BC/EFA Launches Online Fundraising Campaign To Create Emergency Assistance Fund

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS today is launching a special online fundraising campaign to create the COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund. This special fund will be administered by The Actors Fund to assist those in the entertainment community - onstage and behind the scenes - who are facing health care crises and other immediate needs in the wake of the evolving coronavirus pandemic.

Broadway Cares will seed the fund with an initial $250,000 and is asking supporters to donate to the online campaign to reach a goal of $1 million by April 12, 2020.

You can make your tax-deductible donation at broadwaycares.org/help2020.

The COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund will help entertainment professionals meet coronavirus-related expenses. It will provide urgent additional resources for the vital social service programs of The Actors Fund, including emergency financial assistance, health insurance, counseling and the operation of The Actors Fund's Samuel J. Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts (729 Seventh Avenue, 12th floor, NYC).

The Actors Fund offers a wide safety net of programs for everyone in the performing arts and entertainment industry. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the single largest financial supporter of The Actors Fund.

"When crises hit, the extended Broadway community and the theatre fans everywhere have always responded with generosity, compassion and action," said Tom Viola, executive director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. "Buoyed by and on behalf of those onstage, backstage and throughout the theaters of New York City and on the road, we are proud to launch this emergency initiative in collaboration with The Actors Fund to provide immediate, basic support for those facing uncertainty in this unsettling pandemic."

The goal is to reach $1 million in donations by April 12, the date through which all Broadway theaters are dark under orders of New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Similar bans have been enacted elsewhere to slow the spread of the disease, impacting theater professionals across the country.

Thanks to the historic generosity of donors and supporters, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS awarded The Actors Fund $6.2 million in 2019. Since 1987, Broadway Cares has provided $101 million in support for The Fund's essential programs.

The Actors Fund is a national human services organization that fosters stability and resiliency, and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan. Through offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Fund serves everyone in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance with programs including social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and secondary employment and training services.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources, and generosity of the American theater community, since 1988 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the major supporter of the social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative and the Samuel J. Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. Broadway Cares also awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., providing lifesaving medication, healthy meals, counseling and emergency assistance.

For more information, please visit Broadway Cares online at broadwaycares.org, at facebook.com/BCEFA, at instagram.com/BCEFA, at twitter.com/BCEFA and at youtube.com/BCEFA