MPTF Facing “Imminent Demise” & Prospect Of Going Out Of Business By Year’s End Unless It Raises $10 Million-$12 Million Soon

25.10.2022 - 03:35 / deadline.com

The 100-plus-year-old Motion Picture & Television Fund, hit by a “perfect storm” of rising expenses and declining revenue, is facing its “imminent demise” and the very real prospect of closing its doors and going out of business by the end of 2022 unless it gets a dramatic infusion of cash donations.

“Our mission has never faced such dire challenges,” MPTF president and CEO Bob Beitcher says in an urgent appeal that’s going out to some 600 industry leaders. “To put it bluntly, the MPTF legacy and mission – our ability to exist – are in real jeopardy. Our ability to continue to support the thousands of industry members on our campus and in the community who depend on the 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.”

“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,” he wrote. “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.

“Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, MPTF has incurred a staggering operating shortfall­ the result of a pernicious combination 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. Tag onto that the recent drop in our investment portfolio! Never sufficiently endowed, MPTF has always survived year to year and deficit to deficit. We are now