Plan International and Global Girls Foundation
Questions donors ask

Asked before giving.

Every question a donor or an adviser has put to us, answered from what the Foundation and Plan International publish. Where the record is silent, the answer says so.

The Foundation and Plan International

The Foundation and Plan International

Who founded it, who governs it, and how it differs from giving to Plan in your own country.

What is the Global Girls Foundation, and how is it related to Plan International?

An independent Swiss foundation created by Plan International to support Plan’s mission. Plan International, Inc., the not-for-profit corporation registered in New York that sits at the centre of Plan’s global network, is the Foundation’s founder. Plan launched the Foundation publicly in August 2023 to build partnerships with philanthropists, and describes it as mobilising influence, funding and strategic partnerships to support Plan’s programmes for girls and young women. The Foundation has no programmes of its own: it funds Plan’s work, and works where Plan works, in more than 80 countries.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, About us (archived 20 October 2025) · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Governance and accountability (archived 26 October 2025) · plan-international.org, Partnerships · plan-international.org, news, 16 January 2026

Is the Foundation genuinely independent of Plan, and who sits on both boards?

Legally it is a separate Swiss Stiftung with its own board, and the board’s duties include making sure the Foundation fulfils its purpose and meets its legal obligations. In practice the two are closely linked, and a donor should know that. Gunvor Kronman is Vice Chair of the Foundation’s board and also chairs Plan International’s International Board and its Members’ Assembly. Mark De Smedt sits on the Foundation’s board as the representative of Plan International’s own board. We have not published how conflicts between the two roles are handled.

Source: this site, The Governing Board · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Governance and accountability (archived 26 October 2025) · plan-international.org, Our structure and governance

I already support Plan International in my own country. Why would I give here instead?

Because the two routes do different things. Plan raises most of its money through 21 independent National Organisations, largely from child sponsorship and institutional grants, and that money funds Plan’s programmes broadly. The Foundation exists for a different donor: someone making a significant gift or endowment who wants to shape where it goes, be involved beyond the cheque, and be part of a small group of philanthropists doing the same. Plan’s own site sends that donor to the Foundation. If you want to sponsor a child or give to an emergency appeal, your national Plan office is the right door.

Source: plan-international.org, How we are financed · plan-international.org, Get involved · plan-international.org, Partnerships

Who is on the board, how long do they serve, and what are they responsible for?

Five members: Dr. Werner Bauch (Chair), Gunvor Kronman (Vice Chair), Günter Haag, Denise Schmid, and Mark De Smedt, who also represents the Plan International Board. Terms are four years. The board oversees strategy, manages investment decisions, and is responsible for the Foundation fulfilling its purpose and complying with its legal obligations. How members are appointed is not stated.

Source: this site, The Governing Board · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Governance and accountability (archived 26 October 2025)

Where the money goes, and what you are told

Where the money goes, and what you are told

The mechanism, the costs, and the reporting.

How does my gift actually reach a programme?

The Foundation gives seed funding to Plan International programmes for girls: money to start or scale an initiative that then attracts further funding to widen its reach. Our site gives examples of the work a partnership supports, a new pathway to teaching, girls as climate change role models, women filmmakers in Haiti, all of them Plan programmes. We have not published the instrument: whether each gift becomes a grant agreement with Plan International, Inc. or with a country office, what conditions attach to it, and how spending is reported back to the Foundation.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Why partner with us (archived 21 October 2025) · globalgirlsfoundation.org, About us (archived 20 October 2025) · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Our work with young people (archived 20 October 2025)

Who decides which programmes are funded?

The Foundation’s board is responsible for strategy and for the Foundation fulfilling its purpose, so the decision sits there; the team brings proposals and connects a donor’s expertise to a particular Plan programme. The youth delegate presents the views of her peers at board meetings. We shape each partnership with the individual donor. We have not published the selection criteria.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Governance and accountability (archived 26 October 2025) · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Why partner with us (archived 21 October 2025) · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Our work with young people (archived 20 October 2025)

How much of my gift reaches the work, and what does the Foundation cost to run?

Two honest numbers, one of which is not yet published. Plan International reports that in 2024-25 its global income was €1.05 billion, it spent €1.04 billion, and 80 percent of that expenditure went directly to programmes and advocacy. We are a small team of three, and we have not yet published our own income, expenditure or cost ratio.

