Following the election of a new mayor in Seattle, one of Amazon’s top executives reaffirmed its commitment to the region Tuesday, promising, “We are not going anywhere.”

David Zapolsky, Amazon chief global affairs and legal officer, made the comment during an Amazon Community Impact Reception at The Spheres in Seattle, where he and others discussed the company’s philanthropic and civic initiatives from housing to food security.

“Obviously, this is a time of change, both in this region and around the world,” Zapolsky said. “Amazon remains committed to our home, this Puget Sound region. We are not going anywhere. And so we remain committed to building this community.”

It’s a rare public reaffirmation of the Seattle region as Amazon’s primary base. It follows years of political disputes over taxes and other city policies that contributed to Amazon shifting more of its workforce to Bellevue, Wash., and Northern Virginia.

With the arrival of Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson, Amazon must once again establish a working relationship with a city leader who ran on promises to address issues such as affordability, brought about in part by a tech boom that Amazon helped fuel.

Wilson defeated Mayor Bruce Harrell, a more business friendly leader than Amazon was used to dealing with during the tech giant’s strained relations with City Hall.

“I’ve tried to have a very supportive relationship, but also one on mutual accountability,” Harrell told GeekWire in January about his dealings with Amazon. “I think it’s working out well.”

During her campaign in September, Wilson told GeekWire that she aims to work with the tech sector and Amazon on innovative solutions to civic challenges.

A longtime community organizer and Transit Riders Union co-founder, Wilson helped design and pass Seattle’s controversial JumpStart payroll expense tax in 2020. A majority of the revenue — $360 million in 2024 — is generated from 10 companies, including Amazon. 

“Obviously Amazon and the other big tech companies are very important players in our city and in our economy, and so I think it’s very important that the city has working relationships there,” she said.

In the same election that ushered in Wilson, voters also overwhelmingly approved Proposition 2, a plan hatched by Harrell and City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck that will reshape the city’s business and occupation (B&O) tax that applies to gross revenue. It will impact both small startups and large tech companies such as Amazon.

According to public records, Zapolsky gave $550 to Harrell’s re-election campaign. Amazon HR chief Beth Galetti ($650) and Amazon Stores CEO Doug Herrington ($550) are among others from Amazon who contributed.

During Tuesday’s event at The Spheres, Amazon spotlighted its philanthropic efforts and the progress being made across the region, including:

• $900 million committed through its Housing Fund to create or preserve more than 10,000 affordable homes.
• 4.5 million meals delivered to families in need since 2020.
• 380,000 bed nights provided through Mary’s Place to families experiencing homelessness.

Zapolsky said Amazon’s community strategy shifted as the company rapidly expanded in Seattle. He said employees and leaders have always cared about their community, but the company’s efforts were informal and relatively small-scale in its earlier days. By 2009 and 2010, Amazon had grown far faster than expected and “we were sort of backing into the scale that we have in the city,” Zapolsky said — prompting company leaders to recognize the need for a more organized approach.

From there, he said, Amazon began applying its core business principles to civic work: taking a long-term view, listening to partners to understand what the community actually needs, and focusing on where Amazon’s unique capabilities — logistics, technology, legal expertise — could make the biggest impact, rather than just financial contributions.

“We’re still in the middle of the journey,” Zapolsky said.

Amazon counts more than 80,000 full- and part-time employees in the Puget Sound region. About 50,000 corporate and tech workers are in Seattle— a number that shrunk from about 60,000 in 2020 as more jobs shifted to Bellevue. The company cut 14,000 workers in broad layoffs in October, with 2,303 corporate employees in Washington state.

Zapolsky, who has been at Amazon 26 years, called his move from New York to Seattle 32 years ago the best decision he ever made. He cited the city’s amazing assets, from its people and diversity to its infrastructure improvements including the waterfront, convention center, and Climate Pledge Arena.

“Even government when it tries can’t screw this up,” he said, adding, again, “We’re here to stay. We want to continue working with our partners in the community, continue making the Puget Sound region better for our community and for our employees.”

A group of Seattle nonprofits aiming to boost exposure to and participation in the arts among young people will receive nearly $7 million in funding from Allen Family Philanthropies.

The organizations — all leading projects on the Seattle Center campus — include independent radio station KEXP, the Museum of Pop Culture, Pacific Science Center and others.

Allen Family Philanthropies (formerly known as the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation) is a charitable entity started by the late Microsoft co-founder and his sister, Jody Allen, in 1988. The philanthropy invests in a number of areas, including arts and culture, science and technology, and research in all areas of bioscience.

The grants are aimed at projects intended to grow opportunities for diverse creators, increase access to arts programming and engagement, and reimagine spaces, according to a news release Wednesday.

Here are the eight nonprofits and their plans for how grants totaling $6,868,990 over three years will be used:

• KEXP will support emerging artists and cultural workers and enhance audience diversity through extended programs for youth and their families, including the youth DJ programs, all-ages events, expanded youth outreach and programming engagement, and live music events and other activations in the KEXP Gathering Space and courtyard. ($879,700 in funding).
• Museum of Pop Culture (MOPOP) will develop a residency program that will expand free youth access to interactive, culturally relevant learning experiences ($696,176 in funding).
• National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) will scale and grow festival programming into year-round, accessible opportunities for film education, mentorship, and professional development for aspiring youth filmmakers at Seattle Center ($480,882 in funding).
• Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) will unify PNB’s emerging artist efforts into a singular choreographic dance program with more technical training and performance opportunities, increasing engagement for young artists aged 10-26, and expanding the Community Stages program ($1,250,000 in funding).

