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Friendship Place Announces $1 Million Match Offer from Amazon

Amazon’s Gift is the Largest Single Private Donation Ever Received by Friendship Place

June 28, 2017

Washington, D.C. – Friendship Place, a leader in the Washington, D.C., region in developing innovative solutions to homelessness, today announced that Amazon will match all donations made to the organization before December 31, 2017, up to a total of $1 million. With Amazon’s match, Friendship Place will build on its signature strengths by getting more critically vulnerable families off the streets and into housing and jobs.

Amazon has more than 2,500 full-time employees in the D.C. region. This match campaign expands Amazon’s efforts to support nonprofits that provide critical emergency services to families in need. Last month in its hometown of Seattle, Amazon announced it is building a permanent home for Mary’s Place – an organization that provides emergency shelter and services for women and families experiencing homelessness—within its newest office building.

“We are deeply inspired by this opportunity,” said Jean Michel Giraud, President & CEO of Friendship Place. “Through efforts like these, Amazon is bringing its own corporate values of innovation, operational excellence and consumer focus into the social arena. Amazon’s gift is the largest private donation Friendship Place has ever received and will have a lasting impact on hundreds of families, helping them to go from emergency situations to long-term housing stability.”

“Since coming into office, my administration has been focused on ending homelessness in Washington, D.C.,” said Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. “Organizations like Friendship Place have been leaders in this work, and we are proud of all they’ve done over the past 26 years to get families and young people into housing. By working together and through partnerships like this one, we know we can make homelessness in D.C. rare, brief, and non-recurring.”

The 2017 Point in Time census of homelessness in the D.C. Metro region counted 1,653 families living in homelessness, including 3,271 children. Amazon’s generous match opportunity places a spotlight on the urgent, immediate needs of many of these families as well as their need for the stability that only a permanent place to live can provide. In addition to housing support and job placement, donations will assist the organization in providing person-centric emergency assistance including access to free medical and mental health care, food and transportation assistance, moving costs and furniture.

“Friendship Place’s impact in D.C. during the past 26 years is evident in the statistics, but it’s even more obvious when you hear the stories of the lives they help change,” said Jay Carney, Amazon Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs. “Amazonians across the D.C. region are grateful for the opportunity to help a team as successful, compassionate and worthy as Friendship Place, and we’re excited to expand our support for organizations that provide emergency services for families and children in need.”

Since its founding 1991, Friendship Place has become a leading nonprofit in the D.C. Metro region in the fight to end homelessness. In 2016 alone, Friendship Place prevented or ended homelessness for 1,372 people, including 350 veterans and more than 400 children in the families they served. They also placed 249 people into full-time jobs. In all, Friendship Place touched the lives of nearly 3,000 men, women and children in the last year. The organization has more than 120 paid staffers and is supported by 26 congregations and more than 300 volunteers each year.

About Friendship Place

Friendship Place is a leader in Washington, D.C., in developing solutions to homelessness that have demonstrable results and a lasting impact. Their mission is to empower people experiencing or at risk of homelessness to attain stable housing and rebuild their lives. Their vision is a D.C. community and a nation in which every person has a place to call “home.” Friendship Place hosts several events throughout the year. For more information and ways to help, visit https://khughes4713.wpengine.com/. Press Contact: Yimka Odebode, Assistant Director of Media, Marketing and Communications, yodebode@friendshipplace.org, (202) 503-2964.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

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