Letter From the CEO

My Urgent Ask

Bob Beitcher
President & CEO
bob.beitcher@mptf.com

Dear Entertainment Industry,

After more than a decade as CEO of MPTF, I’m writing a letter I hoped I’d never have to write—one that says we desperately and urgently need your help.

Coming through the pandemic, every member of the MPTF fiduciary team has been forced to take a hard look at our financial circumstances; and right now, things don’t look good.

At the 2021 Academy Awards ceremony, we received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in recognition of our 100 years of service to the industry and of our heroic support of the entertainment workforce during the pandemic. And while we have managed to take care of our own for over a century, our mission has never faced such dire challenges. To put it bluntly, the MPTF legacy and mission–our ability to exist–are in real jeopardy.

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, MPTF has incurred a staggering operating shortfall—the result of COVID-related costs for residents and staff on our campus in Woodland Hills, nursing shortages and lower occupancy rates, and lost revenues from our major events during the pandemic—all costing us over $20 million.

Never sufficiently endowed, MPTF has always survived year to year and deficit to deficit. We are now operating in dangerous territory, rapidly depleting our cash reserves. Our ability to continue to support the thousands of industry members on our campus and in the community who depend on MPTF for food, shelter, charitable assistance, medical care, and socialization literally hangs in the balance. Without some dramatic infusion of funds, we will not be able to take care of our own much longer.

In recent years, we have received some exceedingly generous pledges to be paid out in the future, upon the death of the donors; but frankly—in this moment, there’s no financing our future if we can’t survive the present.

We need your help now! You can make a difference in many lives with a donation of any amount; every bit makes a difference, and please help spread the word if you can. You can make the difference between MPTF’s existence for the next generations and its imminent demise. I know we can solve this, because we must if MPTF is to outlast this crisis and continue to provide services to our community. For more about the safety network of MPTF and to show your urgently needed support, please visit mptf.com/donate.

Gratefully yours,