RSM congratulates audit client Paralympics New Zealand who received top honours in the Not-for-Profit category at the 2016 TVNZ New Zealand Marketing Awards, New Zealand's most prestigious national industry awards. The win recognised the success of the Spirit of Gold® Initiative over the past year.

PNZ is in the final run up to the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, which kick-off this Thursday 8 September NZST.  The Games are the world’s largest multi-sport event for disabled athletes; over 4,350 athletes from 165 countries are expected to compete in 22 sports, across 526 medal events. 

Hence it is great to see this recognition of PNZ's innovative efforts at diversifying their income and further raising their public profile.

The Spirit of Gold Initiative

On Monday 7 September 2015, Paralympics New Zealand joined more than 170 countries in marking exactly ‘1 year to go’ until the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. On that day, the Spirit of Gold® Initiative was launched, a new long-term strategy to drive awareness and increase community engagement with Para-Sport. It is also designed to raise funds to provide for the New Zealand Team heading to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and beyond and to help fund community Para-Sport programmes seeking to find the Paralympians of tomorrow.   

PNZ was also named a Judges Choice finalist in the areas of

  • Insight
  • Sustainability
  • Marketing Leadership
  • and for very strong evidence showing that the Spirit of Gold® Initiative had been ‘Transformational’ for PNZ.

Fiona Allan, Chief Executive, Paralympics New Zealand said:

I am incredibly proud of everything that the Paralympics New Zealand team has been able to achieve. Not only are we supporting Para-Athletes to achieve medal-winning performances, we have also essentially delivered a gold medal in our marketing and commercial programme.

To learn more about PNZ and The Spirit of Gold Initiative visit their website at www.paralmpics.org.nz 

Congratulations to PNZ and we at RSM are looking forward to supporting the 31-strong New Zealand Paralympic Team at our Spirit of Gold themed mufti day on Thursday 8 September 2016 in line with the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony.