Originally named Foster Parents Scheme for Children in Spain, Plan International was founded in 1937 by British journalist and broadcaster John Langdon-Davies.  He was later joined by Eric Muggeridge, Esme Odgers, and Nick (Barton) Carter.  John Langdon-Davies had seen first-hand the plight of children orphaned during the Spanish Civil War and was determined to help.  He wanted to provide not only food, shelter, and education to the children but also a sense that someone, somewhere, was thinking about them as an individual.  

A pioneer of child sponsorship

In the beginning, the Foster Parents Scheme for Children in Spain asked British people to donate one shilling a day to provide a child with food and shelter and also asked them to write letters and send photos to the child to show them that someone cared about them.  This was the beginning of what we now call child sponsorship.

Changing as the world changed

During the Second World War, renamed Foster Parents Plan for War Children, we expanded to work with displaced children throughout war-torn Europe and continued to work in Europe through the 1950s. Over the following decades, Plan International extended its work to Asia and Africa and ended its work in Europe. Countries that were once helped by Plan have now become donor nations, including Spain, where it all began. Today, we work in more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries.

A significant proportion of our income still comes from supporters who sponsor children. We aim to spend at least 80% of our income on charitable activities, but this figure varies year-on-year. For more information on our income and expenditure, please see our Trustees' Annual Reports.