With the majority of all U.S. businesses (84%) now using non-cash awards and the majority of top performing businesses (those with the highest revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction) saying their executives support their non-cash recognition and reward programs as a competitive advantage, the eminent need to understand how to create effective programs becomes clear. This begs the question: What patterns exist in program design among effective non-cash incentive programs? To this end, the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) analyzed several years of relevant research to identify noteworthy design elements for effective non-cash recognition and reward programs