DuPagePads to Expand Support for DuPage County Families Experiencing Homelessness with $5 Million Grant from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos
32 organizations across the U.S. receive a total of $102.5 million from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund to connect families with housing and hope
WHEATON, ILLINOIS – (December 1, 2025): DuPagePads, DuPage County’s largest and most inclusive provider of year-round shelter, comprehensive services and supportive housing for families and individuals experiencing homelessness, today announced that Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are recognizing the organization with a $5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund. This investment is the largest private gift in the nonprofit’s history. DuPagePads is part of the eighth annual cohort of organizations across the country receiving funding from the Day 1 Families Fund to deepen their work to help every family have a safe, stable place to call home.
“This incredible gift will accelerate our vision of a DuPage County where no family is left without shelter and no child sleeps overnight in a car,” said April Redzic, president & CEO of DuPagePads. “We are so grateful for the trust that the Day 1 Families Fund is placing in our work and what this donation will do to help us expand our outreach, connect our kids in emergency shelter to the educational and socio-emotional resources they need to learn and grow, and more quickly get our families into stable housing. We say often that you only get childhood once. This donation will allow us to make so many childhoods better and brighter.
DuPagePads plans to use the Day 1 Families Fund grant to help address the alarming increase of more families experiencing homelessness in DuPage County than ever before, with the goal of ensuring no child in the community sleeps outside. Specifically, DuPagePads plans to use this one-time grant over the next five years to expand outreach, create year-round family overflow shelter and accelerate rapid rehousing for families. The funds will also sustain vital education and transportation supports for children experiencing homelessness and strengthen long-term capacity.
DuPagePads is honored to have been identified to receive this grant by a group of national advisors who are leading advocates and bring expertise on homelessness, housing policy and effective approaches and solutions to family homelessness.
“This investment could not have come at a better time,” shared Chad Pedigo, chief development officer at DuPagePads. “These funds are specifically needed to expand the essential programs that our annual donors help to sustain and allow us to grow capacity in several critically needed areas to best serve a rising need across our local neighborhoods.”
“This grant will allow us to meet families where they are — in cars, encampments or unsafe situations — and connect them quickly to safe interim shelter, housing and long-term stability,” said Scott Austgen, Chief Programs Officer at DuPagePads. “It also gives our team the resources to strengthen education and employment supports, expand outreach, and build the pathways that help families move beyond crisis toward stability and independence.”
Since its inception in 2018, the Day 1 Families Fund has awarded 280 grants totaling more than $850 million to organizations serving families in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. The Day 1 Families Fund grant recipients have tremendous flexibility to use the funds in the ways that are most impactful in their communities, making the grant a game-changer for organizations on the frontlines of the family homelessness crisis. Recipients will use their funds to support families experiencing homelessness to access critical services, regain stable housing and achieve well-being.
This year, the Fund issued a total of $102.5 million in grants to 32 organizations. The full list of awardees is available at https://bezosdayonefund.org/day1familiesfund. Case studies of the impact selected grantees have made with their funds are available at www.bezosdayonefund.org/case-studies.
About DuPagePads
Founded in 1985, DuPagePads is the leading provider of emergency shelter, housing and support services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in DuPage County, Illinois. The organization operates the county’s first 24/7 Interim Housing Center, in addition to a network of 200+ supportive housing units and comprehensive programs that help people without housing to secure employment, improve health and achieve long-term stability. Guided by the belief that when someone believes in you, everything can change, DuPagePads transforms lives and strengthens communities by helping the county’s most vulnerable residents move from crisis to self-sufficiency.
About the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund
Through the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos issue annual leadership awards to organizations doing compassionate, needle-moving work to help families experiencing homelessness. For more information, visit www.BezosDayOneFund.org/Day1FamiliesFund.
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