# Guy Stringer: obituary

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/08/06/guy-stringer-obituary/
- Published: 2009-08-06T17:05:02+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

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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![Guy Stringer OBE](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/files/u11/guy_stringer.jpg "Guy
Stringer OBE")

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."

 

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