Our Supporter Relations Department

Our global approach is reflected in the local services we offer to our supporters. Our Supporter Relations Department is dedicated to providing the highest standards of care to all of our supporters - both directly, and as a link with nearly 50 countries where our development activities are carried out. The department comprises of three teams:

• The Supporter Relations Team handle queries from prospective and new supporters just starting their relationship with Plan to answering queries about sponsored children and our development work from long-term supporters.
• The Supporter Development Team works with supporters who want to become more involved in our work, for example, by visiting their sponsored child or becoming a volunteer speaker.
• Our Supporter Process team maintains sponsorship relationships by managing child data, linking children to sponsors and ensures we work as effectively as possible.

Our aim

We are actively involved with building strong reciprocal relationships with and between supporters, sponsored children and their communities. We aim to provide the highest standards of service to our supporters, to help achieve our commitment to children around the world.

Our departmental values

Our departmental values are shared by all those staff who both liaise directly with supporters or who work 'behind the scenes' to ensure that your experience of Plan is as good as we'd like it to be:

• Integrity: We are open and honest in our communications, sharing the realities and challenges of our work
• Accountable: We value the commitment made by our supporters and understand that every penny matters
• Progressive: We constantly evaluate our work, learning and passing on development knowledge and practices

Our services

We endeavour to provide the highest quality of service to you and all our supporters and to make your experience of Plan a positive one. We pride ourselves on learning from our work and from those who support us. We welcome any feedback you give us.

In order to develop as an organisation and to improve the quality of service that we offer we carefully monitor all questions, complaints and praise.

Things sometimes do go wrong and when this happens we want to know about it. We will always take the opportunity to learn from any mistakes and wherever possible put things right.

Our Customer Charter

Plan UK's Customer Charter will guide you as to what you can expect from us, and how you can ensure that any comment or complaint you have is heard.

Getting in touch

If you have a comment, suggestion or complaint we would like to hear from you.

By phone: 0300 777 9779

By fax: 0300 777 9778

By email: supporterquestions@plan-international.org.uk

By post:
Supporter Relations Manager
Plan UK
Finsgate
5-7 Cranwood Street
London
EC1V 9LH
UK

To help us answer your query more quickly, please include:

• Your supporter reference number if you have one
• Daytime contact number
• Full name and address
• Email address

We’ll aim to answer you query by email within five working days and by letter in 10 working days.

Note: our office is open from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday. (Calls may be monitored or recorded for training purposes)

Our complaints procedure

After receiving a complaint, we will send an acknowledgement of receipt out to you within two working days. The vast majority of any queries we receive are answered fully within 10 working days.

Where a matter is more complex, particularly if it requires a response from our offices overseas, things can take longer. In this case we will keep you updated on any progress. We have a robust protocol in place for handling complaints and the escalation of a complaint if the need arises.

1. In the first instance, a complaint will normally be dealt with by a front line member of staff.
2. If you are unhappy with our response, or with the progress of a complaint, you can ask for the matter to be passed to their line manager. Again, a full response or an acknowledgement will be made within 10 days of receipt.
3. In the unlikely event that we have been unable to completely satisfy your query or complaint, at this stage, we would be happy to pass it on to a departmental Manager or Director, as appropriate. A full response or acknowledgement will be provided within 10 days.
4. Complaints not resolved at stage three, will be escalated to the Chief Executive Officer for a final response from Plan UK. A full response or acknowledgement will be provided within 10 days.

Ombudsperson

If you continue to have outstanding concerns about the matter raised or the way in which we have handled it, the case can be handed on to an external Ombudsperson for review.

This is a supporter independent to Plan who acts on a voluntary basis. They have a strong background in customer service, children's services and adjudication. They will consider all the relevant information from you and from the charity, and recommend a course of action accordingly.

It is important that the procedures outlined above have been gone through before you contact the Ombudsperson, and they are likely to refer your complaint back to us initially if this has not been the case.

If you do wish to refer your case to the Ombudsperson, please write, enclosing copies of all correspondence - and again, where possible, a contact number - to:

Plan Ombudperson
Ms Kala Nobbs
Plan UK
Finsgate
5-7 Cranwood Street
London
EC1V 9LH
UK

Fundraising Standards Board

If your complaint is about our fundraising methods, you can also apply to the Fundraising Standards Board, to make a final adjudication. They can be contacted as follows:

Fundraising Standards Board
Hampton House
20 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TJ

www.frsb.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)845 402 5442
Fax: +44 (0)845 402 5443

Thank you - your feedback will help us to evaluate and improve on our services

We appreciate your support and welcome your feedback - and should you have any comments on the content of our Customer Charter itself, please let our Supporter Relations Manager know via the contact details given above.