- Plan International
- Brussels, Belgium (Remote)
- Full-time
NextGen – Director
- Plan International
Brussels, Belgium
Full-time
Published:
Application Deadline: April 2, 2025
- Plan International
Brussels, Belgium
Full-time
Published:
Application Deadline: April 2, 2025
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 know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is girls who are most affected.
Working together with children, young people, supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. 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.
For over 85 years, we have rallied other determined optimists to transform the lives of all children in more than 80 countries.
We won’t stop until we are all equal.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
Sponsorship lies at the heart of Plan International – it is a key component of how we reach and impact girls and young people. As the world continues to change, it is clear we need to reframe how we think about and implement our sponsorship work, so that we can be in the best possible position to achieve our ambition to reach 200 million girls.
Adapting to a transforming fundraising landscape, Plan International is on the path of future-proofing our global private giving portfolio. This includes diversification and stabilisation of our core private fundraising program while reimagining our future model to secure income to drive sustainable impact. The Director will oversee delivery of the NextGen programme, our ambitious initiative to engage existing and new supporters to deepen impact by working closely with children and their communities. This work will reimagine how we market and fund our programmes, and ensure they are effective and efficient at a community level.
You will work across a global network of stakeholders drawn from across the organisation, who will drive strategic projects and initiatives to help maintain current and attract new donor and supporter segments through innovative, relevant offers and donor journeys.
As the Director, you will provide global leadership, working closely with Plan International’s global leadership team co-sponsoring the programme, leaders and team members from Plan International’s network of fundraising offices around the world (i.e. ‘National Organisations’ (NO’s) and key departments within Plan International’s Global Hub. The position and the programme will work in close partnership with Plan International’s Sponsorship, MERL, IT, fundraising, and Programme departments to achieve the Programme’s objectives. 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 ensure that organisational change is embedded across Plan International Worldwide. Working globally, coordinating and being responsible for planning, tracking and reporting on all initiatives related to stabilising Sponsorship as a strategic priority.
You will be a key member of the change leadership, bringing focus to the importance of effective programme management and delivery of ambitious plans.
Please respond to the requirements of the role in your cover letter.
Only CVs and cover letters in English will be accepted.
Please follow this link for a full role profile and person specification; NextGen - Director - JD (Mar.25).docx.
PURPOSE OF ROLE:
DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE:
The programme Director working closely with the Sponsorship and Global Fundraising Support teams, working groups, and key stakeholders from across the organisation will oversee the achievement of NextGen’s six key priorities:
RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES:
The programme Director will have four core areas of responsibility and accountability.
Convening and leading a complex portfolio of interdependent projects and other strengthening efforts (20%)
Develop, maintain and assure integrated business and delivery plans for the programme of work. The programme Director will drive and coordinate efforts across all Plan offices and functions involved in the revitalisation of sponsorship and individual giving products, ensuring effective co-creation, communication and collaboration. This will include the following responsibilities:
Project management and reporting (40%)
Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and those concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
Change management and engagement (30%)
External engagement (10%)
TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE:
Essential
Experience and knowledge
Skills
Behaviours
Desirable
PLAN INTERNATIONAL’S VALUES IN PRACTICE:
We are open and accountable
We create a climate of trust inside and outside the organisation by being open, honest and transparent. We hold ourselves and others to account for the decisions we make and for our impact on others, while doing what we say we will do.
We strive for lasting impact
We strive to achieve significant and lasting impact on the lives of children and young people, and to secure equality for girls. We challenge ourselves to be bold, courageous, responsive, focused and innovative.
We work well together
We succeed by working effectively with others, inside and outside the organisation, including our sponsors and donors. We actively support our colleagues, helping them to achieve their goals. We come together to create and implement solutions in our teams, across Plan International, with children, girls, young people, communities and our partners.
We are inclusive and empowering
We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge inequality in our programmes and our workplace. We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives. We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT:
LEVEL OF CONTACT WITH CHILDREN:
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 know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is girls who are most affected.
Working together with children, young people, supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. 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.
For over 85 years, we have rallied other determined optimists to transform the lives of all children in more than 80 countries.
