Entertainment Community Fund
Our Discovery
The Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund) is the only organization in the country providing a social safety net for everyone working in the performing arts. When COVID-19 halted live performances and productions nationwide, the Fund saw an unprecedented wave of support, gaining more than 50,000 new donors in a single year. In Spring 2021, the Fund engaged CFA to help build the infrastructure needed to serve its newly expanded community.
Our Approach
CFA led the Fund through a comprehensive Strategic Planning process focused on expanding services, increasing emergency financial assistance, and addressing the need for affordable housing for entertainment workers. CFA then conducted a Campaign Readiness & Feasibility Study and provided ongoing Campaign Counsel, distilling the Fund’s ambitions into one measurable goal: triple the number of people served. The resulting three-year, $160 million campaign took its name, “Essential,” from an interview CFA conducted with Broadway legend Patti LuPone, who argued that entertainment workers are essential workers: “Imagine a world without the work that we do. We are essential!” Following the campaign, CFA also served as the Fund’s Interim Principal Gifts Officer, sustaining donor relationships and gift strategy during a leadership transition.
The Results
The “Essential” campaign concluded on April 30, 2025, raising $164 million and surpassing its $160 million, three-year goal. The campaign — a comprehensive effort spanning Annual Fund, Capital, Operating, and Endowment support — is enabling the Fund to triple the number of people it serves, reach more communities with services like scholarships, mental health support, insurance guidance, and career counseling, and roll out a new digital client portal funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies. It also grew the Fund’s Emergency Relief Reserve, which has already delivered grants to more than 20,000 individuals affected by the entertainment industry strikes and the Southern California wildfires, and supported mission-critical capital projects — including upgrades to the Actors Fund Home in New Jersey, modernization of the Schermerhorn and Dorothy Ross Friedman Residences in New York, a new Affordable Housing Catalyst Fund in Los Angeles County, and construction of the Hollywood Arts Collective, a 151-unit affordable housing complex in Hollywood that also houses an arts building and the Fund’s Western Region offices.
Campaign leadership included Honorary Co-Chairs Annette Bening and Brian Stokes Mitchell, alongside Co-Chairs Hugh Jackman, Chris Keyser, Kenny Leon, Matthew Loeb of IATSE, Shonda Rhimes, and Robert Wankel of the Shubert Organization. CFA’s Paul Johnson and Joanne Curry served as campaign counsel throughout.
Media Coverage
BroadwayWorld: “Entertainment Community Fund Launches ‘Essential’ Campaign”
Deadline: “Entertainment Community Fund Breaks Ground on $120 million Hollywood Arts Collective”
Hollywood Reporter: “Annette Bening on Meeting a Dire Moment”
Hollwyood Reporter: “Annette Bening Named New Chair of Entertainment Community Fund Board”
Hollywood Reporter: “New Building Named in Rita Moreno’s Honor”
What clients have to say about us
"CFA was with us at every stage of this journey — helping us think strategically about what our expanded community needed, testing whether an ambitious campaign was realistic, and then staying by our side through Essential's public phase and beyond. Their partnership gave us the confidence and the infrastructure to not just meet our $160 million goal, but exceed it."
Katherine Freedman Chief Advancement Officer, Entertainment Community Fund
