Performance Management — Milestones and Rewards
Give River includes a Rewards Dashboard that administrators use to manage the recognition and reward programme for their organization. The dashboard is the foundation of performance management on the platform.
What Is Available Now
The Rewards Dashboard (/admin-rewards) is an admin-only screen with six management tabs:
| Tab | What it manages |
|---|---|
| Drop Defaults | Set the default number of drops assigned to recognition actions across the team |
| Milestones | Create and configure milestone thresholds — when users reach a threshold, a reward is triggered automatically |
| Awards | Create award types that managers and admins can grant to users manually |
| Custom Rewards | Configure bespoke reward items specific to your organization |
| Gift Cards | Set up gift card options that users can redeem with their earned tokens |
| Badges | Create and manage badges using admin templates or custom images; configure automatic trigger rules |
Accessing the Rewards Dashboard (Admins Only)
- Log in with an admin account.
- Navigate to the Rewards Dashboard via the admin navigation. The URL path is
/admin-rewards. - Use the tab bar at the top to switch between Drop Defaults, Milestones, Awards, Custom Rewards, Gift Cards, and Badges.
How Milestones Work
Admins define milestone thresholds in the Milestones tab. When a user's recognition activity reaches a configured threshold (for example, a certain number of drops given or received), the platform automatically triggers a reward — such as awarding a badge or unlocking a custom reward.
How Badges Work
Admins create badges in the Badges tab from either:
- Admin badge templates — pre-built badge designs provided by Give River
- Team-specific badges — custom badge designs uploaded for your organization
Each badge has one or more triggers — rules that define what action or milestone automatically awards the badge to a user. Badge triggers are configured inside the Badges tab.
Users see earned badges in the Badges section of their My River dashboard. When a badge is awarded, Ugo delivers an in-app popup celebration.
SMART Goals
SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound goal setting) is now live. Every member can create personal goals with milestone steps, earn drops as their manager approves each milestone, and celebrate completions on the River Feed.
- Members create and track goals from My River → My Goals. See the SMART Goals article for the full walkthrough.
- Managers review and approve their team's goals and milestone submissions from the Team Goals and Approvals views inside My Goals — see SMART Goals for Managers.
- Admins manage the goal programme from Engage → Goals: the organization-wide goal list, the approval queue, goal templates, and workflow settings — see Managing the Goals Programme.
- Goal analytics — participation, completion rate, pace, and drops paid through goals — live in Insights → Goals.
Note the naming: the Milestones tab on the Rewards Dashboard (birthdays, anniversaries, and automatic thresholds, described above) is a separate feature from the milestone steps inside a SMART goal.
For Users (Non-Admins)
If you are a regular user or manager, you interact with performance management outcomes rather than the configuration:
- Goals you create live in My River → My Goals; milestone approvals pay drops straight into your balance.
- Badges you earn appear automatically on your My River dashboard and in your journal.
- Awards given to you by your admin appear in the Awards section of My River.
- Gift cards you are eligible to redeem appear in the Drop Shop.
Contact your administrator if you have questions about your team's milestone thresholds or reward programme.
Did this article help?
Related articles.
See the platform in action.
30-day free trial. No credit card. River Guide included on Core and Growth.