Entries are now being sought from rural community groups for the 2024 Rabobank Good Deeds Competition.
Run in conjunction with The Country radio show, the Good Deeds competition provides rural community groups with a chance to win $5,000 to go towards their nominated local rural community project. The winning entry also receives a day’s labour support from the teams at Rabobank and The Country.
Competition entries opened earlier this week and can now be made via the Rabobank website. Entries close at 11.59pm on Sunday 30 June 2024 and the competition winner will be announced live on The Country radio show in early July.
Rabobank New Zealand General Manager for Country Banking, Bruce Weir, said the bank launched the Good Deeds competition in 2017 to identify and support worthy rural community projects across New Zealand.
“As New Zealand’s only specialist food and agri bank, we know that rural communities are the life blood of New Zealand’s farming sector, and we’re committed to supporting projects that help strengthen these communities,” he said.
Goods Deeds working bee at Beaconsfield School in South Canterbury – the winners of the 2023 competition
“The 2024 competition is the eighth edition of Good Deeds and, over the years, we’ve been able to lend our support to some amazing rural community projects located across Aotearoa.”
Recent competition winners include Beaconsfield School in South Canterbury (2023), the Te Ranga School Bush Classroom in the Bay of Plenty (2022) and the Douglas Kids’ Club in Taranaki (2021).
Mr Weir said the labour days to support competition prize winners were always well attended by local Rabobank staff.
“Our teams get a lot of satisfaction from supporting good causes in their local communities and we usually have about two dozen staff in attendance at the working bees for the Good Deeds winners,” he said.
“I’ve also got along to a fair few of these labour days myself, and they’re always a great day out. They create a bit of a buzz in the local community and we always manage to get a fair bit done.”
Mr Weir said the bank was particularly keen to receive entries from rural sports organisations in 2024.
Rabobank NZ General Manager for Country Banking Bruce Weir
“Recent competition entries have largely come from rural schools, community halls and catchment groups, and I’m sure we’ll see plenty of great entries from these types of organisations again this year,” he said.
“But we haven’t had too many entries from rural sports clubs. So, we’d really like to see a few more of these this time around as we know there are plenty of rural sports clubs out there who could do with a helping hand to spruce up their club rooms or training facilities.”
As was the case last year, Mr Weir said, the cash component of the competition prize would be funded by the Rabo Community Fund – a new fund set up in 2021 to further contribute to the vibrancy and resilience of rural New Zealand.
Rabobank New Zealand is a part of the global Rabobank Group, the world’s leading specialist in food and agribusiness banking. Rabobank has more than 120 years’ experience providing customized banking and finance solutions to businesses involved in all aspects of food and agribusiness. Rabobank is structured as a cooperative and operates in 38 countries, servicing the needs of about 8.6 million clients worldwide through a network of close to 1000 offices and branches. Rabobank New Zealand is one of the country's leading agricultural lenders and a significant provider of business and corporate banking and financial services to the New Zealand food and agribusiness sector. The bank has 27 offices throughout New Zealand.
Media contacts:
David Johnston
Marketing & Media Relations Manager
Rabobank New Zealand
Phone: 04 819 2711 or 027 477 8153
Email: david.johnston@rabobank.com
Denise Shaw
Head of Media Relations
Rabobank Australia & New Zealand
Phone: +612 8115 2744 or +61 2 439 603 525
Email: denise.shaw@rabobank.com