Hollywood’s Sex Harassment Commission Gets Assist From Kapor Center In Funding Drive

EXCLUSIVE: The Anita Hill-led Commission on Eliminating Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equity in the Workplace has turned to the nonprofit Kapor Center for Social Impact to assist in raising the millions of dollars needed to fund its efforts to stamp out sexual abuse in the entertainment industry.

Founded last December in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the commission is asking Hollywood to fund its mission over the next five years. All major networks, studios, talent agencies and guilds have been asked to contribute to cover the cost of its work. But the commission isn’t recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt organization yet, and needed an assist while waiting for its  application to be processed, which can take up to a year.

The commission is in the process of applying for 501(c)(3) status as an independent organization, but until then it’s operating under the fiscal sponsorship of the Kapor Center, an established 501(c) (3), which is offering the service to the commission and its contributors free of charge.

Until the commission gets its tax-exempt status, any donor wishing to make a tax-deductible contribution to support the commission must do so by contributing to the Kapor Center and directing that their funding support the commission.

Kapor Center co-founder Freada Kapor Klein was one of the founders of the commission, along with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, Nike Foundation founder and co-chair Maria Eitel, and entertainment attorney Nina Shaw.

Hill spoke at the Kapor Center about bias and sexual harassment in the workplace in April 2017 – six months before the Weinstein scandal made headlines. Hill, a professor at Brandeis University, gained fame in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her boss at the EEOC, of sexual harassment.