This guide will help you get your points and rewards program configured in Minga — from reviewing your default behaviors and creating your rewards inventory to setting up teams and monitoring participation. By the end, you'll have a working system where students earn points for recognized behaviors and can redeem them for rewards you define.
Minga's Points Manager gives you a centralized place to run a school-wide recognition and rewards program. Points are earned through recognized behaviors, redeemable against a rewards inventory you control, and visible to students on a live leaderboard.
Permission level: Owner | Manager
In this article:
Before you begin: Understand how the program works and what each piece of the system does before you touch any settings.
Customize your behaviors: Your account includes default Praise behaviors — review, adjust point values, and activate the ones that fit your program.
Create teams: Group students for leaderboard competition.
Turn on your leaderboard: Enable the leaderboard and configure what students and staff can see.
Create your rewards: Add the items students can redeem points for.
Redeem points: How Points Managers process student redemptions.
Monitor performance: Use Points History and Rewards Redeemed reports to track program health.
Before you begin
How points and rewards work in Minga
Before configuring anything, it helps to understand what each piece of the system does and how they connect.
The ideal flow looks like this:
A student does something worth recognizing. A teacher or staff member assigns a Praise behavior — Kindness, Above and Beyond, or whatever behaviors you've activated in your account.
Points are automatically added to the student's balance. Each Praise behavior carries a point value. The student sees their updated balance in real time.
Passive points are awarded for participation. Attached points to Event attendance or automations help students gain points in other ways.
Points accumulate toward rewards. Students browse the Rewards catalog in their My Tools and decide what to save up for.
A Points Manager processes a redemption. When a student is ready to redeem, a Points Manager finds the student under Redeem Points, selects the reward, and completes the checkout. Points are deducted from the student's redeemable balance.
The leaderboard updates. Individual and team standings reflect earned points, keeping participation visible across campus.
The four building blocks — and what each one does:
Element | What it does |
Praise behavior | The trigger. Assigned by teachers or staff to recognize a student. Each behavior carries a point value — assigning it awards those points automatically. Your account includes default Praise behaviors ready to use; customize names, point values, and visibility to match your program. |
Points | The currency. Students accumulate two balances: Lifetime points (total ever earned) and Redeemable points (available to spend). Redemptions draw from the redeemable balance only. |
Teams | Optional groups of students that compete on the leaderboard. Useful for building school spirit and peer motivation. |
Rewards | Items in your school's rewards inventory. Each reward has a point cost. Students browse and redeem from their account; Points Managers process the transaction. |
Customize your behaviors
Your Minga account includes default Praise behaviors that are already built and ready to use. You don't need to create behaviors from scratch — review the defaults, adjust point values to match your program, and activate the ones you want staff to use.
If you would like to create custom behaviors, refer to this article.
Go to Behavior in the primary navigation > Behaviors.
Locate any behavior marked as a Praise type (identified by the green icon).
Click the edit pencil to adjust the name, point value, or visibility as needed.
Toggle each behavior Active to make it available to staff for assigning via My Tools or teachers to assign in My Class.
Deactivate any default behaviors that don't fit your program — they can be reactivated at any time.
Tip: Start with three to five clearly named behaviors. Too many options make it harder for staff to decide which one to use, and recognition frequency drops. Add more as the program matures.
Note: Point values and reward costs need to work together. If recognition happens a few times a week and your cheapest reward costs 500 points, participation will stall. Set point values and reward costs at the same time so the math produces a reasonable earn-to-redeem timeline for students.
Create teams
Teams let you group students for leaderboard competition. This step is optional, but if your school uses houses, grades, advisory groups, or any other team structure, set them up here.
For a full walkthrough of creating teams, please refer to this article.
Go to Points in the primary navigation > Teams.
Click Create School Team.
Name the team and save.
Click Manage Members to add students to the team.
Repeat for each team.
Tip: You don't need teams for the rewards program to work. If you're launching Points Manager for the first time, consider getting behaviors and rewards running first, then adding teams once the program has momentum.
Turn on your leaderboard
The leaderboard is visible to students and staff from My Tools > Points > Leaderboard. Configure what's displayed and who can manage the program before turning it on.
Go to Points in the Primary Navigation > Settings.
Under Leaderboard Settings, toggle on Enable leaderboard.
