Entertainment, Tech Companies Making Coronavirus Donations
By Variety Staff
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – There’s no question that Hollywood has been hard hit by the coronavirus shutdowns, with productions worldwide shuttering to keep their workers safe from contracting Covid-19.
Some corporations, such as Disney, are pledging to pay many of their furloughed employees during the shutdown, while others are creating funds for workers and donating to medical efforts.
Here are some of the corporate efforts under way in the entertainment and tech sectors:
Apple has donated more than $15 million globally and matches employee donations two-to-one. Among other efforts, has committed to donating several million masks to hospitals across the country.
Facebook, through Mark Zuckerberg’s Zuckerberg-Chan Foundation, has committed $25 million to the Gates Foundation’s efforts to develop a treatment for Covid-19. also announced a $100 million program to help small businesses in over 30 countries, contributed $100 million to support the news industry and donated hundreds of thousands of face masks to protect health workers against coronavirus.
WarnerMedia said on March 27 it would provide a $100 million relief fund for those who were working on productions across the corporation. John Stankey’s memo to employees said, “We are stepping up with a commitment of more than $100 million to assist team members of those productions during this time. And as things evolve, we’ll continue to evaluate how we can best respond to the challenges we face as an industry as a result of this pandemic.”
NBCUniversal chair Jeff Shell, who was diagnosed March 26 with a mild case of coronavirus, said the corporation would commit “over $150 million across our film, television and parks businesses to help our employees and other workers, and to at least partially bridge the period before normal operations can restart.”
Netflix was one of the first companies to announce a coronavirus relief fund , with the bulk of the $100 million set to go toward laid-off production workers.
The BBC has donated more than $800,000 to the U.K.’s Film and TV Charity , aimed particularly at freelancers who are out of work during the pandemic.
Information on guilds, unions and charitable organizations helping affected workers in the entertainment industry can be found here .
