Shaun Rubenstein
Founder
[Short biography]
Giving talent a chance.
SOAR Performance Foundation was started by three friends who grew up through sport and saw first-hand how far an opportunity at the right time can carry someone. We use HYROX, mentorship and personal development to find people with real potential in communities that tend to be overlooked, and we back them from their first session to wherever their ability can take them.
Our story
SOAR began on the water, where Shaun Rubenstein, Michael Mbanjwa and Neil Cuninghame met as junior paddlers and earned places together in the national junior marathon racing team that toured overseas in 2000. From there Shaun went on to become an Olympic kayaker, and Michael, who was one of the first black South Africans selected for that junior team, went on to become the first black South African to win the Dusi Canoe Marathon. Neil moved into ultra-endurance sport, including the Comrades Marathon, while building a career in chiropractic and pain management.
Sport built our friendships and then carried each of us into different careers. Shaun was the catalyst that brought us back together. After competing in HYROX himself, he saw what the sport could do to get people active and competitive, and to open the way to personal growth and skills development. Michael is living proof of what that kind of opportunity can do. Sport opened doors for him, he grew his skills and his career, and he returned to the valley to mentor others and strengthen his own community. His journey is the SOAR model in a single life, and we're building SOAR to make that journey possible for many more people in underserved communities across South Africa.
Our purpose
Our mission is to find talent in underserved communities across South Africa and give people the coaching, opportunities and support to achieve in sport and in life, so they can bring others with them.
The people behind SOAR
Founders
Michael Mbanjwa
Founder
[Short biography]
Dr Neil Cuninghame
Founder
Neil is a chiropractor and pain management specialist with more than sixteen years in private practice in Hillcrest, and he holds a postgraduate diploma in Interdisciplinary Pain Management from the University of Cape Town. Alongside his clinical work he has kept racing, moving from marathon kayaking into ultra-endurance events such as the Comrades Marathon, so he understands what training load, recovery and the occasional injury tend to look like from both sides of the consulting room. [In SOAR he brings that experience to the health and wellbeing of our athletes, from how they train and recover to how they are looked after when something goes wrong.]
Coaches, board members and advisors
[Name]
[Role]
[Short biography]
[Name]
[Role]
[Short biography]
[Name]
[Role]
[Short biography]
Governance
SOAR Performance Foundation is the public name of SOAR Performance and Development Foundation NPC, a non-profit company registered in South Africa. We keep restricted programme funding separate from general operating income, and we report on our spending and outcomes.
[Annual report, once published]
- Company registration
- [NPC NUMBER]
- Non-profit organisation
- [NPO NUMBER]
- Public benefit organisation
- [PBO NUMBER]
Section 18A
In progressOur application for Section 18A approval, which lets us issue tax-deductible donation receipts, is in progress. We'll update this page once it's confirmed.
The wider sport
Our relationship with HYROX
[Approved HYROX relationship wording]
With thanks
Partners and supporters
- [Partner logo]
[How they support SOAR]
- [Partner logo]
[How they support SOAR]
- [Supporter logo]
[How they support SOAR]
- [Supporter logo]
[How they support SOAR]
Back the talent. Build the future.
Corporate partners, sponsors, foundations and supporting organisations can help us turn talent into opportunity.