Indeed team members unpack and sort donated books at Tandem’s San Francisco office.

This year, employees at the Indeed.com San Mateo offices held a book drive to benefit Tandem®. Indeed.com is considered the number one job search engine, and their main goal is pretty simple—to help people find and secure jobs. Each month, Indeed holds “good deed” event opportunities for their employees. They host fun volunteering events, such as 5k races and various drives to raise money and awareness for nonprofits of their choice. In honor of Reading is Fun Week and Library Week, both observed in April, Indeed wanted to host a book drive to support an organization that focused on promoting literacy and reading. We’re glad that they chose us!

About the Book Drive

This is Indeed’s first time partnering with Tandem. After reading Tandem’s mission statement and learning a bit more about what we do, Indeed decided Tandem would be the best place to donate the new and used books from their book drive.

The company drive took place from mid-April to mid-May. There are about 150 people employed at the San Mateo Indeed office, working within two departments. To add an interesting twist on their charitable giving, Indeed decided to use the book drive as an opportunity for some friendly inter-departmental competition between the Client Services team and the Sales team. For every children’s book donated – any title, new or used – the team would receive one point. If a brand new book was chosen from Tandem’s wishlist of suggested titles and donated, the team would receive five points.The stakes for the competition were pretty high: at the end of the drive, the managers of the team with the most points would have the chance to dole out a pretty messy (yet tasty!) punishment to the losing team’s managers. Team “Inside Indeed” and Team “Mateo Rules” both committed to winning!

The book drive became very competitive over the span of one month. Books were donated by every employee at the office, and even extended beyond the office walls. Employee’s friends and family members got in on the action, donating books and cheering their team on to victory. In fact, two of the biggest book donation pushes were championed by a mother of an employee who is a school librarian, and another employee’s mother who currently works as a school teacher. Indeed Account Executive VernaLee James said, “This book drive was one of the company’s most successful drives yet!” She went on to share that while it could have been because nobody wanted to get a pie in the face, it was also because the Indeed teams connected so well with the drive’s mission to support reading and early literacy initiatives for Bay Area children and families.

And the Winner Is….

So what was the outcome? After 30 days of competition, commitment, and so many books… Team “Mateo Rules” rose to victory, securing First Place by donating more books from Tandem’s wishlist to earn more overall points per each donated book. Team “Inside Indeed” manager received a pie in the face at the company’s Memorial Day BBQ.

Indeed’s winning Team “Mateo Rules” serves a pie in the face to Team “Inside Indeed” at the company Memorial Day BBQ.

The sweet taste of defeat? Indeed’s book drive competition make it one of the company’s most successful drives to date.

After the Drive

Once the book drive was completed, members of the Indeed San Mateo office delivered the books to Tandem’s San Francisco office, located in the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood. It was great to meet and get to know the members of the Indeed team. All in all, Indeed donated over 500 children’s books to Tandem! And we have already put these titles to great use: many of these books were distributed at our Bayview Family Jamboree event on June 10th.

Thank you so much, Indeed, for your contributions to Tandem and for supporting early learning and early literacy locally with us! We look forward to more book drives, collaborations, and yes…pie-in-the-face competitions in the future.

Indeed “Mateo Rules” team members with Tandem. Indeed’s book drive brought in over 500 donated books to support early literacy locally with Tandem.