Guy Stringer: obituary
Howard Lake | 6 August 2009 | News
Guy Stringer CBE, who has died at the age of 88, was one of the most influential people on fundraisers and fundraising in the last 30 years.
After serving in the British army during the Second World War and for eight years afterwards, Guy joined his family business in Kent before joining Oxfam in 1969 in the specially created post of commercial director. His commitment to sound business enterprise and efficient marketing sometimes seemed a misfit with ideologies such as ‘fair trade’ and ‘conscientisation’.
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As commercial director and deputy director from 1971, he established trading operations on commercially sound foundations without compromising the organisations demanding code of ethics.
He was responsible for the development of Oxfam shops, the import of handicrafts as a trading partnership and an early venture into large-scale recycling. He became director of Oxfam in 1982 and remained in the post until he retired in 1986. In his time there, he saw the charity’s income increase from £2.5m to £51m.
He insisted on promoting fundraising as connecting the donor with the cause and as such, he was the founder of modern fundraising and inspired a whole generation of fundraisers, including, among others, Ken Burnett, Stephen Lee and George Smith.
Guy dedicated much energy and inspiration to the Resource Alliance and had been involved with the organisation since its inception in the late 1970s. He was a Chair Emeritus of the Resource Alliance and in 2002 the Guy Stringer Development Bursary Fund was established to further the work that he believed in. This has since grown into the Fundraisers’ Fund, offering bursaries and training opportunities to fundraisers in the developing world.
Ken Burnett, who worked with Guy on the board of the Resource Alliance (or the International Fund Raising Group as it then was), said that "Guy articulated better than anyone what is truly at the heart of fundraising. He was a modest man with absolutely no ego, bent solely upon making the world a better place and advancing the great cause – Oxfam – which he so enthusiastically championed. He was always chirpy, always uplifting, a man of old-fashioned standards and virtues."
In 2005 Guy Stringer was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Fundraising Awards organised by the Institute of Fundraising and Professional Fundraising magazine in the UK.
Chief executive of the Institute Lindsay Boswell said: "Fundraising has lost an inspirational leader. Guy Stringer did a tremendous amount to develop fundraising practice and encourage the talents of others. My thoughts are with Guy Stringer’s family and friends at this very sad time."
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.