Financial Relief for the Moving Image Industry
Below is a non-comprehensive list of organizations and programs providing financial aid and assistance during the ongoing WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike. Interested parties should contact the organization or business directly to learn more about the resource(s) provided.
Entertainment Community Fund: Offering free and confidential social service programs that address a wide array of challenges faced by people in performing arts and entertainment, the Entertainment Community Fund is able to provide financial assistance to individuals who are unable to pay for immediate basic living expenses. This can include food, housing, utility bills or healthcare.
Green Envelope Grocery Aid: WGA VIrtual Mix and Green Envelope Grocery Aid have partnered to provide $100 grocery funds directly to lower-level WGA Writers, Support Staffers & PreWGA writers due to the lack of work during the WGA strike.
Inevitable Foundation's Emergency Relief Fund: The Relief Fund provides a responsive cash granting program for disabled writers in crisis.
Motion Picture and Television Fund: The Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) provides temporary financial assistance to qualified industry members who have a demonstrable financial need due to unforeseen circumstances. This temporary assistance may help towards such basic living expenses as mortgage or rent payments, utility bills, car insurance premiums, car payments or food.
SAG-AFTRA Foundation Emergency Financial Assistance and Disaster Relief Fund: Per the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, they offer “several Emergency Financial Assistance Programs to eligible, dues-paying SAG-AFTRA members who are in urgent financial need due to an unexpected life crisis, such as a natural disaster, accident, health crisis creating a financial burden, loss of work due to an illness, loss of housing due to an eviction, death in the family, or other emergency crisis situations covered under IRS guidelines which pertain to granting tax-free monies to individuals.” All applications are confidential and anonymous.
The Casting Society Emergency Assistance Fund: The Casting Society Emergency Assistance Fund provides confidential and immediate short-term financial assistance for Casting Society members who are in need of urgent help and are unable to pay basic living expenses (i.e. food, housing, utilities, health care, transportation).
WGA Strike Funds: Both the Writer's Guild of America West (WGAW) and Writer's Guild of America East (WGAE) have Strike Funds available for guild members and can provide no-interest or low-interest loans to members needing financial assistance.
WGAW Good and Welfare Emergency Assistance Loans: Administered by the MPTF and the WGAW, the Good and Welfare Emergency Assistance Fund provides a variety of services that provide emotional and financial relief to industry members and their families during time of need, whether the hardship is personal or the result of an entertainment industry-wide event.
Union Plus: Offering financial assistance, including strike benefits and other hardship help benefits, to union members and their families.