Your Impact

Our generous donors (a.k.a. you!) are the backbone of the Writers Guild Foundation, and the whole team here really appreciates your commitment to our work. To show our thanks, we’d like to share the impact your support has helped make in the first half of 2022.

at a glance

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE

  • The library has reopened! Starting June 1st, patrons have returned to WGF by appointment only to read scripts, learn from our librarians, and write in our quiet space. So far this year, the library has welcomed 500 guests, including three tours for Final Draft big break participants, University of Georgia film students, and University of North Carolina School of the Arts screenwriting students. Appointments to visit the library can be made here.

  • In the first half of 2022, we’ve added 480 items to the library catalog: 300 TV scripts, 160 feature scripts, and 20 books. The full collection can be viewed online in our catalog.

  • Our library and archive team has been virtually accessible while our doors were physically closed. They’ve answered roughly 500 reference requests over email and have held 34 sessions of Library Live—two-hour Zoom sessions where patrons join in from all over the globe for quiet writing time and librarians on hand to answer questions. During one of these Library Lives, we connected with screenwriters in Botswana and partnered with a new initiative in Nigeria called “Albantsho”. Our librarian, Lauren, presented on script formatting at iDraft, an eight-week conference for emerging African screenwriters.

  • The library team added 24 shows to an ongoing blog series called Formatting Your Spec Script While Social Distancing so far in 2022. This series covers the formatting for 125 current/recent shows in total and has become a staple for writers working on spec scripts and fellowship applications. With other ongoing blog series Writing Your Screenplay While Social Distancing and TV Format Fundamentals, library blog posts have been viewed over 31,000+ times.

  • Our archive team processed seven archival collections and posted their guides online with the Online Archives of California, including collections from Michael Tolkin and former WGF Board Members and current Advisory Council members, Georgia Jeffries and Veena Sud. We also received new archival collections to be processed from Charles Eglee and the families of Mark Soloman, Philip Reisman Jr., and Steven Bochco.

  • The Archive also hosted a media studies scholar for two months as he researched a writer’s collection extensively for his forthcoming book on the work of television writing.

 

PROGRAMS

  • The Veterans Writing Project 2021-22 cycle completed in May, with 60 graduates completing a screenplay and pitching their work to industry executives, representatives, producers, and showrunners. More than 30 alumni received requests to see additional work by industry professionals. The 2022-23 cycle has also begun, with 68 veterans accepted into the program. Over 100 mentees, mentors, and volunteers attended the kickoff weekend retreat in late July.

  • The Writers Access Support Staff Training Program (WASSTP) trains writers from underrepresented backgrounds to be writers’ assistants and script coordinators, ultimately resulting in meaningful employment opportunities. The application period for the 2022 cycle closed last month, and we received 1,205 applications that are now currently being reviewed. Last year—the program’s very first year—we received over 2,200 applications! 48 participants were ultimately chosen and completed the program; 17 are now staffed in support roles.

    • If you or someone in your network is looking to fill one of these positions, let us know! We’re working really hard to raise awareness of this new program amongst showrunners and hiring managers to get these talented writers staffed!

  • During the recently completed 2021-22 school year, the Visiting Writers Program facilitated over 30 educational discussions between WGA writers and classrooms across the country. Volunteers included Rachel Bloom, Brian Duffield, Dee Harris-Lawrence, Meg LeFauve, Steven Levenson, Ilana Peña, and more.

  • We continue to partner with other nonprofits and initiatives serving writers both locally and internationally. So far this year, we’ve partnered with 826LA, Get Lit, The HiveMind Unified, PopShift, The Inevitable Foundation, Library of America, Villa Albertine, Albantsho, The Writer’s Gang, Puerto Rico Film Commission, and more. Additional information on our community partnerships can be found here.

 

EVENTS

  • We’ve held 16 virtual events so far this year where WGA writers and other industry professionals share their knowledge and experience with attendees. Popular events include Inside the Writers Zooms with Insecure, As We See It, and Abbott Elementary; Showrunner Sessions with Yellowjackets and PEN15; WGF Library Script Breakdowns with CODA and King Richard; and many more.

  • We partnered with Netflix to host one in-person event: “Inspired By…”, a panel of writers from Anatomy of a Scandal, Bridgerton, and Maid discussing how they went about adapting these entertaining and powerful stories from page to screen.

  • Altogether, over 10,400 people RSVPed to attend these events live, and the event recordings have more than 13,000 views on our YouTube channel. Between January and June, our entire YouTube channel received a collective 232,000 views.

All statistics as of June 30, 2022.