The founders of DreamWorks, LLC are donating $90 million to the Motion Picture & Television Fund, a Hollywood charity that supports a nursing home for retired entertainment industry workers which has teetered on the verge of closure, reports the Los Angeles Times.
With Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen each donating $30 million, the contributions give life to a campaign launched earlier in the year to raise $350 million for the MP&TF and its various charitable operations.
The campaign followed a decision by the fund’s board to re-admit patients to the nursing home, which was established to care for retiring actors and other performers. The board sparked a furor in Hollywood when it announced plans in January 2009 to shut down the nursing home because of heavy financial losses.
AdvertisementBut fund executives said cost-cutting and fundraising efforts made it possible for the charity to operate a smaller nursing home with about 40 residents instead of the more than 130 it had in 2009. The fund also has partnered with UCLA Health System to operate a geriatric psychiatric unit at the skilled nursing home.
The donation was announced Tuesday morning by George Clooney, an MPTF board member and co-chair of the fundraising campaign, which is part of an effort to secure long-term funding for an organization that has faced steep financial challenges in recent years. Other high-profile donors have included Barry Diller, chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp., and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, who contributed $30 million to the fund in June, and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which in July pledged $20 million to the charity.
“Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen are each legendary for their philanthropy and individually have made immeasurable impact on charities and organizations ranging from arts and culture, healthcare, education, film preservation and social services in our Hollywood community and around the nation,” Clooney said. “And now for them to make this unified commitment to MPTF only adds to that incredible record of generosity.”
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The nursing home’s dire financial situation becomes “very personal,” said Spielberg, “when someone you know or have worked with is cared for at ‘the Home.'”
Read the full piece at the Los Angeles Times.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
