Entertainment Community Fund

Background

The Entertainment Community Fund, originally known as Actors’ Fund of America, was created in 1882. ² It was formed with the help of a drama student named Harrison Grey Fiske and his father, who owned stock in a paper for which his son wrote called the New York Dramatic Mirror. The Fiskes argued that the acting profession was in crisis, not least because of renewed social disapproval of actors in the wake of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by stage actor John Wilkes Booth. Actors were allegedly denied access to charity from many organizations, including religious groups, and were often denied proper burials. The Actors’ Fund aimed to assist actors and their families by purchasing them cemetery plots and holding fundraising fairs with U.S. presidents and powerful businessmen in attendance. ³

The Fund helped actors during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, helping establish Broadway Cares in 1988 as well as a subsidiary HIV/AIDS relief initiative. In the 1990s the Fund expanded into health-care initiatives to secure it for uninsured actors. This philanthropic work has continued into the 2020s, with the Fund partnering with Mount Sinai on the Samuel J. Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. ³

The Entertainment Community Fund is also committed to securing housing for actors, and many of its programs, such as the Hollywood Arts Collective, serving this purpose. ³ One of the main programs run by the Fund is the Actors Fund Home, a facility in northern New Jersey that provides short-stay rehabilitation, assisted living, nursing, memory care services, and more to entertainment industry professionals. ⁴

The Entertainment Community Fund explicitly embraces the left-of-center concept of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), adding “dignity for all” to these self-professed beliefs. ⁵

In 2020, the Fund published statements advocating for presidential candidate Joe Biden and denigrating Republican candidate Donald Trump on the basis of the latter’s opposition to taxpayer-funded health care. ⁶

Financials

In 2022, the Entertainment Community had total revenue of $55,601,567, total expenses of $52,241,917, and net assets of $102,549,432. ⁷ That year, its endowment had an end-of-the-year balance $16,346,993 and $38,233,928 worth of land, buildings, and equipment. ⁸ It compensated its president and CEO Joseph Benincasa with a salary of $563,888. ⁹

In 2022, the Entertainment Community gave $943,482 to the Actors Fund Housing Development Corp. ¹⁰

Leadership

As of 2024, the chair of the organization was actress Annette Bening. ¹¹