projects, paying for disallowances, and other related costs. Also, sponsorship funds are the primary source of investment for large strategic initiatives, including systems upgrades to deal with the complexity of our funding portfolio, security, safeguarding, finance, programmatic and other global or regional investments needed to support our portfolio of work.

This revitalisation is intended to enhance the impact, effectiveness, efficiency, and income of Plan International.

The Portfolio Director is a senior role that will provide global leadership to this ambitious initiative, working closely with two members of Plan’s global leadership team, who are co-sponsoring this programme of work. You will ensure effective co-creation, development, delivery, and accountability across a complex portfolio of projects that span strategy, programming, operations, sponsorship, marketing, communications, finance and IT.

You will work globally, coordinating and being responsible for planning, tracking and reporting on all initiatives related to the Sponsorship Revitalisation strategic priority.

You will ensure programme governance and reporting standards are understood, followed and maintained by internal teams, as well as relevant stakeholders.

You will be a key member of the change leadership, bringing focus to the importance of effective programme management and delivery of ambitious plans.

About You

You bring substantial experience in a strategic senior management role working with an International NGO with a child sponsorship component. You bring experience leading complex programmes made up of multiple projects with interdependencies both among the projects and with other efforts and of change management, including working with leaders in an international organization to bring about substantial change.

Excellent communication skills in English – including listening, speaking, writing, and engaging with credibility and integrity and strong skills in analysis, synthesis, and developing clear solutions to complex problems are essential.

Please follow this link for a full role profile; Global Portfolio Director – Sponsorship revitalisation July 2023.docx

Location: The location of this role can be flexible where Plan International has an office* that can employ on behalf of the Global Hub and you have the pre-existing right to work and live.

Type of Role: One year fixed term contract

Reports to: Chief Strategy and Engagement Office and Global Director, Programmes and Operations

Salary: We will be happy to disclose the salary and applicable benefits to applicants as part of this process, however, please kindly note that the salary and employment benefits will be set according to your location and therefore it is not possible to include full details here.

Closing Date: Sunday 6th August

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.