Hollywood Rallies To Rescue Motion Picture & Television Fund, But Charity’s Financial Needs Remain “Urgent”
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Hollywood has answered the call and rallied to the rescue of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which late last year was facing its “imminent demise” and the very real prospect of closing its doors and going out of business.
Since MPTF sounded the alarm in October, emergency fundraising efforts have raised nearly $12 million and saved the 101-year-old charity from the brink of disaster caused by a “perfect storm” of rising expenses and declining revenue during the Covid pandemic.
And while the immediate crisis has passed and MPTF’s financial condition has stabilized, it’s still in urgent need of donations in order to continue operating as a safety net for thousands of film and TV industry workers, and as a retirement home for hundreds of industry veterans. “We’ve stepped back from the brink,” MPTF president and CEO Bob Beitcher told Deadline. “We squeaked through our ‘whew moment,’ but the need is still there; it’s still urgent.
It’s definitely not the time for the industry to think MPTF is fine, that others have solved the problem and that they don’t have to step up themselves.
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