Source: plan-international.org, How we are financed · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Governance and accountability (archived 26 October 2025)

Can I restrict my gift to one flagship, one programme or one country?

Yes, to one of the three flagships: Education Uninterrupted; Ending Child, Early, and Forced Marriage; or Humanitarian Integrated Life-Saving. Through the Annual Giving Fund you choose the flagship, and your gift funds its programming where the need is greatest. A designated gift goes further, to a specific programme or area of work you choose, agreed with you in a first conversation; two girls’ leadership programmes, Global Youth Ambassadors and Champions of Change, can also be chosen directly in the giving panel. Restricting a gift to one country is not a published option, though the Foundation says every partnership is shaped with the individual donor.

Source: this site, Ways to give · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Why partner with us (archived 21 October 2025)

Which flagship programme should I give to?

It depends on what you most want to change for a girl. Education Uninterrupted keeps girls learning from early childhood through young adulthood: I am Ready prepares children for primary school, and SAGE brings girls who are out of school, married or already mothers back into learning and skills. Ending Child, Early, and Forced Marriage works to prevent marriage and to support girls who are already married. Humanitarian Integrated Life-Saving responds to crises and draws on Plan International’s Early Action Fund, which releases money when a crisis is anticipated, before it lands.

You can give to one flagship, or through the Annual Giving Fund, which is for all of them and where you choose the flagship. If you are not sure, start a conversation and a person will help you choose.

Source: this site, Our flagship programmes · this site, Ending Child, Early, and Forced Marriage · this site, Humanitarian Integrated Life-Saving · this site, Ways to give

How do I know the programmes are effective?

Every result on this site comes from Plan International’s own evaluations and evidence reports, and each one names its document and page. They are on Impact and on each programme page, with the reports behind them to download.

I am Ready is the most tested: the American Institutes for Research ran a randomised controlled trial in Lao PDR and a similar impact study in Tanzania (Plan International, I am Ready Program Brief, pp3 and 4). SAGE reports the results of its programme in Zimbabwe (Plan International, SAGE – Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education, November 2025, pp2 to 4).

The Foundation does not yet publish results of its own. Where this site quotes a figure, the figure is Plan’s, and it says so.

Source: this site, Impact · this site, Our flagship programmes

What makes the programmes work?

The same three things recur in the programmes’ own documents. They are built with the people they serve. SAGE runs in community learning hubs, with community educators and four girl-led pathways. The Ending Child, Early, and Forced Marriage model puts girls and young women at the centre, and works with their families, their communities and the laws and services that protect them.

They work through governments. I am Ready supports a ministry of education to adapt and deliver the model inside its own system, using existing primary school teachers or community volunteers, and Lao PDR included it in its 2021-2025 Education and Sports Sector Development Plan. Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education adopted SAGE’s learning materials.

They are tested before they are scaled. I am Ready was first implemented in Lao PDR in 2014 to 2018, then expanded to more provinces, to Cambodia and to Tanzania in 2021 to 2024. SAGE has been implemented for seven years across 11 districts in Zimbabwe.

The sources are Plan International’s I am Ready Program Brief (pp2 to 4), its SAGE brief (November 2025, pp2 to 4) and its Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions programme model (2025, p4).

Source: this site, Our flagship programmes · this site, Impact

What happens to a gift with no designation?

The Foundation says donations are “strategically allocated” to improve organisational capabilities and scale up innovations, and endowments are held to finance long-term solutions. Nothing more specific is published.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Donate (archived 14 October 2025)

Is there an annual report and a set of audited accounts I can read before I give?

Not yet from the Foundation. Its site publishes no annual report and no accounts, though Swiss foundation law requires an annual audit. The Commercial Register names its supervisory authority, the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (Federal Department of Home Affairs), and its statutory auditor. Plan International publishes its Worldwide Annual Review and its FY25 Worldwide Financial Statements as downloads, and says all its National Organisations are independently audited. For the Foundation itself, ask and the team will tell you what can be shared.

Source: zh.chregister.ch, Commercial Register of the Canton of Zurich, CHE-347.920.926 · plan-international.org, Worldwide Annual Review 2025 · plan-international.org, How we are financed · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Governance and accountability (archived 26 October 2025)

Tax, receipts and ways to give

Tax, receipts and ways to give

What is settled, and what to check with your adviser.

