Palm Springs Nonprofit Receives $1 Million Donation To Relocate

PALM SPRINGS, CA — Well in the Desert, a Palm Springs-based nonprofit organization focused on providing meals and other essential services to homeless people, received an anonymous $1 million donation, just as the group is being forced to search for a home of its own.

In late April, Well in the Desert received a 30-day notice to vacate from Grit Development, the owner of its current location at 181 N. Palm Canyon Drive. The organization has served the community for 16 years, serving roughly 250 families every week. The group's location supports its food storage and meal operations, where nearly 98,000 meals were provided to people in need last year.

The group is working to raise $2 million to help relocate.

"We are incredibly grateful for this extraordinary act of generosity," Matthew Naylor, president of the nonprofit, said in a statement announcing the anonymous $1 million donation. "This gift is about more than a building. It is about ensuring that food, compassion, dignity and hope remain available to our community for decades to come."

Palm Springs City Council members last week voted to spend $4 million to acquire 0.95 acres of land, located on the southwest corner of Andreas Road and North Indian Canyon Drive, for a new fire station — effectively displacing the nonprofit.

Naylor has expressed frustration in finding a new location and moving the group's meal operations in a short amount of time without support from city officials.

"As we have no issue with the station at that location, it was the lack of support from city officials in the media that said good luck to the Well in finding a location," Naylor told City News Service in early June.

"The Well remains active looking for a temporary place on short notice and it has been difficult, but we are not giving up," Naylor added.

Well in the Desert was given an extension until mid-August to find a new home.