We won’t stop until we are all equal.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
Sponsorship lies at the heart of Plan International – it is a key component of how we reach and impact girls and young people. As the world continues to change, it is clear we need to reframe how we think about and implement our sponsorship work, so that we can be in the best possible position to achieve our ambition to reach 200 million girls.
Adapting to a transforming fundraising landscape, Plan International is on the path of future-proofing our global private giving portfolio. This includes diversification and stabilisation of our core private fundraising program while reimagining our future model to secure income to drive sustainable impact. The Director will oversee delivery of the NextGen programme, our ambitious initiative to engage existing and new supporters to deepen impact by working closely with children and their communities. This work will reimagine how we market and fund our programmes, and ensure they are effective and efficient at a community level.
You will work across a global network of stakeholders drawn from across the organisation, who will drive strategic projects and initiatives to help maintain current and attract new donor and supporter segments through innovative, relevant offers and donor journeys.
As the Director, you will provide global leadership, working closely with Plan International’s global leadership team co-sponsoring the programme, leaders and team members from Plan International’s network of fundraising offices around the world (i.e. ‘National Organisations’ (NO’s) and key departments within Plan International’s Global Hub. The position and the programme will work in close partnership with Plan International’s Sponsorship, MERL, IT, fundraising, and Programme departments to achieve the Programme’s objectives. 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 ensure that organisational change is embedded across Plan International Worldwide. Working globally, coordinating and being responsible for planning, tracking and reporting on all initiatives related to stabilising Sponsorship as a strategic priority.
You will be a key member of the change leadership, bringing focus to the importance of effective programme management and delivery of ambitious plans.
Please respond to the requirements of the role in your cover letter.
Only CVs and cover letters in English will be accepted.
Please follow this link for a full role profile and person specification; NextGen - Director - JD (Mar.25).docx.
PURPOSE OF ROLE:
- Working in 54 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas, Plan International aims to reach as many children as possible, particularly those who are excluded or marginalised, with high quality programmes that deliver long-lasting benefits;
- Sponsorship lies at the heart of Plan International – it’s a key component of how we reach and impact girls and young people. As the world continues to change, it is clear we need to reframe how we think about and implement our sponsorship work, so that we can be in the best possible position to achieve our ambition to reach 200 million girls;
- Adapting to a transforming fundraising landscape, Plan International is on the path of future-proofing our global private giving portfolio. This includes diversification and stabilization of our core private fundraising program while reimagining our future model to secure income to drive sustainable impact;
- The programme Director will oversee delivery of the NextGen programme, our ambitious initiative to engage existing and new supporters to deepen impact by working closely with children and their communities. This work will reimagine how we market and fund our programmes, and ensure they are effective and efficient at a community level;
- They will lead a global network of stakeholders drawn across the organization that will drive strategic projects and initiatives to help maintain current and attract new donor and supporter segments through innovative, relevant offers and donor journeys;
- The programme Director will provide global leadership, working closely with Plan’s global leadership team co-sponsoring the programme, leaders and team members from Plan’s network of fundraising offices around the world (i.e., National Organisations – ‘NO’) and key departments within Plan International’s headquarters. The position and the programme will work in close partnership with Plan’s Sponsorship, MERL, IT, fundraising, and programme departments to achieve the programme’s objectives. They 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;
- They will ensure that organisational change is embedded across Plan International Worldwide. They will work globally, coordinating and being responsible for planning, tracking and reporting on all initiatives related to stabilising Sponsorship as a strategic priority;
- They will be a key member of the change leadership, bringing focus to the importance of effective programme management and delivery of ambitious plans.
DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE:
The programme Director working closely with the Sponsorship and Global Fundraising Support teams, working groups, and key stakeholders from across the organisation will oversee the achievement of NextGen’s six key priorities:
- Innovating one-to-one sponsorship: To attract new supporters and retain existing ones, we will innovate and improve our current sponsor experience, updating how we offer sponsorship to align with our anti-racist principles. NextGen will help to strengthen the genuine participation of sponsored children and deepen and scale our impact across the communities where we work;
- Maximising our impact for children: Ensuring that children, especially girls and their communities, experience more benefits through deeply impactful programmes. Then, measure, report and share that positive impact so we can learn from it and continuously improve;
- Scaling existing and proven alternative supporter models: Existing alternative regular ways of giving that have proven successful in countries locally, will be adapted and scaled to additional areas globally. These include Girl’s Funds and Futures for Youth concepts which both speak to different audiences and offer new ways of donating that drive sustainable support at multiple giving levels;
- Accelerating community sponsorship: Among an ecosystem of alternative avenues for giving, NextGen will work with early adopter National Organisations to pilot new fundraising models, including community sponsorship, that create a more flexible experience for the supporter and Plan, enabling us to respond to urgent needs and other global strategic priorities;
- Innovating to attract new donors in new ways: This entails designing and testing new donor reaching initiatives, with the aim of creating an improved private fundraising option that has the potential to match the benefits of one-to-one sponsorship;
- Driving cost efficiencies across our programmes: NextGen will explore ways to improve efficiency, by embedding data and digitisation into our work. This will support Country Offices and National Organisations to deliver effective communications with increased resources for programming. It will also allow for better management of costs associated with attracting and retaining donors and enhance programme delivery.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES:
The programme Director will have four core areas of responsibility and accountability.
Convening and leading a complex portfolio of interdependent projects and other strengthening efforts (20%)
Develop, maintain and assure integrated business and delivery plans for the programme of work. The programme Director will drive and coordinate efforts across all Plan offices and functions involved in the revitalisation of sponsorship and individual giving products, ensuring effective co-creation, communication and collaboration. This will include the following responsibilities:
- Convene and lead the NextGen Partners Team that brings together leaders responsible for key aspects of initiative, including the Sponsorship Team, the Global Fundraising Support Services, the Sponsorship Communications Hub, the Brand Team, the IT team, the Finance team, the programme related teams and the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning Team. This group will meet regularly to ensure progress across all parts of the sponsorship initiative and to address interdependencies;
- Ensure relevant departments and entities across Plan International actively participate, contribute, and ‘co-own’ the global initiative and the activities within designed to strengthen the individual giving portfolio and improve the organisation’s business as usual systems and practices;
- Engage closely with and ensure seamless connections among the leaders of the Plan global leadership groups with sponsorship responsibilities in designing and deploying solutions, including the Sponsorship Development Committee, Fundraising Network (FundNet’), and the Global programme Network;
- Coordinate closely with the GH Strategy team, to ensure sponsorship strengthening efforts remain in sync with Plan’s overall global strategy roadmap;
- Connect closely with the leaders of other strategic priorities and programmes in Plan to ensure effective identification and management of interdependencies;
- Be alert to dependencies with and resource requirements of other corporate change initiatives and operational imperatives.
Project management and reporting (40%)
- Develop and maintain an effective project management approach for the strategic initiative, harmonised with the overall strategy management process led by the Global Hub Strategy team;
- Establish and maintain good practice programme governance and establish an effective tracking and reporting framework for robust and transparent management in relation to planning, forecasting, delivery, cost, risk and issue management, implementation and benefit realisation;
- Facilitate organisational decision making at the appropriate level of leadership and governance, and ensure appropriate and effective programme governance, supporting the Steering Committee and Sponsor to perform their duties on behalf of the organisation;
- Work with the various Directors and Heads who are leading specific pieces of work that are part of or inter-dependent to sponsorship revitalisation;
- Effective identification, management and mitigation of programme risks, providing escalation as necessary.
Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and those concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
Change management and engagement (30%)
- Develop and maintain an overall change management and engagement plan for the initiative;
- Effectively engage the Global Fundraising Support Team, Sponsorship and other key departments and staff across Plan Worldwide (‘PWW’) to participate or ‘co-own’ programme activities and lead in driving the change in their teams;
- Effectively engage all leadership bodies and stakeholders included in the overall change management plan, including:
- Senior leadership groups (e.g., the Plan International Inc. (“PII”) Leadership Team, Global Team, National Directors Team, International Board, and Members Assembly;
- Individual stakeholders who can be key partners, enablers, or barriers to progress.
