Amazon donates $75K to local nonprofit to combat youth homelessness

A big donation from a big company, is going to make a big impact for a local organization.

Amazon donated $75,000 to Minneapolis-based YouthLink to help the organization’s mission to eliminate homelessness. It specializes in helping people 16 to 23 years old and says the need for support has never been greater.

YouthLink Executive Director Heather Huseby said the donation was a surprise that was needed and greatly appreciated.

“2020 has been a real challenging year,” Huseby said.

Creating support and environments to help this population is never an easy feat, but it’s something that is worked on all year. In fact, YouthLink has been open 24/7 during the pandemic because it’s considered an essential service.

Amazon’s donation will help with some of its core missions: providing meals, shelter and resources for these young adults to thrive.

On top of the large check, Amazon also provided $300 gift cards for employees.

“At Amazon, we leverage our scale to do good at a local level,” said Chad Fifield, site leader at Amazon’s Shakopee fulfillment center. “There are a lot of people facing really tough situations and these aren’t problems we can wait on to solve. Thank you to all of the front-line workers at YouthLink for all that you do.”

If you’d like to help in YouthLink’s mission, click here.