We’re excited to announce the second annual Bezos Day 1 Families Fund annual leadership awards. This year’s 32 recipients from 23 states will receive immediate donations totaling $98.5 million to support their meaningful, high-impact work to provide shelter and support for young families in communities across the country.

2019 Day 1 Families Fund Awardees
Bethany House Services, Cincinnati, OH • $1.25 million
Catholic Charities Eastern Washington, Spokane, WA • $5 million
Catholic Social Services Alaska, Anchorage, AK • $5 million
Coburn Place, Indianapolis, IN • $1.25 million
Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, Hartford, CT • $2.5 million
Covenant House, New York, NY • $5 million
Family Gateway, Dallas, TX • $2.75 million
FamilyAid Boston, Boston, MA • $5 million
ForKids, Norfolk, VA • $2.5 million
Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan, Traverse City, MI • $1.25 million
Great Lakes Community Action Partnership, Fremont, OH • $1.25 million
Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, Orlando, FL • $5.25 million
HOPE Services Hawaii, Hilo, HI • $2.75 million
HopeWorks, Albuquerque, NM • $2.5 million
Interim Community Development Association, Seattle, WA • $2.5 million
Lafayette Transitional Housing Center, Lafayette, IN • $1.25 million
Mary’s Place Seattle, Seattle, WA • $5 million
MIFA, Memphis, TN • $5 million
Our Family Services, Tucson, AZ • $2.5 million
Pathways of Hope, Fullerton, CA • $2.5 million
St. Joseph Center, Venice, CA • $5 million
St. Joseph’s Villa, Richmond, VA $1.25 million
St. Stephen’s Human Services, Minneapolis, MN • $5 million
St. Vincent de Paul, Baltimore, MD • $5 million
The Road Home, Salt Lake City, UT • $5 million
The Road Home Dane County, Madison, WI • $1.25 million
The Whole Child, Whittier, CA • $5 million
UNITY Of Greater New Orleans, New Orleans, LA • $2.5 million
Upward Bound House, Santa Monica, CA • $1.25 million
Welcome House of Northern Kentucky, Covington, KY • $1.25 million
West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, Bridgeport, WV • $1.5 million
YWCA Columbus, Columbus, OH • $2.5 million

The Bezos Day One Fund would like to thank the following experts in family homelessness who were instrumental in identifying and selecting this year’s award recipients:

2019 Day 1 Families Fund Advisors
Kris Billhardt, National Alliance for Safe Housing
Iain DeJong, OrgCode Consulting Inc.
Ann Oliva, Corporation for Supportive Housing
Bill Pitkin, Independent consultant
Barb Poppe, Barbara Poppe & Associates
Susan Bass Roberts, Pohlad Family Foundation
Nan Roman, National Alliance to End Homelessness
Eva Thibaudeau-Graczyk, Temenos Community Development Corp.
Jacqueline Waggoner, Enterprise Community Partners
Bobby Watts, National Health Care for the Homeless Council

About The Bezos Day One Fund
The Bezos Day One Fund launched with a $2 billion commitment to focus on making meaningful and lasting impacts in two areas: funding existing non-profits that help families experiencing homelessness, and creating a network of new, non-profit tier-one preschools in low-income communities.

The Day 1 Families Fund issues annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families. The vision statement comes from the inspiring Mary’s Place in Seattle: no child sleeps outside.

The Day 1 Academies Fund is building an organization to launch and operate a network of high-quality, full-scholarship Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities. We will have the opportunity to learn, invent, and improve. And we’ll use the same set of principles that have driven Amazon. Most important among those will be genuine, intense customer obsession. The customer set this team of missionaries will serve is simple: children in underserved communities across the country.

Read the release direct from Bezos Day One Fund here.