Thissss. My job brilliantly avoids awkward office birthday stuff by giving staff their birthday off. And yet we don’t have free coffee in the office. Nonprofits are weird.

Back when I worked at a Chapters book store during university, they had this employee rewards thing where if a manager noticed you going out of your way to do a good job, they would make a point to thank you and give you a little employee gift card thing for $5 to use at the store. I think they had a certain number they could give out every month. They also encouraged employees to tell a manager if another employee did an extra good job at something or was extra helpful, and the manager would give the helping person a thank you gift card. It’s such a tiny thing (and it leads employees to spend money at the store, since $5 doesn’t buy you a gift), but it was honestly really nice. And it encouraged a culture of positivity, and for everyone to notice when the team was succeeding — it was really nice to be able to point out someone else’s good work and see them directly rewarded for it. I only worked there for 4 months but I think I got like 6 cards over that time? It cost the business like nothing and it really worked. Infinitely better than the company hosting after-hours events!!