ReFED Case Study:Driving Remote Employee Engagement Through Sustainable Recognition
ReFED is a leading nonprofit dedicated to ending food waste and addressing the climate crisis. With a fully remote team of 34 employees, ReFED is driven by sustainability, innovation, and people —values reflected in both their mission and workplace culture. To overcome challenges in remote employee engagement and recognition, ReFED turned to CardSnacks for a simple, sustainable solution that streamlined their process and aligned with their environmental values.
Challenge
Remote Recognition Challenges
With a fully remote team, ReFED struggled to maintain morale and consistently recognize milestones like birthdays and work anniversaries.
Manual, Time-Consuming Process
HR had to individually contact employees to choose personalized gift cards — often from hard-to-source, local vendors.
Lack of Scalability
The previous method was not sustainable as the team grew, making it difficult to manage consistent and timely recognition.
CardSnacks Use Cases
Milestone Celebrations
CardSnacks is used to recognize employee birthdays and work anniversaries with personalized digital cards and gift cards — streamlining what was once a manual process. CardSnacks Cash gift cards have become a major employee favorite for their flexibility and ease of use.
Peer Recognition Program
Through the “Big Deal” initiative, employees can nominate colleagues for outstanding contributions, promoting a culture of appreciation and connection.
Creative Engagement Initiatives
ReFED has used CardSnacks as incentives for internal raffles and adoption campaigns (e.g., Salesforce usage), helping boost participation in key initiatives.
Results
High Engagement with 94% Open Rate
CardSnacks messages are consistently opened and appreciated, reflecting strong employee engagement.
Streamlined and Scalable Recognition
What was once a manual, fragmented process is now organized and efficient, supporting a growing remote team.
Boosted HR Productivity
Automating gift card delivery and recognition has freed up valuable time for HR to focus on strategic initiatives.
Responses from the Team
"Ahh Thank you so much!! I am so happy to be here and get to work with you all!"
"You are going to make me cry :) THANK YOU"
Client Testimonial
“CardSnacks is super convenient and has made our recognition process really streamlined and easy. We love that it offers gift card options for employees in Canada and across the U.S. — it’s been a game changer for our remote team.”
Nicole Chandler Head of HR, ReFED
Learn More
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