October 30, 2023
Amazon supports more than 3,000 community events across 51 countries during its Global Month of Volunteering
Tens of thousands of Amazon employees from 51 countries around the globe participated in Amazon’s Global Month of Volunteering, an initiative dedicated to building stronger communities in the cities and towns where our employees live and work. Team members volunteered in more than 3,000 events supporting more than 400 nonprofit and community organizations. Amazon employees cleaned up parks, donated school supplies and clothing to students, built houses for families experiencing homelessness, assembled wish boxes for kids, and delivered meals to local food banks.
“Giving back is an important part of our culture and an example of how Amazon uses its scale for good,” said Andy Jassy, CEO at Amazon, who participated in Amazon’s volunteer event with Clean the World, a nonprofit that builds and donates hygiene kits to organizations supporting disaster relief efforts around the world.
Check out these photos spotlighting Amazon employees supporting local communities during our Global Month of Volunteering.
Puget Sound headquarters
Employees gathered at Amazon’s Day 1 Playfield in Seattle to volunteer with Clean the World to build and deliver more than 90,000 hygiene kits to Puget Sound organizations that support disaster relief efforts around the world. Clean the World provides recycled soap and hygiene supplies to people who have limited access to essential items that help prevent illnesses and diseases.
National Capital Region
Amazon partnered with North American nonprofit Operation Warm to donate winter gear to students across the National Capital Region. Amazon organized free shopping experiences at three schools across Virginia and Washington, D.C. Amazon volunteers helped nearly 1,400 students select new coats, shoes, and comfort kits filled with toiletry items, hats, socks, gloves, and other winter essentials.
Costa Rica
Amazon partnered with Animal Love, a nonprofit rescue center in Costa Rica. The center supports more than 100 homeless, injured, or sick animals—providing proper medical attention and care. Volunteers helped staff with facility maintenance and worked with dogs, cats, chickens, and horses.
Germany
In Germany, Amazon employees in Munich and Berlin packed 40,000 care kits. Working in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration and Save the Children Germany, the kits will be distributed to families displaced by wildfires in Greece, Italy, and Spain and by floods in Slovenia.
India
In Hyderabad, India, Amazon volunteers participated in a 5K run to benefit local communities and the environment. For every 2.5 kilometers volunteers completed, Amazon donated a school kit to a student in a government school to help provide access to a quality education. Amazon will also plant a tree for every kilometer run, furthering our sustainability efforts.
Italy and Spain
In Milan and Madrid, Amazon employees supported local health and welfare initiatives—from creating vegetable garden boxes to first-aid training to preparing wish boxes for children and more.
Philippines
In the Philippines, Amazon partnered with Cribs Foundation Inc. to provide an enriching and memorable experience for foster children at the Avilon Zoo. Amazon employees helped kids learn about animals while cultivating a sense of belonging and positive community engagement.
Singapore
Amazon employees volunteered at UThrift, the Singapore Council of Women's Organizations (SCWO) thrift store, where 100% of proceeds go to charities that provide a safe space for women and girls. Volunteers helped clean, sort, and rearrange the store to prepare it for customers.
UK
Outside of London, Amazon volunteers in the UK teamed up with Friends of Grange Park Old Coulsdon, a group focused on park preservation and improvements, to build a nature trail along the edge of the park to increase biodiversity in the area and create more habitats for bees and bugs.
Learn more about Amazon’s community impact efforts and how our employees are supporting local nonprofits across the world.
September 21, 2023
Amazon volunteers help keep Seattle parks clean and thriving
Nearly 400 Amazon employees got their hands dirty cleaning up five neighborhood parks around Seattle. At each location—Judkins Park, Amy Yee Tennis Center, Delridge Community Center, Genesee Park and Playfield, and Othello Playground—volunteers assisted with picking up litter, weeding, and mulching activities, all in the name of beautifying the parks.
“Volunteering is a great opportunity to connect with Amazon team members who have similar interests and are dedicated to the same causes you are,” said Yaminee Patel, lead product manager of launch strategy at Amazon. “It is a way to invest in the community and help make our cities better and safer places.”
This is the second year Amazon volunteers participated in the Seattle Parks cleanup activity as part of Amazon’s Global Month of Volunteering, an opportunity for tens of thousands of Amazon employees around the world to support causes they are passionate about. The event was organized in partnership with the Seattle Parks Foundation and Seattle Parks and Recreation, two organizations that work with the community to champion vibrant and equitable parks and public spaces. The park cleanup efforts contribute to Seattle’s goal of establishing 30% tree canopy cover in our city by 2037.