Is my gift tax-deductible?

Yes, if you pay tax in Switzerland, within the legal limits. The Foundation is tax exempt for its public benefit and is on the Zurich Cantonal Tax Office’s list of institutions exempt for public or charitable purposes. Your gifts are deductible from the direct federal tax if they total at least CHF 100 in the tax year, up to 20 per cent of your net income (Art. 33a of the Federal Direct Tax Act). Zurich applies the same limits to cantonal tax; other cantons set their own. Keep your receipts: your tax return lists each gift. A company taxed in Switzerland can deduct gifts up to 20 per cent of its net profit (Art. 59(1)(c) of the Federal Direct Tax Act). Outside Switzerland, a gift to a Swiss foundation is generally not tax-deductible; ask your adviser, and ask us before you give whether a route exists for your country. We do not give tax advice.

Source: zh.ch, Kantonales Steueramt Zürich, Verzeichnis der steuerbefreiten Institutionen (as at 31 August 2026) · fedlex.admin.ch, Federal Direct Tax Act, Art. 33a · fedlex.admin.ch, Federal Direct Tax Act, Art. 59

Which currencies can I give in, and how?

By bank transfer to the Foundation’s UBS accounts in Swiss francs, euros and US dollars, with the SWIFT code, as set out on this site’s Give page. Or through the Give now button, with the card and wallet methods Stripe offers at checkout, in Swiss francs, euros or US dollars, monthly or once. You type the amount you wish to give. A gift by card or wallet can be up to 999,999.99 in the currency you choose, though your card’s own limit may be lower. Above that, or whenever you prefer, the Give now panel shows the Foundation’s bank details, and you pay by transfer from your own bank. The Annual Giving Fund begins with a conversation.

Source: this site, Ways to give

Can I give shares or securities, give through a donor-advised fund, or give from a company or a family foundation?

From a foundation or a company, yes: in the giving panel, under Giving as, choose “Foundation or corporate foundation”. The Annual Giving Fund minimum for foundations and corporate foundations is CHF 250,000. Plan International’s partnerships page lists family trusts and foundations, individual donors and private sector companies among the partners it works with, and refers philanthropists to the Foundation. Through a donor-advised fund, talk to us first: we work with your adviser or your family foundation’s team. On shares and securities we have not published anything, so talk to the team first; a person will handle it rather than a payment page.

Source: this site, Ways to give · plan-international.org, Partnerships

Is there a minimum gift?

The Annual Giving Fund has a minimum commitment: CHF 250,000 for foundations and corporate foundations, and CHF 50,000 for individuals. We have not published a minimum for any other gift.

Source: this site, Ways to give

Can I change or stop a recurring gift, and are gifts refundable?

A monthly gift by card can be changed or stopped at any time by writing to info@globalgirlsfoundation.org; it takes effect from the next payment. A monthly gift paid by standing order from your own bank is changed or stopped with that bank. A one-time gift or a transfer, once made, is a completed gift. If an amount is wrong, a gift went through twice, or a monthly gift should have been a one-time one, write to the same address and the team will put it right.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Donate (archived 14 October 2025) · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Contact us (archived 20 October 2025)

What happens to my data, and is it shared with Plan International?

No. Nothing about you is passed to Plan International for its own use. Your email and payment details go to Stripe, which processes the payment; the website keeps no record of a card gift. The Foundation sees your name, email, amount and designation in its Stripe account and keeps gift records for ten years, as Swiss accounting law requires. For a bank transfer, its bank tells the Foundation your name, address, account number, the amount and your reference, and they are kept for the same ten years. If you write to us through the contact form, the website keeps your message for our team to answer and deletes it within twelve months. If you sign up to the newsletter, Mailchimp holds your address for us. The privacy notice sets out the rest, including how to ask what we hold.

Source: this site, Privacy notice

The endowment

The endowment

How capital is held, invested and recognised.

How is the capital invested, and who decides?

The board is responsible for investment decisions and ensures every investment follows the Foundation’s investment strategy. That strategy requires all investments to uphold sustainability, social responsibility and ethical standards; help the Foundation fulfil its purpose; limit the risk of loss; and be managed cautiously to preserve the Foundation’s assets. Capital is invested according to ESG criteria and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Governance and accountability (archived 26 October 2025)

Can an endowment gift carry a name, be added to later, or stay anonymous?

