The Gosztony Endowment Fund

Stephen Gosztony was a lifelong friend of Build It International.

In 2007, he provided seed funding to allow the newly registered Charity to start work. As well as being a friend of the founder and CEO, Andrew Jowett, Stephen was enthusiastic about the proposition of supporting education and training for disadvantaged young people in Africa. He had a real interest in creating opportunities for people to grow and develop and for encouraging others at an early stage in their working lives.

So, it is no exaggeration to say that without Stephen’s early involvement, Build It might not exist today.

As the charity grew, Stephen remained a hugely generous supporter and advisor. He was a founding member of the Development Board. He also set up and sponsored an annual Build It dinner at Walbrook Club in the City which is still going strong after 10 years.

Although a very busy person, Stephen was always interested in the challenges Build It faced and was always on hand to help. He twice visited Zambia to see Build It’s work first hand, including a trip with his family to attend the opening ceremony for new classrooms at Mikumbila school that they had sponsored.

“It’s been a privilege to be involved with Build It over the years and a real joy to see its impact on people’s lives… I feel proud of being associated with Build It.”

Stephen Gosztony, message to Build It in 2021

Building brighter futures

Build It International creates opportunities for young people and their communities through skills training and the development of essential community buildings. Our current focus is in Zambia. So far we have:

• Trained over 1,600 unemployed young men and women in a range of practical skills such as carpentry, tiling and brick-laying
• Completed 55 vital community building projects; mainly schools and health clinics
• Established the Centre for Excellence, a bespoke skills training centre in Lusaka, Zambia

We pride ourselves on a professional approach and monitor the impact of our work through annual, independent surveys. Data shows that at least 70% of our graduates work their way out of poverty, and our community projects are improving lives for an estimated 390,000 people.

“I know that Stephen would be honoured to have a fund set up in his name to support a charity which he had been involved with for fifteen years.

He would be particularly delighted for it to be an endowment fund, which will bring benefits for the trainees and communities for many years to come.”

Sue Butcher, Stephen’s wife

Creating a legacy in Stephen’s memory

As his friends and colleagues at Capital Group well know, Stephen was a great believer in taking the long-term view. He understood the immense value to charities of having a reliable ongoing income stream, and was an advocate of the benefits that can flow from setting up an endowment fund.

Creating The Gosztony Endowment Fund is fitting way to remember him, and continue to support the work he helped to start.

Once established, the fund will be invested to generate income for Build It International’s work which is currently focused in Zambia.

Income received from the fund will be available for all of our activities, but will be especially important to support the core skills training programme at our Centre for Excellence.

The capital of the expendable endowment fund may be spent where it is in the interests of the fund’s purposes but there is no requirement to do so, and it is intended that The Gosztony Endowment Fund will be an on-going vehicle through which to raise funds to support the activities of Build it International over the long term.

Update March 2022

We are delighted to share that we have so far secured over £250,000 towards our target of £1 million –  an amazing start! Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

It costs £1,000 to put one young person through our life changing training programme.

So £25,000 invested in the fund at a yield of 4% per annum, would pay for one trainee every year.