Entries close midnight 2nd of April 2025
Highlighting the areas that have been instrumental in the success of ethical investing, the categories and criteria for the 2025 Mindful Money Awards are:
Best Ethical KiwiSaver Fund Provider
This award will go to the KiwiSaver provider that can best demonstrate effective responsible or ethical investment outcomes. Entrants will demonstrate leading practice in avoiding harm from their investments, generating or supporting positive impact, providing strong corporate governance and stewardship, and operating with ethical conduct.
The award is open to registered New Zealand KiwiSaver providers.
Best Ethical Investor
This award will go to the investment manager that can best demonstrate effective responsible or ethical investment outcomes. Entrants will demonstrate leading practice in avoiding harm from their investments,
generating or supporting positive impact, providing strong corporate governance and stewardship, and operating with ethical conduct.
This category is open to managed investment fund providers, wholesale funds, wealth managers, private equity funds, venture capital funds or other fund managers that can best demonstrate effective responsible or
ethical investment practices. The provider must have a substantial presence in New Zealand, including core investment decision-making and staff. Please note that this is a separate category to the Best Ethical
KiwiSaver provider award.
Best New Ethical or Impact Fund 2025
This award will go to the fund that can best demonstrate innovation in its investment approach and practice for the benefit of clients, the environment and society.
The fund can be a KiwiSaver fund, retail investment fund, private equity fund, venture fund or impact initiative by an asset owner. The provider must have a substantial presence in New Zealand including core investment decision-making and staff. The fund must have been launched between March 2024 and May 2025.
Best Impact Investor
Entrants will demonstrate a strong purpose and a clear vision for how their enterprise will create significant impact overall, using examples of specific investments that benefit people or the environment, including aims such as social equity, nature restoration and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. They will have a clear methodology on how they assess their impact, including the additional impact that is attributable to their investment and/or the impact of the company receiving investment.
The applicant must be a New Zealand registered organisation. It can be a wholesale or retail fund provider, a wealth manager, an asset owner (such as trusts and foundations, charities and educational institutions), social enterprise, not-for-profit enterprise, a collaboration or a government entity. The category includes green bond portfolios or programmes (but not a single green bond issue). The initiative will either have made investments or have plans to launch in 2025. Applicants should choose one of the two sections - either as a mainstream investor or a dedicated climate fund.
Organisations entering in this category cannot also enter the dedicated climate fund section of Best Climate Action category or this category.
Best Climate Action Investor
This award will go to the entity that can best demonstrate a strong purpose and a clear vision for how their enterprise will reduce emissions and/or build climate resilience, and invest in impactful climate solutions, using examples of specific initiatives. Mainstream funds that are committed to climate action are eligible, as are funds focused on investing in climate solutions.
The applicant must be a New Zealand registered organisation. It can be a wholesale or retail fund provider, a wealth manager, an asset owner, social enterprise, not-for-profit enterprise, a collaboration or a government entity. The category includes climate bond portfolios or programmes (but not a single climate bond issue). The initiative will either have made investments or have plans to launch in 2025.
Organisations in the dedicated climate fund section of this category cannot also enter the Best Impact Investment category.
Best Ethical Financial Adviser
This award will go to the individual financial adviser who can best demonstrate how ethical issues are integrated throughout their client engagement and financial advice.
The category is open to independent financial advisers, financial advisers within advisory firms, financial advisers within wealth management companies, and other individual financial advisers.
Please note the criteria for this category have changed. The focus is now on individual financial advisers rather than advisory firms. This is to encourage entries from a range of financial advisers across the sector.
Best Media Reporting on Ethical and/or Impact Investment
Entrants will show excellence in their media coverage of ethical and impact investment and be able to cite a significant impact on public awareness and understanding of the issues.
This category is open to a broad range of New Zealand media including print, digital, radio, podcast, TV, video and documentary. This category is open to an individual journalist or a team.
Best Overseas Ethical Fund
This award will go to the best overseas ethical or impact investment fund. Entry is open to funds that are issued in a country other than New Zealand and not registered as a PIE fund or retail fund in New Zealand. They must be actively marketed in New Zealand and made available to New Zealand investors through distributors, financial advisers, ETFs or platforms. This category is open to overseas ETFs, AUTs and other overseas registered funds.
Judging process
A robust and independent judging process is a crucial foundation for credibility of the Awards. Mindful Money consults widely in the sector to select 3-4 category judges for each Award category. Judges will be respected for their work, know the category well and be objective.
- Award entry documentation will be treated as confidential by the organisers and judges.
- Judges will be asked to declare any conflicts of interest and, if the conflicts are deemed to be significant , will step aside from the judging process.
- Each judge will volunteer their time without compensation and make a commitment to assist with the integrity of the awards.
The judging process will be robust, fair and focused on recognising excellence amongst the entrants in each category.
- The judges will prepare a shortlist of finalists and recommend a winner for each Award category. The shortlist for each category will be reviewed by the Judging Committee, a core group of experienced judges, to ensure consistency and integrity.
- The Judging Committee’s decisions on the selection of entries for the shortlists and the category winners are final.
- Judging scores remain confidential to judges and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the outcome of the awards.
Terms & Conditions of Entry
- An administration fee of $225 + GST per award entry is charged. An invoice will be sent to the contact details submitted with the award entry and must be paid by 16th May 2025.
- Entrants may nominate their own business, or others. You do not have to be nominated in order to enter the awards.
- All entrants must provide true and accurate information and disclose any liabilities such as business and/or tax related and/or current pending litigation, which could compromise the judges’ analysis of the business, and/or adversely affect the integrity and reputation of the Mindful Money Awards.
- Mindful Money will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions reproduced in award publicity material, or for work lost or damaged.
- Entrants should not make contact with the judges for lobbying or promoting their entry.
- Judging will be based on the evidence provided in the initial entry. Once shortlisted within a category, supplementary information may be required.
- Finalists and winners agree to being involved in publicity related to the awards, including photo and other media opportunities with sponsors, judges and Mindful Money staff.
- Category finalists must be available to attend the Awards event in Auckland CBD on 5th June in person, or through a representative.
- Mindful Money reserves the right and shall be permitted at all times to use at their discretion any material submitted for the Awards, on the Mindful Money website and in promotional and educational material for the purposes of generating awareness and publicity about the annual awards events.