“Amazon contributes a great deal to Seattle and the region in the form of public-private partnerships. For example, Amazon has allocated $525 million for affordable housing since launching the Housing Equity Fund in 2021, which supported the construction of over 5,300 units in the Puget Sound region,” said Sara Nelson, Seattle city councilmember. “The Amazon Parks cleanup, in partnership with the Parks Foundation and Seattle Parks and Recreation, is another way Amazon makes a positive impact on communities across the city, and I was thrilled to be invited to participate this year!”
September 15, 2023
Amazon employees help deliver food to local schools in Northern Virginia
Amazon volunteers joined nonprofit partner Food For Neighbors in the fight against teen food insecurity. Amazon participated in the nonprofit’s Red Bag Program kickoff event and worked alongside community members at Arlington Career Center, Herndon Middle School, and Whitman Middle School. In total, community volunteers across nine active sorting sites organized, packed and delivered 23,000 pounds of food and toiletries, donated by 1,700 Northern Virginia households. The effort will help over 5,800 students in 42 secondary schools in Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties.
“We’re committed to supporting the immediate needs of students and their families—these often include providing food, shelter, clothing, and more. Thanks to community partnerships like this, we’re able to provide students the support they need to keep learning,” said Melissa Robinson, principal program manager of Volunteering at Amazon. “We were grateful to partner with Food For Neighbors during Amazon’s Global Month of Volunteering, a time when tens of thousands of Amazon employees around the world will go out in their communities and do good together.”
Food For Neighbors’ Red Bag events mobilize individuals to shop for nonperishable food and essential toiletries, which they place in a red bag on their doorsteps for collection. Neighborhood volunteers pick up the donations and bring them to one of nine central locations, where items are sorted and then delivered to school pantries. Social workers, counselors, and/or family liaisons within each school district help identify students in need and distribute food and/or toiletries to them.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate Amazon as a Food For Neighbors Community Champion and sponsor of our first Red Bag food and toiletry collection event of the new school year,” shared Karen Joseph, founder and executive director at Food For Neighbors. “Amazon’s philanthropic partnership and $155,000 donation through Amazon Fresh helped us quickly expand our services into Arlington Public Schools last school year, where we helped roughly 970 hungry students, many of whom received support weekly.”
Amazon devotes resources, logistical expertise, and talent to help reduce family hunger and serve communities in need. This year, Amazon delivered more than 3.9 million meals to families in underserved communities and donated over 194,000 pounds of food to pantries, food banks, kitchens, and shelters in the Capital region. Additionally, Amazon delivered over 1.7 million meals to Puget Sound families in underserved communities and donated more than 6.7 million pounds to local nonprofit partners across Washington state to fight food insecurity.
August 31, 2023
Amazon and its employees give back for this year's Global Month of Volunteering
Amazon employees are gearing up for Global Month of Volunteering, an initiative that aims to get them even more involved in the communities where they live and work. From September 1-30, tens of thousands of Amazon employees will volunteer alongside their peers, adding to the company’s efforts to support its local communities throughout the year.
In collaboration with hundreds of community organizations around the world, Amazon employees will participate and lead in-person and virtual volunteering opportunities in support of causes they’re passionate about. The volunteer initiatives will help address a range of issues, from climate change, education, and food insecurity, to disaster relief and housing inequity.
"We’re lucky to partner with incredible organizations doing impactful work in our local communities,” said Alice Shobe, global director of Amazon in the Community. “Our employees are an incredible source of ideas to drive positive change in their communities. Many of them are already active in their communities—and we want to continue to create even more opportunities for our teams to give back.”
Here are four ways Amazon employees will be mobilizing during Global Month of Volunteering:
- Support disaster relief efforts. Volunteers across Amazon offices in Europe, India, and the U.S. will organize and participate in hygiene- and comfort-kit building activities to meet the immediate disaster-caused needs of individuals, families, and communities.
- Eliminate barriers to learning. Amazon employees will collect and distribute books, school supplies, and other essential items—including clothes, shoes, and coats—to support educational opportunities and equitable outcomes for children from underserved communities.
- Address food insecurity. Volunteers at our HQ locations will pack and distribute food for local food-service programs supporting families in underserved neighborhoods.
- Tackle community sustainability challenges. From planting trees and making seed balls, to participating in kayak cleanups that clear waterways of harmful plastics, volunteers will contribute to community efforts to improve tree canopy cover and support a greener environment.
Amazon contributed more than $450 million in cash donations and sponsorships to hundreds of organizations around the world last year, and the company was named the No. 1 corporate philanthropist in both the Puget Sound and the Washington, D.C. metro regions.
Follow #AmazonGMV on social media and learn more about Amazon’s community impact efforts to find out how our employees are supporting local nonprofits across the world during Global Month of Volunteering and beyond.
