Seeding Rewards

Rewards are funds from your company that go into a user's Giving Account for donating to eligible causes. You can efficiently distribute rewards to multiple users' Giving Accounts, in more than one currency, using the batch seeding process. Seeding is ideal for situations such as recognizing employees for campaign participation or distributing funds for team activities.

Simply upload a .csv, .xlsx or .xls file with unique identifiers like email addresses or employee IDs for many users. The system checks and validates users and budget impacts, then adds rewards to their Giving Accounts. The rewards don't show up on your Donation Report until they've been donated, and they don't affect the user's annual rewards balance.

Permissions

Spark administrators with the awards manager or budget manager user roles can create and manage seeding batches. 

Creating a new seeding batch

To create a new seeding batch: 

1. Log in to Spark and go to Manage.
2. Select Company Giving in the top navigation bar and choose Seeding.
3. Select Create New Seeding to start a new seeding batch.

You’ll need to complete the following steps to seed accounts.

Step 1: Basic info

The first step in the seeding process is to enter batch information in the following fields:

• Batch description: a name for the seeding batch. It is auto-populated into the unique Batch identifier (not editable). 
• Expiry date (optional): the date the funds expire.
• Expiry time (optional): the time the funds expire.
• Expiry time zone (optional): the time zone for the expiry time. 
• Automated confirmation email: choose if you want to notify users of their rewards by email. 
  • You can also return to a seeding batch later to send the email. Do this if you are processing several batches and want to send all users an email at the same time.

Seeded rewards email to notify users

Step 2: Add users

The next step is to upload a .csv, .xlsx or .xls file with a single column of employee IDs or email addresses for the user accounts you want to seed. 

1. Create a user list.
   • You can either:
     • Download this template and manually enter email addresses or employee IDs in a single column. 
       • Note: email addresses are case-sensitive and must match the email in the user's spark profile. e.g. USER1@BENEVITY.COM, or user2@benevity.com.
     • Generate a user list from a report in Benevity Reporting. Make sure that you delete all columns except for the email address or employee ID.
   • Enter one email address or employee ID per row. 
2. Choose the identifier included in the file.
3. Select Add File or drag and drop a file into the dashed box. 
4. Select Scan to: 
   • Check if the IDs exist in the platform and if there are duplicates.
   • Identify user currencies. 
5. Review the validation summary: 
   • Warnings do not prevent the seeding process. 
   • Errors require you to choose an action before proceeding. 

The validation identifies valid/invalid users and duplicate entries. You can: 

• Download a Validation Report to download an Excel report of user issues.
• Upload a New File and restart the validation. 

To continue the process with the current file, make sure that all errors are resolved and select Next. Note that processing times are dependent on the number of users. If you have a large user list, it may take more time to upload the user file, validate users and budgets, and process seeding. 

Step 3: Add amounts

The seeding currency for a user depends on their localized experience on the site. It is the currency they transact in. For example, if your user list includes users from 3 different localized experiences, you'll see 3 currency fields along with the number of users.

Now it’s time to enter a seeding amount for each currency detected in the user list. 

1. Enter the Amount per user to seed for each currency. You can enter one amount per currency. 
2. Select Scan budgets once all amounts are entered to validate any impacted budgets.
3. Review the validation summary: 
   • Warnings do not prevent the seeding process.
   • Errors require you to choose an action before proceeding.

The validation checks if there is enough budget for seeding rewards. Seeded rewards can impact the All or Volunteering budgets in any currency, but they never impact individual user budgets. If two budgets are affected in the same currency, remember that users are only seeded once. Learn more about budgets.

You can:

• Download a Validation Report to download an Excel report of budget impacts.
• Adjust Amounts to reduce budget usage. 
• Increase budget limits to prevent exceeding a budget. 

If you want to continue the process with the current amounts, and you are happy with budget usage, make sure that all errors are resolved and select Next.

Step 4: Review and Submit

The final step is to review the details and impacts of the seeding batch. Select Download Seeding Report to export details to Excel. 

You should review the impacts carefully before selecting Submit to immediately process and credit user Giving Accounts with rewards. The seeding process runs in the background and you can continue managing your program. Later, you can return to the completed seeding batch.

Managing seeding batches

To view all seeding batches, go to Manage > Company Giving > Seeding.

 

You’ll see a list of batches and the following details: 

• Batch identifier: the unique identifier for the batch. Reference this identifier if you need to contact our support team. 
• Last modified date: The last date and time any update was made to the seeding batch. 
• Last modified by: The user who last interacted with the batch. 
• Status: Draft, Processing, Action required, Complete. 
• Actions: Edit, Delete, View. 
  • You can only edit or delete a Draft batch. 

Continuing a drafted batch 

Select Edit next to a batch draft if you want to continue with it. You can pick up where you left off and work through the steps as outlined above. 

If you previously validated the user list or the impacted budgets, you should run the validation again so that it is up to date. Each validation is actioned from the appropriate step of the process or you can run both validations at the Review and Submit step. 

Reviewing a submitted batch

Select View next to a submitted batch to review it. It will have a status of Processing, Action required, or Complete: 

• A Processing batch is locked and displays the progress as user Giving Accounts are seeded. You are informed if errors are found.
• An Action required batch has been processed with issues. Select Download Report to review issues and take action. 
• A Complete batch has been processed without issues. 

Once the seeding process is complete, you may have the option to Send Confirmation Email to users if you previously chose not to. If you send the confirmation, an email is sent immediately informing users of their new rewards. 

If a seeding batch has the Action required status, you can View it and Mark as Complete if you do not want to take action. 

Notifications

Admin notifications 

If you create a seeding batch, you receive an email when: 

• User list validation is complete.
• Budget validation is complete.
• The seeding batch is processing.
• The seeding batch is complete without errors.
• The seeding batch is complete and action is required.

Only the admin user who submits the seeding batch receives these emails. You cannot opt out of these system notifications at this time. 

Connection issues

You may be notified of connection issues when the page is idle for too long. Refresh the page to continue. 

User notifications

If indicated for the seeding batch, users receive a confirmation email when rewards are seeded to their account. They are also notified on the platform through a banner and, when selected, then prompted to donate their rewards.

Users receive reminders via email 10 days and then 24 hours before their seeded rewards expire to encourage them to donate. 

Related Resources

Spark training course

Seeding Rewards
A guide to seeding rewards for your people to boost program engagement and connection. 
⏰  5 minutes

Benevity Reporting stock reports

• Spark User List
  • Generate a list of employee IDs or email addresses for seeding.
• My Rewards Redemption by Identifier
  • Report on the success of a seeding campaign by looking at rewards usage by seeding identifier. 
• Seeding Campaign
  • Report on participation and the impact of a campaign(s) by a user group.
• Seeding Campaign Cause Report
  • Report on the impact of a seeding campaign on the causes your organization cares about.