How Amazon Shows Up for Chicago

Amazon has been part of Chicago's fabric for over 15 years, with deep ties to local organizations across the city. We have facilities throughout the city and employ more than 5,000 people. Since 2021, Amazon has donated more than $24.4 million to over 120 Chicago-based organizations, funding education, health and wellness, arts programming, and food access.

Amazon connects students with technology skills, hands-on learning, and career pathways. We’ve contributed $1.2 million in philanthropic and in-kind resources to local students and schools since 2021, supporting STEM, literacy, and teacher training.

We partnered with the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), part of the University of Illinois System, to bring high school computer science students to DPI for hands-on workshops. We’ve provided $450,000 in grants to support summer programs at DPI since 2021, where high school students take college-level courses in computer science, data science, electrical and computer engineering, and mobile app development to build college and career readiness skills. Amazon will host a workshop for these students in July to explore the applications and transformations of AI.   

In 2025, our computer science programs, which include curriculum and teacher training, supported more than 90,000 students and 1,100 teachers at over 300 schools across the city.

Through Amazon Future Engineer, we have provided scholarships to 68 Chicago students since 2019. Each student receives up to $40,000 toward college tuition over four years, plus a paid internship opportunity and support including, mentorship, professional development, and mental health resources.

Amazon’s community engagement has strengthened the city’s diverse neighborhoods. We engage with local organizations that provide essential everyday items to children experiencing homelessness or living in low-income households, through our local fulfillment center volunteer and donation programs. 

We've contributed $545,000 to Casa Central since 2021 to help increase wellness and improve health outcomes for seniors and adolescents in Humboldt Park. We also partnered with a local organization to support a biodigester project built on a former brownfield site in Auburn Gresham in South Side, helping process organic waste and support local environmental sustainability.

We’ve also provided $445,000 to a local library foundation since 2021 to help launch the first-ever convening for youth-serving nonprofits, bringing together K-12 organizations to use library branches as hubs for student programming. We also funded a program placing educators in library locations to directly support community learning.

Since 2021, Amazon has invested more than $430,000 in arts-focused initiatives, including sponsorship of local music festivals to help bring free arts and culture programming to South Side. We recently provided $100,000 to support arts education initiatives across the Chicago Latino community, expanding access to music education, creative resources, and opportunities for local youth and emerging creators. We also donated $25,000 to a local high school to support upgrades to their after-school music club, which provides a venue for students to perform and learn all aspects of entertainment-based career paths from music to lighting and stage production.

Working with local food banks and hunger-relief partners, we’re using our delivery network to break down barriers between families and the meals they need. In 2025 alone, delivery partners delivered more than 300,000 meals to more than 1,500 households in Chicago on behalf of local food banks and nonprofits, at no cost to the food banks or the families they serve.

Amazon's operations support more than 13,000 indirect jobs in Chicago across construction, logistics, and professional services. This includes more than 1,000 drivers and support staff employed by more than 10 Delivery Service Partners (DSPs) based in the city. DSPs are local small business owners who provide jobs to people in the communities they serve. The DSP program offers one of the most accessible paths to business ownership available today, allowing entrepreneurs to make their own decisions about hiring, fleet management, and operations while leveraging Amazon's logistics expertise.

More than 60% of sales in Amazon’s store come from independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses. In Illinois, independent sellers sold more than 152 million items in 2025, averaging over $415,000 in sales per seller. Among them are Carstens, a clipboard and binder company, and Mojo Spa , a natural beauty brand. Both Chicago-based businesses have grown through Amazon's marketplace.

Amazon offers its employees competitive wages, comprehensive benefits, and access to upskilling programs. One of those programs, Career Choice, pre-pays tuition for degrees and skills development for eligible employees. More than 25,000 hourly workers across Illinois are eligible, with 30 schools across Illinois, including Chicago State University, City Colleges of Chicago, and National Louis University, participating as education partners. We also offer a paid Mechatronics and Robotics Apprenticeship to prepare participants for roles as electromechanical technicians working with Amazon robotics or third-party partners.

These programs are part of our Future Ready 2030 initiative, a $2.5 billion global commitment to prepare 50 million people for the future of work through education, apprenticeships, and skills training at every career stage. We’re empowering Amazon employees to develop cloud computing skills and learn how to build AI solutions, K-12 students, early-career talent, and the broader workforce to thrive in a rapidly changing labor market.

Amazon has directed millions in community donations toward education, health, arts, and food access, supported thousands of jobs, and funded career development for employees across the city. But our work in Chicago is far from finished.

In the years ahead, we plan to continue investing in the communities where our employees live and work. That means growing partnerships with local organizations that address food insecurity and health equity, supporting the small businesses that deliver to and for our customers and drive Chicago's economy, and helping people learn new tech skills to succeed in a fast-changing economy. We're also focused on creating even more opportunity for our employees, from expanding skills training and education programs like Career Choice to further investing in workplace safety and innovation.

As the company continues to grow here, so does our commitment to the people and neighborhoods that make Chicago special. We're proud to call this city home, and we look forward to what we'll build together.