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EIF SNAPSHOT – JANUARY 2021 |
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FROM OUR PRESIDENT & CEO |
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Dear Friends,
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As we step further into the new year, we are ever grateful for your partnership. Despite a myriad of challenges in 2020, we have marveled at the generosity from across our industry. By banding together, we have sponsored front-line workers, protected women from violence, and supported Black and Brown communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
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EIF and our partners granted more than $10 million in COVID-19-related relief to organizations across the U.S. and around the world. We thank everyone who is contributing to those efforts, as well as those who helped to create GRADUATE TOGETHER, the one-hour special honoring the nation’s three million high school seniors. In just a few short weeks, with the help of athletes, artists, network executives, agents, and managers who generously gave their time and talent, we presented a simulcast that drew more than 20 million viewers to celebrate the graduating class of 2020.
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Thank you for allowing us to be your partner and grow our collective impact in 2021. On behalf of our entire team, we look forward to embracing the simplest of gestures—warmly greeting each other and sharing ideas in a collaborative physical space. Until then, may you and your loved ones be safe and well.
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- Nicole Sexton |
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INDUSTRY CRISIS RESPONSE |
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PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT |
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DEFY:DISASTER |
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In October, with the help of our creative partners at YYES, we reintroduced the full breadth of our disaster relief efforts under the program name Defy:Disaster. The program, which has operated under the name Music for Relief since 2018, is dedicated to providing aid to survivors and communities affected by natural disasters to help them recover and rebuild. Supported by the entertainment community and the public, EIF’s disaster relief program has responded to more than 40 natural disasters, including the current COVID-19 pandemic and wildfires throughout the western United States.
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In 2020, our disaster relief program and fund partners supporting disaster response granted more than $10 million to beneficiaries.
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LEARN MORE...
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LEND A HAND |
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Defy:Disaster launched Lend a Hand to support California firefighters battling another season of record-breaking fires. The goal of the campaign is to equip firefighters with structure fire gloves that protect them in residential, commercial, and high-rise fires, which present some of the most challenging and dangerous working conditions. |
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DONATE NOW...
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Creating a More Inclusive Entertainment Workforce |
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PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT |
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EIF Careers Program |
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We are proud to announce the launch of the EIF Careers Program in collaboration with The James Irvine Foundation. Our employment pathway program, geared toward building a more inclusive workforce, entered its pilot phase last September. Created to diversify industry productions, our program, which already features hundreds of job seekers, serves underrepresented communities where candidates early in their career typically lack the financial resources and professional networks to help them enter into the field of entertainment.
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Pathway program partners including Hollywood CPR, ManifestWorks, the Evolve Entertainment Fund, Academy Gold, and the Television Academy Foundation are participating to provide access to work-ready candidates who are graduates of their jobs programs. EIF is connecting this new, qualified talent to productions and HR departments throughout the industry to allow for more robust, diverse productions.
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We are in a unique position to support entry-level talent in building a solid foundation for a long career in entertainment, and we are excited to provide a solution that supports increasing diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry.
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LEARN MORE...
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Keeping the Focus on Social Justice |
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PARTNER FEATURE |
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Know Your Rights Camp |
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Know Your Rights Camp, founded by Colin Kaepernick, is dedicated to advancing the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass mobilization, and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.
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Know Your Rights Camp (KYRC) joined EIF in early 2020 to support its mission and grow its impact. Kaepernick leveraged KYRC to house a Legal Defense Initiative that identified and teamed up with top defense and civil rights lawyers nationwide to provide legal resources for those who have been arrested or have been victims of police brutality while fighting injustice across the nation.
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KYRC also launched a COVID-19 Relief Fund to provide aid to those disproportionately affected by the current pandemic. The fund provides support to Black and Brown people, who, as a result of hundreds of years of systemic racism, are more likely to be infected, less likely to be tested, and more likely to die from COVID-19.
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LEARN MORE...
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EIF Cares PSA |
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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT |
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We launched a new PSA featuring a sampling of Foundation efforts that serve as resources to the entertainment industry and beyond. An audience of more than 37 million has seen the PSA since it began donated placement on November 30, 2020. |
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WATCH THE PSA...
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