• Pacific Science Center (PacSci) will connect arts and culture with science, reimagining spaces with public artwork and cultural installations commissioned by Pacific Northwest Indigenous artists and culture bearers, through a new artist-in-residence program within the Maker & Innovation Lab ($997,632 in funding).
• Seattle Repertory Theatre & Seattle Children’s Theatre will expand their theatrical partnership model with a multi-year initiative to co-produce one main stage show each season aimed at teens and their families ($1,320,000 in funding).
• TeenTix will support a new Teen Connectors program in partnership with Seattle Center arts venues to increase access and engagement of teen audiences in arts and culture experiences ($250,000 in funding).
• The Vera Project (Vera) will launch All Ages / All Access, a new slate of all-ages music and arts programming centered on concerts, gallery openings, and creative workforce development opportunities by and for young people. ($994,600 in funding).

Seattle Center draws more than 12 million visitors annually, and is the most visited arts and cultural destination in the Pacific Northwest.

“By investing in arts organizations that engage young people, we invest in the creators, audiences, and advocates who will contribute to and sustain a vibrant arts and culture sector in Seattle for years to come,” said Anh Nguyen, director of arts, youth and community for Allen Family Philanthropies. “These organizations excel at engaging young artists and young audiences — and know how to ignite curiosity. The grants will ensure youth arts and culture programming can continue to grow and evolve to meet community needs.”

Allen Family Philanthropies’ funding for Seattle Center organizations follows previous arts investments from the foundation, including $9 million to eight downtown arts organizations to support nearly 1,200 public events, and the Community Accelerator Grant Program administered by ArtsFund, which has awarded $30 million in funding to 930 arts and culture organizations across Washington state over the last three years.

Previously:

• Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s final act: New $3.1B foundation bets big on science and tech
• In an age of billionaire backlash, Paul Allen’s lasting legacy stands out in Seattle

The Ballmer Group Philanthropy has pledged up to $170 million per year over the next decade — likely more than $1 billion in total — to significantly increase preschool access for low-income families in Washington.

The state’s 40-year-old Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) currently serves more than 14,000 students. With the new funding, it will add about 10,000 additional seats, starting with 2,000 new spots next year.

Representatives with the Ballmer Group, created by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie Ballmer, announced the gift today alongside Gov. Bob Ferguson, lawmakers and educators.

In order to use the funding, the state cannot reduce the number of state-funded ECEAP seats.

The support comes as Washington is facing budget shortfalls and the Trump administration has previously withheld funding for Head Start and could spike the preschool program.

“The Ballmer Group’s investment sets up an innovative public-private partnership, and will transform the lives of thousands of little Washingtonians and their families,” Ferguson said.

The philanthropy previously gave $43 million in 2023 to support early childhood education in Washington.

Ballmer, who led Microsoft from 2000 to 2014, has a net worth of $154.2 billion, according to Forbes. He remains the tech giant’s largest shareholder.

Melinda French Gates today announced the funding recipients of her $250 million open call supporting organizations worldwide that are working to address women’s physical and mental health.

The Action for Women’s Health grantees include 83 organizations based in 22 countries. Recipients will receive between $1 million and $5 million, and many have previously been excluded from major funding opportunities.

“In the 25 years I’ve worked on women’s health, I’ve been struck by a grim reality that connects women across contexts and continents: No matter where you are in the world, if you live in a woman’s body, you are likely to face a unique set of barriers to receiving the care you need to live a full and healthy life,” French Gates wrote in a blog post.

Those barriers, she continued, include policies such as restrictive abortion laws that caused a woman in Louisiana to twice get turned away from emergency rooms when struggling through a miscarriage, and a lack of proximity to care for a pregnant woman in Malawi who lived hours from delivery services.

The key focus areas for the Action for Women’s Health grantees are: care for pregnant women and mothers and babies; community health and healthcare access; reproductive health and rights; public health; and mental health. Roughly one-third of the organizations receiving funding are focused on maternal and perinatal health, while one-quarter address community health.

Pacific Northwest-based recipients include Open Arms Perinatal Services, an organization helping mothers with doula services, lactation assistance and other support for families, and Seattle Indian Health Board, a community health center serving Native people.

Action for Women’s Health is part of a $1 billion initiative centered on women’s and family issues that French Gates announced in May 2024, shortly after her resignation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She left the Seattle-based philanthropy, now called the Gates Foundation, with $12.5 billion for her own initiatives as part of her divorce agreement with Bill Gates.

Pivotal Ventures, French Gates’ independent company, is overseeing her billion-dollar effort and Lever for Change managed the open call.

Pivotal previously shared more details on two of its other components: the awarding of $200 million to U.S. groups focused on women’s rights, and $20 million grants issued to 12 individuals globally whose work French Gates admires.