The end of the year is a natural moment to celebrate what your team has accomplished together. Whether you want to give everyone a meaningful thank-you, spark a wave of peer recognition, or empower leaders to send personalized gifts, Bonusly gives you flexible options to make it happen.
Here are 4 ways to use Bonusly for end-of-year celebrations, depending on what you want to achieve:
Give group awards and send points directly to your entire company or specific parts of your company.
Create a limited-time flash points event where everyone gets extra points to recognize each other for a period of time.
Supplement managers' rewards budgets with a private award to enable them to send gifts to their direct reports from their redeemable balance.
Adjust specific users' redeemable points balances as designated gift-givers for very small companies.
Group awards
The most straightforward way to celebrate your team is to create one or more awards that go out by year-end. Awards can be given to everyone or targeted to specific groups—by department, location, or team. This approach puts points directly into employees' hands so they can redeem rewards that are meaningful to them.
Decide who gets awards. Determine whether you're celebrating everyone company-wide, or if you want to create separate awards for different groups. If you have fewer than 100 users, a single award for everyone keeps things simple. For larger or globally distributed organizations, consider creating multiple awards targeted to your largest groups—this makes it easier to track budgets and distinguish between different parts of your organization.
Designate award givers. Choose who will send out each award. For a company-wide award, a global Bonusly admin makes sense. For group-specific awards, you can designate givers by providing user emails or by targeting specific users through custom properties.
Set a points budget. Decide how many points each person should receive, then multiply that amount by the total number of recipients in each group. This gives you the total budget per award.
Customize the award post. Give your award a clear title that helps you distinguish it from other end-of-year awards. Add an icon and write a message that reflects what you're celebrating. Consider letting givers edit the message so they can personalize it while still having a thoughtful starting point. Make the award public so everyone can celebrate together—or limit visibility to specific teams if award amounts vary significantly between groups.
Choose your timing. Decide when awards should go out—maybe following an all-hands meeting or during a holiday celebration.
Brief your givers. Let them know which award they'll be giving and who should receive it. Note that if the giver is included in the recipient group, they won't receive points themselves.
Send the award to a group. When the giver selects an award, they can enter recipients using the "@" menu. They can type "everyone," search for a specific team, department, or location, or upload multiple recipients at once from a CSV file.
Personalize the post. Givers can edit the message, record a video, or add an image or GIF to make it feel more personal.
Confirm and celebrate. Verify the recipients and points amount, then send it out. Encourage everyone to read and respond to award posts in the feed to keep the celebration going.
Why this works
Awards give points directly to your employees, and they can redeem them for rewards that feel valuable and personal—whether that's a gift card, a curated gift, or a charitable donation.
What to consider
Employees may feel that group awards are more impersonal than if they received a recognition from a peer or a hand-picked gift from a company leader.
Flash points event
If you want to spread goodwill and boost recognition rates at year-end, a flash points event is a great option. Flash points give everyone a temporary allowance of bonus points to recognize their peers during a specific timeframe—perfect for driving engagement.
Set a budget. Decide how many points each person should have to give out during the event.
Create the event. Go to peer-to-peer recognition admin settings, then "manage” flash points events. Create a new event, choose your start and end dates, and enter how many points each employee will have to give. Customize the event communications that go out automatically.
Announce the event. While Bonusly will send automated notifications, consider making a company-wide announcement to set expectations—like whether people should spread their points across multiple colleagues or focus on 1 standout individual.
Let recognition flow. On the start date, everyone receives their flash points allowance and can start recognizing peers. They'll be notified by email and in-product. Flash points are used before a user's regular monthly peer-to-peer recognition budget.
Why this works
Flash points create a celebratory atmosphere and democratize year-end giving. They can boost recognition rates during a time when people are often distracted by holiday plans. And since peer-to-peer recognition is always optional, you're unlikely to distribute your full budgeted amount—which can help if you're monitoring recognition costs closely.
What to keep in mind
Flash points don't guarantee everyone receives the same amount. Since giving is optional, some people may receive more recognition than others based on their contributions and visibility.
Manager awards
If you want company gifts to come directly from managers—who are often best positioned to choose something meaningful for each of their reports—you can supplement their redeemable points balance with a private award. This gives managers the budget they need without drawing from points they've earned for themselves.
Set a budget. Identify the types of rewards managers should give (gift cards or curated gifts) and multiply the maximum item cost by your total number of employees to arrive at a budget. Calculate the total points needed.
Compile a list of managers. Create a CSV file with manager names, emails, and the number of direct reports each manager has. Separate into multiple CSV files based on team size—for example: one file for managers with 5 direct reports, another for managers with 10, and so on.
Create a single private award. Set up an award with no limit on total points and allow different amounts per recipient. Change the visibility to "private" so only recipients and admins see it.
Send awards to managers. You'll give this award multiple times—once for each team size at your company. Either tag managers by typing their names or upload one CSV file at a time to add recipients. Calculate the points needed based on total reports count, and add that amount. Use the same message and hashtag for each award to simplify reporting.
Organize the gifting event. Coordinate when managers should send gifts to their direct reports and share instructions on how to give gifts in Bonusly.
Why this works
Managers know their reports best and can choose gifts that feel personal and thoughtful. A private award gives them the budget to do this without using their own hard-earned points.
What to keep in mind
This approach requires more coordination. Admins need to compile manager lists and support multiple awards. Managers need to select appropriate gifts for each report within the provided timeframe. That said, private awards are easy to track in Bonusly reports.
Redeemable balance adjustments
For small companies (under 50 users), you can adjust one or two users' redeemable balances to give them enough points to send a gift to everyone. This is the simplest approach for very small teams, but it doesn't scale well.
Identify a company gift-giver. Choose 1–2 employees who will receive a redeemable balance adjustment to purchase gifts for everyone. Try to pick someone with global admin permissions. Let them know they'll be sending gifts on behalf of the company and ask them to note their current redeemable balance.
Set a budget. Determine how many points each person should receive as an end-of-year gift.
Adjust the giver's balance. Go to the admin 'User Accounts', find the gift-giver, scroll over to the "earnings balance" column, and open click on their points total. From there "create balance adjustment." Multiply the points per person by your total number of employees, then enter this amount as a positive adjustment. Add a note for reporting purposes and save your changes.
Share gifting instructions. The gift-giver's balance updates immediately. They can now send gift cards or curated gifts to every user.
Why this works
It's straightforward for very small teams and gives you control over who sends gifts.
What to keep in mind
This approach is not recommended for companies with more than 50 total users. It's time-consuming and hard to track. The designated giver must either use their entire earned balance before applying the adjustment, or carefully track how much they had originally so they can preserve that amount after gifting. Tracking redeemable balance adjustments in reports isn't straightforward either—admins and finance teams need to know exactly where to look.
Choosing the right approach
Each option has its strengths depending on what you want to accomplish:
Group awards are best when you want to give points directly to employees and let them choose rewards that matter to them.
Flash points events work well when you want to boost recognition rates and create a celebratory atmosphere.
Private awards to managers are ideal when you want gifts to feel personal and come from someone who knows each recipient well.
Earned points balance adjustments are practical for very small teams where simplicity matters more than scalability.
No matter which approach you choose, the goal is the same: to celebrate what your team has accomplished and show genuine appreciation for the work that made it possible.
Questions? Send us a note to [email protected]—we'd be happy to help!