Meet Melanie LaDue of Tuft & Needle in Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie LaDue.

Melanie, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I came into my roles in social mission and community partnerships at Tuft & Needle without any formal background in social mission work. I joined what was a very small startup at the time (I was employee 62, I think!) working on the Customer Experience (CX) Team, having come from a Trainer position at Apple. I was a teacher for 12 years prior to Apple, so I had an obvious passion for education, which paired well with our newly formed school fundraising program.

I started to build what is now called our T&N Gives Back Program, while at the same time building our community giving into something more robust and purposeful. As I built (and still continue to grow) our community partnerships, my passion for helping others get the best night’s sleep ever grew by leaps and bounds. I was able to take my background in teaching and customer interactions and excel in a role that was very ambiguous from the start!

Can you give our readers some background about the organization?
I’m lucky that I work at a company that believes everyone deserves a great night’s sleep, so giving back to our community is part of our company’s DNA. As the lead for the T&N Gives Back Program, I often tell people that I have the best job in the company because I get to make a lot of people really happy through our donations.

Our version of corporate social responsibility includes the growth and development of community partnerships with organizations that align with our mission. The challenge, in my role, is to define our vision for donations and partner with organizations that support those same needs. As much as we’d like to, we can’t say yes to every donation request, so it’s important to be able to define who we will give to and why.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Measuring success in corporate social responsibility is difficult to do. Some of the benefits are not something tangible to track on a graph. Did we allow a child to no longer sleep on the floor for the first time in their lives? Did we provide a bed in a new apartment for someone just escaping homelessness? Those are huge successes, but often not seen by anyone but me and the organization helping that client. We try to get photos from organizations so that we can share those internally (I’m trying to do that more and more) so that the team can feel connected to the work we’re doing and feel the same pride that I feel.

Every time a new school applies for the T&N Gives Back Program, I count that as a success! Right now, the program is solely growing on word-of-mouth, so when a new application comes in, I know it’s because a school PTA talked about the program to someone. Getting emails from school PTA reps telling us how amazing the program is and what they’ve been able to purchase with their 25% back checks makes my heart happy, and I log that as a win in the success column!

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Driving around town, you might see banners hanging at schools showing their partnership in our T&N Gives Back Program. (My favorite thing is driving in a new part of town and seeing a banner hanging up at a school). We give 25% of sales to schools when they have fundraisers, and as a former teacher, I can attest that it’s an amazing program that I’m really proud to lead.

You’ll also see Tuft & Needle mattresses in many nonprofit organizations around Phoenix, including Circle the City and UMOM, but where you won’t actually “see” them is in homes around town with kiddos finally getting off the floor with their own bunk bed from Sleep in Heavenly Peace. We partner with SHP by making custom 6” mattresses for their handmade bunk bed frames. As SHP says, we’re making sure that no kid sleeps on the floor in our town.

We also partner with Furnishing Dignity, a nonprofit providing home furnishing essentials to people getting out of homelessness. We make sure those settling into their first apartments have a comfy mattress to sleep on that first night. (For some of them, it’s their first NEW mattress!) I could go on and on with all the partnerships we have with organizations doing amazing work for local residents.

Many fire stations around Arizona (and other states) are sleeping better on Tuft & Needle mattresses as well. First Responders shouldn’t be having restless sleep, so providing them with what they need is a great part of my job.

Are you starting to see why I have the best job in the company?
Our community giving and charity partnerships are shared on our Philanthropy page: https://www.tuftandneedle.com/about/philanthropy/
Our T&N Gives Back Program information (and application) can be found: https://www.tuftandneedle.com/givesback/apply/

Contact Info:

• Address: Tuft and Needle
  735 Grand Ave
  Phoenix, AZ 85007
• Website: www.tuftandneedle.com
• Email: socialmission@tn.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuftandneedle/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tuftandneedle/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/tuftandneedle/
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/tuftandneedle/

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