Collaborative Rewards

How do collaborative rewards work?

Collaborative rewards let your whole team pool tacos together toward a shared goal — a team outing, a charity donation, a group experience, or something uniquely yours. Instead of one person redeeming alone, everyone chips in. They're one of the most popular reward types in HeyTaco because they bring people together around something meaningful.

How contributing works

Once an admin has set up a collaborative reward in the Taco Shop, any team member with a HeyTaco account can contribute toward it:

1. Go to the Taco Shop.
2. Find the collaborative reward and click Contribute.
3. Choose how many of your redeemable tacos you'd like to add.
4. Hit Confirm — your tacos go toward the goal immediately.

You'll see the progress bar update as others contribute too, and HeyTaco will keep you posted on how many tacos remain as the goal gets closer.

What happens when the goal is reached

Once the reward is fully funded, HeyTaco notifies all contributors and the redemption appears on your admin's Admin → Redemptions page for fulfillment. How it actually gets fulfilled is up to your admin — the details are usually spelled out in the reward description, so check there for what happens next (for example, when a team outing will happen, or which charity a donation goes to).

Creating a collaborative reward

Only admins can create rewards. Go to the Taco Shop and click "Add Reward," then select Collaborative as the reward type. You'll find pre-loaded ideas to choose from, or you can create your own from scratch.

• Description — Write a clear description explaining what the reward is and what happens once it's fully funded. For a charity reward, share the charity name and how much will be donated. For a team experience, describe what it involves and roughly when it will happen. This description is your main communication tool — people decide whether to contribute based on what they read here.
• Redemption amount — The total number of tacos needed across all contributors to unlock the reward. A useful starting formula is 30 tacos per person on your team — for a 10-person team, that's 300 tacos. This figure is designed to make a reward achievable in roughly one to three months: under 30 tacos per person is easy (under a month), 30–100 is medium (two to three months), and over 100 is hard (more than three months). For monetary rewards, the 4-tacos-per-$1 ratio also applies — a $300 charity donation would be priced at around 1,200 tacos. You can always go back and adjust the price if it's proving too easy or too hard to reach.
• Reward cost — You can add the monetary value of the reward (viewable by admins only), so when you download the Redemptions Report, you can see how much you're spending on rewards.

Reward ideas

Not sure where to start? Two of the most popular collaborative rewards HeyTaco teams set up are tacos for charity (the team pools tacos toward a donation to a cause they care about) and tacos for a team-building event (an outing, activity, or experience the whole team unlocks together). Both work well because the payoff is shared, which is what makes collaborative rewards feel different from a solo redemption.

For more ideas — including ones for custom and gift card rewards too — see Reward ideas for Your Taco Shop.

Frequently asked questions

Are collaborative rewards available on all plans?

Yes — collaborative rewards are available on both Classic and Deluxe.

Can I convert an existing reward into a collaborative one?

No — reward types can't be changed after creation. If you want a collaborative version of an existing reward, you'll need to create a new one.

Can I get my tacos back after contributing?

No — contributions to collaborative rewards are final and can't be reversed. Think of it like tossing your tacos into the pot: once they're in, they're committed to the goal.