Whether an endowment gift carries your name, or no name at all, is your decision. Nothing is published without asking you first. We have not published how a gift is added to later.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Donate (archived 14 October 2025)

Safeguarding, conduct and complaints

Safeguarding, conduct and complaints

The standards that govern the work your gift funds, and where to go if something is wrong.

What safeguarding standards apply to the programmes my gift funds?

Plan International’s, because every programme is Plan’s. Plan has a Global Safeguarding Policy covering all children and all programme participants, and a separate policy on preventing sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse. Its boards are ultimately accountable for the policy; each country has a lead safeguarding focal point. Plan is a member of the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, so it checks previous employers for findings of sexual misconduct before hiring. It publishes an annual report on safeguarding; the 2021 to 2025 reports are downloadable. We have not published a safeguarding policy of our own.

Source: plan-international.org, Keeping children and programme participants safe · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Governance and accountability (archived 26 October 2025)

How do I raise a concern about conduct, fraud, or a child’s safety?

For anything touching Plan’s programmes, Plan publishes three routes: a Raise a concern form on its website, handled under its whistleblowing policy with a commitment to protect the person raising it from retaliation; an independent confidential service, Safecall, at www.safecall.co.uk/report or plan@safecall.co.uk; and, for safeguarding, the routes on its safeguarding page. The Foundation’s own route is info@globalgirlsfoundation.org: mark your message safeguarding. Two people at the Foundation, Susanna Tornyay and Daniela Zelaya Raudales, read that inbox every day.

Source: plan-international.org, Raise a concern · plan-international.org, Accountability: Policies and Commitments · plan-international.org, Keeping children and programme participants safe · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Contact us (archived 20 October 2025) · this site, Safeguarding

How does Plan guard against fraud and corruption in the countries where the money is spent?

Plan has a Counter Fraud Unit that investigates every reported case, recovers funds where possible and changes controls afterwards; a Global Anti-Fraud, Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy binding staff, volunteers and partners; fraud awareness training for staff; and a published counter fraud report describing recent cases. Externally, Plan is a founding member of Accountable Now, has been assessed as compliant by the International Committee on Fundraising Organisations, is verified against the Core Humanitarian Standard by HQAI, and was ranked in the top three NGOs for accountability by the One World Trust.

Source: plan-international.org, How we are financed · plan-international.org, Accountability: Policies and Commitments

Partnership and the Philanthropy Council

Partnership and the Philanthropy Council

What a partnership involves beyond money.

What does a partnership with the Foundation involve, beyond the gift?

Three things the Foundation names: experiential philanthropy, meaning exclusive meetings, events and visits to Plan offices and programmes; a global community of experts and thought leaders, including the ambassadors; and high-impact initiatives that provide seed funding to start innovative programmes at scale and attract further funding. The site describes each partnership as exclusive, adaptive and shaped with the individual donor, and invites partners to contribute expertise, not only money. Past events named include Zurich, San Salvador, Mexico City and a programme visit in Ciudad Juárez.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Why partner with us (archived 21 October 2025)

Can I see the work for myself?

Yes, though not with every gift. Members of the Annual Giving Fund can experience the work first-hand through curated field visits, depending on gift amount and country context. Past events named on the Foundation’s site include a programme visit in Ciudad Juárez, as well as events in Zurich, San Salvador and Mexico City.

To ask what a visit could look like for you, start a conversation, or write to Maureen McKenna, Senior Philanthropy Advisor, at Maureen.McKenna@globalgirlsfoundation.org.

Source: this site, Ways to give · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Why partner with us (archived 21 October 2025)

What is the Philanthropy Council, and what does a seat require?

A self-governing advisory forum of distinguished philanthropists, private sector leaders and thought leaders, chaired by Lei Zhang (Nancy). It brings together expertise, experience and networks from across philanthropy, business, finance, law, technology, communications and international development, and its members help the Foundation build partnerships, mobilise resources and create opportunities for girls and youth to shape their own futures. The Chair and every member are named, with their biographies, on the About page. What a seat costs and how long it lasts are not yet published. Contact us if you wish to learn how to become a GGF Philanthropy Council member.

Source: this site, The Philanthropy Council · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Why partner with us (archived 21 October 2025)

Who are the ambassadors, and what do they do?

