Teach For America: Spreading Appreciation with Tightknit
“Tightknit turned appreciation into a daily habit. In just five days, 54 of our colleagues shared heartfelt badges, proof that recognition can be both meaningful and remarkably easy when it happens right inside Slack.”
Monet Braithwaite
Internal Comms Director
Overview
In February 2025, Teach For America (TFA) partnered with Tightknit to run Share the Love—a week‑long internal appreciation campaign celebrating staff contributions ahead of Valentine’s Day (February 10‑14). By combining Tightknit’s Slack‑native Journeys with custom digital Badges, TFA empowered employees to recognize colleagues instantly and strengthen its culture of gratitude.
Challenges
Reach a geographically dispersed workforce of more than 1,500 staff members and temporary hires.
Make peer recognition easy and engaging—without asking employees to learn yet another tool.
Give leadership clear metrics to evaluate campaign success.
Solution
Preparation – Clear, step‑by‑step instructions for using Tightknit were posted on the TFA intranet one week before launch.
Slack Launch – A kickoff post in the #tfa_celebrate channel (1,548 members) announced the campaign and linked directly to the Tightknit Journey.
Guided Journey – Staff completed a simple three‑step Tightknit Journey, creating personalized badge frames and sharing them in Slack.
Timed Nudges – Mid‑week and closing reminder messages kept momentum high.
Results in Just Five Days
Qualitatively, leaders noticed a surge in positive, cross‑team chatter, and new hires cited the campaign as a standout example of TFA’s supportive culture.
Why Tightknit Worked
Embedded where work happens – Recognition flowed inside Slack, eliminating context‑switching.
Turnkey Journeys – Pre‑built templates reduced communications‑team prep time to minutes.
Measurable Impact – Real‑time dashboards tracked badge completions and channel engagement.
Looking Ahead
Buoyed by the success of Share the Love, TFA plans to incorporate Tightknit Journeys into its quarterly engagement calendar—starting with a Back‑to‑School gratitude drive later this year.
