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Donut Shoutouts: Points Best Practices

Points are the fuel behind your Shoutouts program. Here’s how to make them meaningful, fair, and sustainable.

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Written by Essence
Updated over 3 weeks ago

✅ What Are Points?

Points are earned through Shoutouts and can be redeemed for rewards. Each emoji used in a Shoutout equals one point.

Example:

“Huge thanks to @lee for stepping in on short notice 🍩🍩”
Lee earns 2 Donuts (points).


🔢 How Many Points Should Each Person Get?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but here are a few starting points:

Team Size

Recommended Weekly Points per Person

< 20 people

20-30

20–100 people

15-25

100+ people

10-20

📌 Tip: Start small and adjust over time based on engagement and redemption volume.


⚖️ Balancing Recognition and Redemption

When setting point costs for rewards:

  • Make small wins feel achievable (5–10 points)

  • Reserve premium perks (e.g. PTO) for higher earners (25+ points)

  • Keep a mix of fun, personal, and team-centric rewards


💬 Popular Reward Ideas (Monetary + Non-monetary)

Type

Examples

Non-monetary

Lunch with execs, DJ the next all-hands, choose next team offsite snack

Monetary

Gift cards, company swag, food delivery

Team-building

Plan the next team activity, nominate someone for a spotlight


📈 How to Monitor Point Usage

From the Donut dashboard, admins can:

  • View who’s giving and receiving the most in the Leaderboard

  • Monitor reward redemption patterns

  • Adjust point budgets as needed

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