- Facilitate alignment with other global change initiatives to ensure that NextGen reinforces the delivery of agreed global priorities as efficiently as possible;
- Develop and adapt key communications materials required for effective engagement with these groups, including presentations, pre-reads, handouts, and other materials tailored effectively for each audience, to build understanding, investment, and commitment to the strategic priority;
- Design and gain approval for sustainability plans to embed NextGen solutions in long-term planning and change management and business as usual practices.
External engagement (10%)
- Develop and maintain an overview of key innovations that can inform or inspire our revitalisation work in peer iNGOs and/or private sector;
- Identify and track key developments in contexts where Plan operates that can have implications for the portfolio of work;
- Identify potential implications, challenges, and opportunities of these external innovations and developments for Plan International and bring these to the appropriate senior leadership and/or functional leadership body for discussion/ decision/ action.
TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE:
Essential
Experience and knowledge
- Experience of managing significant, complex, multi-stakeholder programmes in a cultural and locational context like Plan International;
- Substantial experience in a senior management role at a strategic level working with an international NGO. Working within one that has a child sponsorship component preferred;
- Experience with change management, including working with leaders in an international organization to bring about substantial change;
- Experience working collaboratively with stakeholders in a range of countries and time zones with a range of perspectives;
- Experience working through influencing and negotiation outside direct line-management relationships to achieve results;
- Has a passion for data-driven decision-making, with advanced analytical and problem-solving skills;
- Extensive experience in risk management;
- Experience directing, supervising and professionally developing remote teams.
Skills
- Exceptional stakeholder management, including sufficient political credibility to work across all layers in the organization, including senior leadership;
- Good spoken and written communication skills with precision in framing, positioning and word choice, with the ability to tell a story and communicate analysis with a broad range of stakeholders. Understands how to communicate difficult/sensitive information tactfully;
- Skilled in project and portfolio management;
- Ability to chair, lead and influence peers in a variety of departments to facilitate agreement on priorities;
- Strong skills in analysis, synthesis, and developing clear solutions to complex problems;
- Outstanding organizational and time management skills;
- Excellent skills in influencing, negotiating and delivering results. Strong skills in change management, including effective engagement of diverse stakeholders;
- Ability to take initiative, prioritise competing workloads, and work independently;
- Strong skills in use of Microsoft Office applications (including Excel, PowerPoint, and Word).
Behaviours
- Highly organised, detail-oriented and structured approach;
- Resolves and/or escalates issues in a timely fashion;
- Interest in and commitment to advancing gender equality and the rights of children - especially girls;
- Ability to navigate sensitive internal discussions diplomatically, understanding and respecting diverse perspectives;
- Resilience and comfort in working with uncertainty. A positive approach and sense of humour;
- Calm and effective under pressure;
- Self-starter, able to work without supervision;
- Positive, constructive, flexible, and solution-oriented approach;
- Fast learner who can deliver to multiple deadlines;
- Team-player with a genuine interest and commitment to working with others to achieve collective goals;
- Empathetic, able to encourage a culture of collective care.
Desirable
- Experience in facilitating co-creation of approaches and solutions;
- Master’s degree in development, business administration, or another relevant field;
- Training and certification in project management and change management;
- Skilled in using project management software (e.g. Microsoft Project).
PLAN INTERNATIONAL’S VALUES IN PRACTICE:
We are open and accountable
We create a climate of trust inside and outside the organisation by being open, honest and transparent. We hold ourselves and others to account for the decisions we make and for our impact on others, while doing what we say we will do.
We strive for lasting impact
We strive to achieve significant and lasting impact on the lives of children and young people, and to secure equality for girls. We challenge ourselves to be bold, courageous, responsive, focused and innovative.
We work well together
We succeed by working effectively with others, inside and outside the organisation, including our sponsors and donors. We actively support our colleagues, helping them to achieve their goals. We come together to create and implement solutions in our teams, across Plan International, with children, girls, young people, communities and our partners.
We are inclusive and empowering
We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge inequality in our programmes and our workplace. We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives. We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT:
- Typical office environment as well as periodic engagement in key meetings, both virtual and in person.
LEVEL OF CONTACT WITH CHILDREN:
- Low level: occasional interaction with children and young people.
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