Choose whether to show individual points, team points, or both.
Under Permissions Settings, toggle on Teachers can manage points and/or Staff can manage points based on who should be able to assign points on campus.
Under Rewards Settings, toggle on Enable rewards. Optionally enable teachers and staff to manage rewards if you want those roles to process redemptions.
Under Points Manager List, add any staff members who should have full Points Manager access — this grants them the ability to create teams, manage rewards, access reporting, and redeem points for students.
Tip: Keep the Points Manager list small to start. One or two staff members responsible for running the program are easier to manage than broad access across the whole campus.
Create your rewards
Rewards are the items students can redeem their points for. You control what's available, the point cost for each item, and whether it's currently active.
Go to Points in the primary navigation > Rewards.
Click Create Reward.
Add a reward name, optional description, and an image if available.
Set the Point Cost — the number of redeemable points required to claim this reward.
Click Create.
Repeat for each reward.
To temporarily remove a reward from the student-facing catalog without deleting it, toggle it to inactive. It can be reactivated at any time.
Tip: You don't need a large catalog to launch. Three to five rewards at different price points give students meaningful choice without requiring a large inventory. Add more as you learn what students actually want.
Redeem points
When a student is ready to spend their points, a Points Manager processes the redemption on their behalf.
Go to My Tools in the primary navigation > Redeem Points (this option may be found in More actions).
Search for the student by name or ID number.
Confirm their Available Points balance is sufficient for the reward.
Use Add to Cart to select the reward and quantity.
Review the total and click Checkout to complete the redemption.
The student's redeemable balance updates immediately. Their lifetime points total is unaffected — it reflects all points ever earned, regardless of redemptions.
Note: Teachers and staff can browse the rewards catalog from My Tools > Points > Rewards, but only Points Managers can complete redemptions.
Once checked out, the redemption is logged and the student's redeemable balance updates in real time. Students can see the change immediately from their own account.
Monitor performance
Two reports in Points Manager give you visibility into how the program is running.
Points history report
Go to Points in the Primary Navigation > Reports > Points History Report (in the report dropdown) to see a full log of points awarded across your campus. Filter by date range, grade, or team.
Use this report to see:
Which students are being recognized most frequently
Which staff members are most actively awarding points
Whether point volume is consistent across the week or concentrated in certain classes or staff members
Rewards redeemed report
Go to Points in the primary navigation > Reports > Rewards Redeemed to see which rewards have been claimed and how often. Use this to identify which items are most popular and which aren't worth restocking.
Tip: Pull both reports at the end of each month. Low point volume usually means staff aren't assigning Praise behaviors consistently — not that students aren't doing anything worth recognizing. Use the data as a prompt for a quick check-in with your team.
FAQs
FAQs
What's the difference between lifetime points and redeemable points?
Lifetime points represent the total a student has ever earned — this number never decreases. Redeemable points are what the student has available to spend. When a redemption is processed, only the redeemable balance is reduced.
Can students redeem their own points without a Points Manager?
No. Students can browse the rewards catalog and see what's available, but a Points Manager must process the actual redemption. This prevents students from redeeming points without a staff member present to fulfill the reward.
Can teachers award points without being a Points Manager?
Yes, if Teachers can manage points is enabled in your Settings. Teachers can assign Praise behaviors and award points, but cannot create teams, manage rewards, or access reporting unless they are also on the Points Manager List.
Can I deactivate a reward without deleting it?
Yes. Toggle the reward to inactive in Points > Rewards. It will no longer appear in the student-facing catalog but remains in your inventory and can be reactivated at any time.
Can I adjust a student's point balance manually?
Yes. Points Managers can manually add or subtract points from a student's balance. Use this for corrections or one-off recognitions that don't fit an existing Praise behavior.
Do points reset at the end of the year?
Point balances do not reset automatically. If your school resets points at the start of each year, semester, or otherwise, this must be done manually. This article provides guidance on resetting points school wide.
Resources
Resources
Points and Reward Video Series: A video walkthrough series covering settings, team creation, and rewards configuration, and much more.
Assigning Praise Behaviors: How staff assign Praise behaviors and award points from My Tools.
Live Training Calendar Weekly Zoom sessions — bring your setup questions and get them answered live.