Ambassadors raise the visibility of girls’ rights, widen the Foundation’s networks, mobilise resources and work with partners. The Foundation’s Global Ambassador is Dr. Phaedria Marie St. Hilaire, appointed in January 2026 as Global Ambassador for Global Girls Foundation and Plan International. She is particularly passionate about expanding opportunities for girls in STEM, amplifying their voices and supporting the next generation of global leaders. Contact us if you wish to learn how to become a GGF Ambassador.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Meet the team (archived 24 October 2025) · plan-international.org, news, 16 January 2026 · this site, The youth delegate and the Global Ambassador

Can my adviser, family office or board speak to someone directly?

Yes. The Foundation publishes direct email addresses for its Managing Director, its Senior Philanthropy Advisor and its Team Coordinator, and asks partners to contact the team to discuss an ongoing partnership. The governance facts an adviser checks first are on its Governance and accountability page and repeated on this site’s About page.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Meet the team (archived 24 October 2025) · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Donate (archived 14 October 2025) · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Governance and accountability (archived 26 October 2025)

Young people’s role

Young people’s role

Girls are not only the beneficiaries.

How do girls and young people shape what the Foundation does?

Through youth delegates. The Foundation’s delegate is Rymma, a Ukrainian youth leader, educator and advocate whose work is shaped by her experience of displacement from the Luhansk region. As Head of the Luhansk Regional Youth Council and a member of the Young IDPs Association, she has spent more than five years strengthening youth networks and contributing to youth policy across Ukraine. The delegate meets the team regularly, presents her peers’ views at the Foundation’s board meetings, reviews the Foundation’s communications and resources, researches young philanthropists, and presents young people’s views to Plan’s International Board. The Foundation is developing a “Girls and Philanthropy” dialogue series between philanthropists and young activists.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Our work with young people (archived 20 October 2025) · this site, The youth delegate and the Global Ambassador

Do young people receive money directly?

Some do, through Plan’s Equality Accelerator, a youth-led digital platform giving simplified, flexible grants to young activists and girl-led organisations, which the Foundation asks partners to help roll out globally. Plan notes that less than one percent of international development funding reaches youth-led organisations in the Global South.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, Our work with young people (archived 20 October 2025)

Why girls, and why this route

Why girls, and why this route

The case, in the Foundation’s and Plan’s own terms.

Why girls specifically, rather than all children?

Because at the current rate of progress it is expected to take 171 years to achieve full global gender equality and Sustainable Development Goal 5. Source: UN Women and UN DESA, Gender Snapshot 2026, p2. Plan International has stood alongside children since 1937 and now puts girls at the centre because they face more risks and fewer choices: violence, exclusion, early marriage and poverty limit their options in ways boys’ are not limited. The Foundation exists to concentrate philanthropic capital on that gap.

Source: plan-international.org, About the organisation

Which Sustainable Development Goals does the work serve?

Only the ones the Foundation’s and Plan International’s own documents name.

SDG 4 Education Uninterrupted advances Sustainable Development Goal 4: ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all (the Foundation’s Annual Giving Fund overview, p4).

Target 4.2 I am Ready is a model for scaling up early childhood education to meet Sustainable Development Goal target 4.2 (Plan International, I am Ready Program Brief, p1).

Target 5.3 The Ending Child, Early, and Forced Marriage programme model aims to advance Sustainable Development Goal target 5.3, the elimination of harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriage (Plan International, Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions Programme Model, pp4 and 12).

No goal is named for Humanitarian Integrated Life-Saving, so none is claimed for it.

Source: this site, Impact · this site, Our flagship programmes

Why give through the Foundation rather than to a new organisation?

Because nothing has to be built. The Foundation funds programmes that run on Plan’s 85 years of experience, its presence in more than 80 countries, its safeguarding framework and its audited national organisations, while the Foundation itself stays small: a Swiss legal entity, a five-member board and a team of three. A donor gets the reach of a large organisation and the attention of a small one.

Source: globalgirlsfoundation.org, About us (archived 20 October 2025) · globalgirlsfoundation.org, Why partner with us (archived 21 October 2025) · plan-international.org, Our structure and governance

Not the question you had? Ask us directly and a person will answer.

Where the record is silent, the answer says so.

For a significant gift, a conversation comes first.

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